A Review of the Orbit Reader 40

[Scott Davert]

Just passing along...
Original Source
A Review of the Orbit Reader 40
By Scott Davert, Coordinator: Technology, Research and Innovation Center

October 20, 2021

INTRODUCTION
Orbit Reader 40In January of 2018, I reviewed the original Orbit
Reader 20 From Orbit Research. It was “intended primarily as a braille
display for reading braille files and for connecting to external
devices. With a much lower price point than other 20-cell displays,
the Orbit Reader 20 does not have onboard translation options, Cursor
Routing Buttons or many of the other features found in braille devices
that cost thousands of dollars more.” Fast forward to 2021 and Orbit
Research has a new device that is a 40-cell display, featuring Cursor
Routing Buttons, built in translation options, connectivity for up to
5 Bluetooth devices and much more. This was done while maintaining the
idea of developing a solid braille device while still keeping the
price far below other comparable options.


DESCRIPTION
The Orbit Reader 40 is a 40-cell display which also has a Calculator,
Clock, Calendar, Alarm, Word Processor, File Manager and Book Reader.
It further has the ability to give both auditory and vibratory
feedback. One of the compromises with the Orbit Reader 40 is that it
does not contain any internal memory. Files must be stored on an SD
card or USB thumb drive and then opened for viewing or editing.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
The box you receive should include the Orbit Reader 40, USB-C cable,
AC adapter, a print only getting started guide and SD card. Note that
the SD card may already be inserted into the braille display, and
unless you purchase 1 of the 2 available cases, one will not come with
the Orbit Reader 40. The absence of a braille getting started guide on
a braille only product is disappointing, considering the product ships
with one in print. Orbit Research has indicated that they plan to
begin shipping units with the Getting Started Guide in braille before
the end of the year.

ORIENTATION
The Orbit Reader 40 measures 1.28 inches thick by 3.7 inches wide by
11.61 inches long and weighs 1.6 pounds. Placing it on a flat surface
with the Spacebar closest to you, the lay-out is as follows.

On the front panel, there are 2 rectangular slots near each end of the
display. These are used to secure the Orbit Reader 40 to one of the
cases, or it is possible to attach a strap without a case.

The closest thing to you on the surface is a Spacebar. Moving away
from you, you will find the 40 cell braille display, with a Cursor
Routing button located behind each cell. To the left of cell 1, and
the right of cell 40, you will find a rectangular shaped key that can
be pressed toward or away from you. These are the keys for panning
braille. Behind the Cursor Routing Buttons, you will find a Perkins
style keyboard. From left to right, you will find dots 7, 3, 2, 1, and
then a 4-way navigational pad with a Select button in the middle. To
the right of the keypad, you will find dots 4, 5, 6, and 8.

The left side of the Orbit Reader 40 contains a USB-A port intended
for connecting thumb drives. On the right side, you will find 3 items.
The closest thing to you is the Power button. Behind this is the USB-C
port, made for charging the Orbit Reader 40 and connecting to devices
through USB and behind this port is a 3.5 MM headphone jack. Other
than alarms and alerts, the audio does not have a purpose at the time
of this evaluation in October 2021.

Along the backside of the braille display, you will find the SD card
reader. The Orbit Reader 40 will accept SD cards between 4 and 32 GB

Flipping the device over, each corner contains a rubber foot which
will help keep the display stable, several screws, and a place for a
user replaceable battery which can be purchased for $44.95.

CASES
Though there is not a free case, there are 2 available for purchase.
One is made and sold by Orbit Research which costs $59.95. The case is
constructed of nylon and offers some padding to protect the device if
it is dropped. It closes with a zipper and also contains a pocket on
the top for storing things such as a smaller iPhone. I was able to fit
an iPhone SE 2020 and an iPhone 12 Mini (without their cases) into
this pocket. This case also comes with an adjustable strap and zip
ties which allow the user to secure the Orbit Reader 40 to the case.
When the Orbit Reader 40 is inserted, the buttons and keys on the top
surface are exposed. With the zipper open, the Orbit Reader 40 doesn’t
seem secure, but this is where the included zip ties can come in
handy. For instructions on securing the case to the Orbit Reader 40,
please see this article written by Richard Turner which covers the
process in great detail. If you did not receive zip ties with your
Orbit Reader 40 case, you can contact Orbit Research Tech Support and
they will ship them to you free of charge. Not exposed, though, are
the Power button and the USB-C port for charging. One can reach into
the case and activate the Power button, though it is much easier to
connect the USB-C port to a computer or charger with the device
removed.

The other case, which costs $123.95, is made by Executive Products and
can be purchased through Orbit Research or other resellers. It is
constructed of leather and has 2 snaps on the back to help secure the
display inside the case. Unlike the case developed by Orbit Research,
the Executive products case closes magnetically. When open, the ports,
keys, and braille display are exposed. When closed, the case covers
the entire surface of the Orbit Reader 40 with the exception of small
openings which provide access to both the Power button and USB-C port.
There is also a small pocket on the top of the case which allows the
user to store short cables or other items. The other nice thing about
the Executive Products case is the anti-slip material on the back. I
found that the Orbit Research case slid around on smooth surfaces
whereas the Executive Products case did not. One advantage to the case
made by Orbit Research, beyond the price difference, is that the
pocket on the case is larger. Both cases include a heavy duty strap
which allows the user to carry the device around securely.

INITIAL START UP
After charging the Orbit Reader 40, it will be time to turn it on.
Press and hold the Power button for about 3 seconds and the braille
will flash across the display along with a vibration to confirm the
unit is turning on. When starting the Orbit Reader for the first time,
the default loaded profile is uncontracted Unified English Braille.
There are 2 other language profiles available by default: contracted
UEB and 8-dot computer braille. These profiles can be chosen by
pressing Select and then the dot number which corresponds to the
language profile. If you wish to set it to contracted Unified English
Braille, for example, you can do so by holding down the Select button
and then pressing dot 2. The Orbit Reader will vibrate and also
indicate progress on the braille display while it is loading the new
profile. The user can also choose from over 40 languages, and you can
get further details on supported languages and how to configure them
by reading section 10.8 of the user documentation available in many
formats. Shortcuts for switching profiles are available anywhere on
the Orbit Reader 40 unless you are connected to another device, which
would then control these settings.

Other settings are available and can be accessed through the menu.
From anywhere on the device, press Select with Up arrow to launch the
menu. Within this menu, the user can configure the cursor blink rate,
audio/vibration alerts, splitting words, word wrap, compressing
spaces, indents, and many more settings. For details, please consult
the user documentation.

STAND ALONE MODE
The Orbit Reader 40, like its 20-cell counterpart, has 2 modes of
operation: Stand Alone and Remote. Stand Alone mode provides access to
the internal applications which include a File Manager, Editor, Book
Reader, Calculator, Clock, Calendar and Alarms. Remote Mode allows the
user to connect to other screen readers and is covered below.

FILE MANAGER
On startup, you will be placed in the File Manager. The File Manager
allows you to browse and interact with the contents of an SD card or
thumb drive. The user has the ability to create new folders, mark
documents, sort files in multiple ways, rename files, transfer files
over Bluetooth or move them. I found that all of these processes
worked as expected, and that the User Guide clearly lays out the
keyboard commands and steps to perform each action.

THE EDITOR
When running Editor in the background, loading your most recently
edited file will take about a second. If you are in the File Manager,
or reading a book you wish to take notes on, you can quickly jump to
the last file loaded in the Editor by pressing Spacebar + Dots
1-2-4-6. You can press space with 1-3-4-5 (n) from anywhere in Stand
Alone mode to create a new file.

Though the Orbit Reader has some unique commands, many follow the
conventional keyboard mapping on a braille notetaker. For example,
pressing Spacebar with Dots 1, 2, and 3 will jump to the top of the
file. You can also use block commands in the Reader and Editor, with
options to cut, copy, and paste.

When you wish to save your changes, press the Select button twice to
exit the Editor, or space with S to save without exiting. If you put
the Orbit Reader 40 to sleep by tapping the Power button without
saving your changes, it retains the modifications you have made as
long as it doesn’t crash or lose battery power.

If you write the name you’d like to use for your file on the top line
of your document, the Orbit Reader 40 will automatically add it as the
file name. If you wish to compose a text or braille document, you
would include the file format as part of the name. If you wanted to
create a plain text file called test, for example, the first line of
the document should only contain test.txt. When you reopen a file
using the File Manager, it opens in the Reader. To continue editing
your document, press Spacebar + E. You can verify that you are in the
Editor when you encounter a blinking cursor. If you are having issues
memorizing keyboard shortcuts for specific functions, you can press
the Select button while in the Editor to launch a menu. You can either
use the arrow keys to move around the menu, or press the braille
keyboard shortcut. Having both options of one-touch access to
functions by way of shortcut keys or a menu interface accommodates
users with different learning styles.

THE BOOK READER
The Reader supports plain text and digital braille files. There are
options to save bookmarks, control auto scroll, find text, and scroll
by larger chunks of text. The reader preserves your place in a file
upon exiting with dot 7. Loading of braille or text documents is
nearly instantaneous, as long as no conversion to contracted braille
is involved. If you have a plain text file which you prefer to read in
contracted braille, the conversion process can take some time but it
only needs to happen once. A 140 KB text file took about 45 seconds to
load in contracted braille. The next time I loaded this file, it only
took about 3 seconds and displayed in contracted braille. A 3119 KB
BRF file from Bookshare and a 989 KB text document each loaded in less
than half a second, without conversion.

The Orbit Reader 40 lacks support for common formats such as Rich
Text, Microsoft Word, ePub or DAISY. The manual recommends using a
utility for Windows called Send To Braille, which adds options to the
Windows context menu to create an unformatted uncontracted or
contracted braille file that can be copied to either an SD card or
thumb drive. For Mac users, running the Braille Blaster program is the
only suggestion given to convert files to BRL or BRF. On either
operating system, you can also use the online document conversion
tools on Robobraille to convert various file formats to digital
braille or text.

CALCULATOR, CALENDAR AND CLOCK
You can launch the Calculator application by pressing space with dots
1-4-7. The Calculator offers the four basic arithmetic functions and
works as advertised. One challenge some people face is memorizing the
correct symbols for carrying out these operations. You can also press
commands such as Select Up Arrow to insert a + symbol, Select Left
Arrow to insert a / symbol etc. The calculator also has memories you
can store and then later retrieve if desired.

The Calendar application allows you to add, edit, delete and browse
appointments. You can get to the Calendar application by pressing
space with dots 1-4-8. This command is also how you exit the program.
If you schedule an appointment, you will be notified by audio and
vibratory feedback. When scheduling an appointment, to move among the
details, press the Right Arrow key. A blinking cursor at the end of
the line for scheduling an appointment is where you would add notes if
necessary. I found the interface to be a bit atypical, but all of the
features worked.

The clock and alarm functions appear to work as advertised. I found
after several days that the clock retained the exact time, which is
not the case with the Focus and Brailliant displays.

CONNECTING WITH AN EXTERNAL BLUETOOTH KEYBOARD
A thorough evaluation on this operation mode is beyond the scope of
this article, however, it was examined. Pairing my Logitech K380 or my
iClever BK03 keyboards was a smooth process that is clearly outlined
in the manual. One important thing to note is that when a keyboard is
connected, the Orbit Reader will only output with computer braille.
Using the keyboard to move around the internal functions works as
outlined in the manual, and there typically is very little latency
unless typing in the Editor.

REMOTE MODE
When connecting to an external device, the Orbit Reader supports up to
5 simultaneous Bluetooth connections along with 1 USB. It is
compatible with almost any screen reader on any operating system,
partially due to the fact that it can also emulate an older braille
display called the VarioUltra, which is compatible with much older
versions of screen readers. For example, on iOS, the Orbit Reader 40
can connect to devices running iOS 8.3 when in emulation mode, which
was released 6 years ago. Unlike devices developed by Humanware such
as the Brailliant and Mantis, the Orbit Reader allows the user to jump
between connected devices with a simple keystroke which makes things
more efficient for power users. There is also a menu which allows the
user to cycle between connections instead of having to memorize
keyboard commands.

Following is a write-up of how well I found the Orbit Reader 40 to
work with the most popular screen readers on the market. All devices
tested were running the latest public release of the screen reader and
operating system as of October 2021. Instructions will not be provided
for connecting to each device, as these are clearly laid out in the
user documentation.

One unique function of connecting with external devices to the Orbit
Reader is the ability to control whether you will be switched
automatically to a connected screen reader when it becomes active, or
if you wish to have full control over when the Orbit Reader 40 changes
channels. The setting is located in the menu and can be set to auto,
manual, or off. All testing was done with the VarioUltra emulation,
since it supports all screen reader options.

VOICEOVER WITH IOS 15.1
The connection between the Orbit Reader 40 and iOS is quite stable
using an iPhone SE 2020 and an iPhone 12 Mini. VoiceOver responds to
all commands as expected. There was a slight lag with the Orbit Reader
40 over Bluetooth, but it is almost always able to keep pace with my
reading, which is typically around 75 words per minute. This is likely
because of the difference in cell technology. Most braille displays
refresh all of the cells at one time, but the Orbit Reader 40
refreshes 2 cells at a time.

VOICEOVER WITH MACOS BIG SUR
Connecting over USB was as simple as putting the Orbit Reader into USB
Orbit and then starting VoiceOver. Unlike the connection through
Bluetooth on iOS, there was very little latency between the Orbit’s
display moving and the display fully refreshing. Commands over USB and
Bluetooth worked as expected, and there were no challenges with the
Orbit Reader 40 that were not also present when testing other braille
devices on the Mac.

NVDA 2021.2 ON WINDOWS 10
If the braille setting in NVDA for connecting a braille display is
configured to automatic, plugging in the Orbit Reader 40 while in USB
mode and then restarting NVDA is all that is needed. There were no
drivers to install. Since it was required to run the VarioUltra
emulation, the keyboard commands available through NVDA for this
display are minimal, there are only 6 listed in the manual. Typing
through USB was very responsive and translation errors did not occur.
NVDA seems to have come a long way in the past year in terms of
braille input. Though the VarioUltra supports the Braille Extender
add-on, most of the VarioUltra commands involve keys which do not
exist on the Orbit Reader 40. It is my hope that Orbit research will
work with NV-Access to make a much larger selection of keyboard
shortcuts available to increase productivity that is otherwise lost
when the user has to switch to a QWERTY keyboard to carry out specific
commands. Orbit Research has confirmed that they are actively working
with NV-Access to get native support for NVDA and they have assured me
they have a much larger set of shortcut keys in the native driver that
will soon be released.

JAWS 2021.2107.12
While the process for getting the Orbit Reader 40 is quite simple with
NVDA, getting the Orbit Reader 40 to communicate with JAWS takes a bit
more set up. Before plugging the Orbit Reader 40 in, or connecting it
through Bluetooth, you need to install theJAWS driver for the
VarioUltra.

After performing the steps outline in the user documentation, if the
Orbit Reader 40 does not connect, you can try resetting it. No matter
what I did on 2 different Windows 10 computers, the connection did not
work properly until after the reset. A third Windows 10 computer I
used was a successful connection without having to do the reset. The
Adaptive Technology department at HKNC also had to do a factory reset
to get their Orbit Reader 40 to work with JAWS.

When the connection is established, the user will have a more robust
set of keyboard commands available with JAWS than with NVDA. The user
documentation lists a total of 54 keyboard commands, which all seem to
work as they should. Braille input was also very responsive through
USB, though sometimes the Bluetooth connection performed slowly. I
also recall this being a challenge with the VarioUltra itself, so it
is possible that the issue may be with the driver. It’s also worth
noting that Orbit Research is in the process of developing the native
driver for JAWS, which should eliminate the confusion surrounding the
linked driver and also provide better connectivity.

ANDROID 11 WITH BRAILLEBACK
Unlike NVDA, MacOS and iOS with VoiceOver, and the VoiceView screen
reader for Kindle, Android has chosen not to include BrailleBack in
their operating system. Prior to connecting the Orbit Reader 40, the
user must install BrailleBack from the Play Store as outlined in the
user documentation. Like other braille displays, the Orbit Reader 40
would randomly mistranslate words. For instance, the word it’s” would
occasionally be mistranslated as “x’s”. Other times, it would
translate as intended. Though space with l will pull up a list of
BrailleBack commands, I found that only those listed in the user
documentation, a total of 7, worked. Compare this with the over 60
available in iOS, and one can start to understand why people feel
Android and braille are lagging far behind iOS and Fire OS in terms of
braille development.

FIRE OS 5.6.4
Fire OS supports the Orbit Reader 40 through the VarioUltra 40
emulation as well. Unlike JAWS and Android, there were no drivers or
other files that needed to be downloaded. Like on iOS, I was able to
pair the Orbit Reader 40 through the screen reader’s settings. I
encountered no challenges with pairing through VoiceView, since I was
able to use my residual hearing to establish the connection. Unlike
Android, there are many commands available to access the Fire tablet’s
features and facilitate efficient navigation. For example, there are
keyboard commands for moving around various parts of web pages
including headings, form controls, and many others. The neat thing
about the command structure is that, for example, dot 7 with h will
jump you to the previous heading on a web page. Jumping to the next
heading can be accomplished with dot 8 and h. I enjoyed this design
choice so much that I have created a very similar set for iOS. Though
Fire OS does not allow you to customize commands, there is a much
larger set available than on Android. The overall experience is not
quite as polished as what you will find on iOS 15, as there are no
options like the VoiceOver Rotor for things like managing emails.
However, just like the Orbit Reader itself, the Fire tablets are much
cheaper than an iOS or iPadOS device, only with a few compromises.
With Kindle tablets costing around $60 and the Orbit Reader 40 costing
$1,399, a user can have a 40 cell braille display with a lot of
functionality for a much lower price than a notetaker with 40 cells.

CONCLUSION AND PERSONAL REMARKS
One thing that stands out about the Orbit Reader line of products is
the sharp and solid braille cells. I have worked with a few consumers
who have been able to use the Orbit Reader displays successfully while
not having such great luck with the braille displays from other
manufacturers. The refreshing of cells is much more quiet than the
Orbit Reader 20, but I found the keyboard to be much louder. I also
found it to be quite an adjustment for typing, as the keys have a
further distance to travel when pressed. Battery life is quite
impressive, I would estimate about 20-22 hours of heavy use between
charges. With a price point of under $1500 when compared with the
cheapest 40 cell device on the market, it is certainly worth
consideration. Orbit Research continues to innovate with more products
costing less than their competitors, while maintaining a strong
feature set.

[Scott Davert]

Hmm. I guess the formatting and html didn't come through. If you would
like to read it with links and formatting, feel free to visit the URL
of the article:
https://www.helenkeller.org/hknc/review-orbit-reader-40

Thanks,
Scott

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[Brian Tew]

Great job as usual, Scott. I just read it.


On Oct 22, 2021, at 9:23 AM, Scott Davert <kc8...@gmail.com> wrote:

Just passing along...

[Jackie Brown]

Thanks for this Scott, I really enjoyed reading it.

Kind regards,

Jackie Brown
Email: jackiean...@gmail.com