2018-05-30 18:22:34

hey here is an update. Orbit reader 20 is back on sale. I bought one. got it in the mail. tested, everything works great! I'm giving this first one i got to a friend who is blind who lives in my area, as a thank you for a personal favor he did for me though. When the low cost braille me display is out next month, I'll get one of those because I want to see how its faster refresh rate and cursor router buttons are on that display. Braille me will be sold by national braille press. It is made by innovision in India.

2018-05-30 22:15:22

i have a question. i am going to use the free zamzar file converter service online to convert a bunch of old word97 doc files to the new modern docx file format. now my big question, is there some sort of batch converter that will take 40 or 50 docx files and translate them into ueb brf or brl digital braille format for reading on the orbit reader20 or braille me braille display?

2018-05-31 08:11:14

Nice. Thanks for the update. This is really great news...

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-05-31 16:17:37

yes i spent yesterday reading for 8 hours straight with the orbit reader 20. i was reading a book. i used send2braille to turn a word document into a brf digital braille file in english ueb grade2 braille. so spent 9 or so hours just reading and reading. Battery was at 100% when i started reading. after 9 hours of reading, the battery was only down to 70% on orbit reader 20. so i would say you will most likely get 30 to 35 hours of straight up constant reading and note taking on a single battery charge with the orbit reader 20.

2018-06-02 06:47:14

I was wondering if anyone played with the lt.bat file in the send-to-braille folder. It is supposed to let you change some settings so you can send translated braille files directly to an external storage medium, such as an SD card. I've tried to make this change, but wasn't successful.

I attack with the savagery of a thousand piranhas.

2018-06-02 18:24:22

I wrote to a few developers asking them to add a easy simple dialog box to send2braillle. with a dialog box, we could choose translation tables and a number of other options, this would make editing bat files unnecessary.

2018-06-03 02:24:17

That would help for sure, as the documentation is quite lacking to say the least. I tried setting the target value for my SD card, but still don't get the translated file sent to it.

I attack with the savagery of a thousand piranhas.

2018-06-03 03:39:58

Post 26, I'm interested to see the BrailleMe. I've heard not so good things like bad refresh rate from these cheaper displays. Has anyone tried using them with their phones or anything like that besides reading books, to see how well they function in a real-time environment?

2018-06-05 03:37:23 (edited by UltraLeetJ 2018-06-05 04:31:38)

very interesting and.. this is just hope! i actually just bought mine.
what about winTrans? can anyone explain how translation and back translation works...  and how tables are made? that would be very useful

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2018-06-10 22:43:24

Have any podcasts been produced which demonstrate the Orbit Reader? I am seriously considering getting one, since I've heard a lot of rave testimonials. Plus I want to support the budding low cost Braille display market. I want to get an idea of it through a review, though. Does one exist yet?

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-06-12 07:14:05

hi, to post 35:

I wish I would know when mine was shipped or would be shipped. Yes, I placed the order, but I have no idea if they got my money because I just saw that the payment had been successfully authorized last week after I actually posted here. There is a difference. You might get messages from the bank and even confirmation from your balances saying that 470 dollars (yes, this is because shipping is included) were deducted but this does not mean they indeed have your money there. It just means that the bank can approve that payment because the funds were enough indeed, ETC.
and if they are made on an order by order basis. If so, it would have been nice to know how long would that actually take because its been a week and I have got no news at all.

to post 36. Wintrans is indeed a gui front for nfb trans, but I think the core translation engine has just reached its 20th birthday.. so what are people exactly using then for braille nowadays?
I think that now I do understand how tables work.. they do have something like a definition, consisting of a pair of words separated by any kind of sign like
wh=which
)=with

and so on and so on. But that is for say, american grade 2 braille and not for other systems. But now i know just a bit more and i always wondered how people would create or make their own braille tables. I think looking at the computer braille reference charts that are in the orbit manual helps to understand some, because for example the st contraction, or the literal american slash in spanish is an i acute (í) character. And who knows what else in other parts of the world... so yeah.

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2018-06-12 08:32:39

Hi.
The Braille tables seems to be different for each country. Not the letters, but all other characters and especially the contracted Braille. I'm not sure on how to make a Braille table, but one of my friends who is a totally Braille geek knows that for sure. Should I ask him how to do that?

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/sorenjensen1988
Twitter: https://twitter.com/soerenjensen

2018-06-12 19:02:28

SLJ, I would really appreciate that . Last time as far as i knew NVDA lacked support for some custom braille tables, and we are in need of that capability (spanish contractions or stenography as they are known here are practically non-existant in liblouis) which I guess would be addressed soon since i saw some recent tickets that had to do with it, or there is an add on already out for using custom tables, not sure.

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2018-06-27 21:50:54

hello, so for whoever is interested, I just made a quick call to APH today. The site did not state anything, except that they were out of stock (it must have been updated the day after i had ordered mine) and I was surprised because the order said it had been processed, but nothing else so far, so upon talking to a very nice customer relations agent she told me that these would be beginning to ship in about a month since they would hope to have them by mid July and backorders like mine would go in first.

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2018-06-28 02:46:00

That's good to know. It seems they're selling out fast, which is a good sign.

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It's just holding half the amount it can potentially hold.

2018-08-02 12:44:37

hello, so not really meaning to revive this old topic, but I just had one of the biggest incidents and this will probably happen to anyone living outside the U.s., so beware. Don't worry, everything is OK now.I just think a bit badly about APH and their customer handling now.

I had complained here and in other posts dated jun 12, that I had not gotten shipment confirmation from APH.
Since I order things and then have them shipped to a company which specializes in international sending (its cheaper and more secure than say, air mail or whatever where they charge you ridiculous amounts like 40 bucks for sending a necklace) I bought it this way, they ask me for tracking numbers for security, and to organize things, and so that I can really confirm they have received packages.
Just do note that I buy things from amazon all the time and have them brought to me that way, never had a single problem with that company, since 2012.
I had ordered and paid for my orbit 20 in June 4. Nothing happened. Just the regular "your order has been received and is being processed, we will e-mail you again when it ships blah blah blah."

That e-mail never came. Checked spam folder routinely, and got tired, really tired of waiting. So I made a call to APH, on June 27 (two posts above I described it all)
they never asked for an order number or anything. They just said, "oh yes, they will come hopefully soon."
So I waited probably way more than it should, then sent the following e-mail yesterday, August one.

subject: status of the orbit reader 20
message: hello, I had made a call to your team in the past 2 months asking for
the status  of the orbit 20 (as I had ordered one myself in early
June, order # is blah blah blah)
I was told that they would begin shipment in mid July but haven't got
any updates yet. Are these still out of stock?

and received the following answer, quite quick for a customer dept, after about 30 minutes or so:

Dear Mr. (my last name),

This device was shipped back on 06/05/18 by UPS- Ground in one box. The tracking number is blah blah blah. You can track this package at www.ups.com Please let me know or call us at the number below if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
(name of rep)

so it just really annoys me that their system never updates things. Moreover I never got any sort of tracking number, and the company that receives things indeed did sign the receiving, (checked tracking number and it was OK, received on June 7--so the expensive shipping cost for the orbit 20 is indeed justified)
Of course I replied to APH telling them about this, and got no further responses, but I hope they do sort their act together on this matter.
I guess this is not a big deal for those living in the U.s., after all, you get it directly to your house fast and that is all you could care about. But for people in my type of situation this is just a bit disrespectful. But well, rejoice and relieve yourselves, as I had suspected I probably had bought the very last one out of that stock that they had for the month of May. SO its really likely that, as they are now in stock again if your order one you would get it within 3 days at most. Its just that you will probably never get any kind of shipping confirmation  or not even a way of knowing... it will just get to your house.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2018-08-02 13:54:18

I live in the US. My orbit reader came within 3 or 4 days.

2018-08-02 19:11:58

right, so did mine to the address I specified, but I bet you did not get an e-mail with a shipping notification.. checking the "your orders page" also did not give any further information. SO that is what really irritated me.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2018-08-02 19:31:18

no i did not get a shipping notification. I also hear there is another low cost display that will be out next year costing around $480 or so, called the dot mini. It will be a 16 cell display. you can learn more at:

https://dotincorp.com/product/dot-mini/

2018-08-03 00:15:30

well, that is interesting and would mean then that the orbit has got the most cells for buck... if you could say it that way.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2018-08-03 01:13:51

now my next question is this... What makes the orbit reader20 work? what off-the-shelf everyday mems (microelectromechanical systems) technology, besides expensive piezoelectrics, which is low cost, so anyway what everyday mems tech, could make small hard-plastic dots go up and down? Is it maybe electrostatic actuators combined with micro-springs or microValves, rather than older expensive piezoelectrics which makes it low-cost? When I put it up to my ear, I do not hear any air. And when it refreshes, orbit20 that is, it feels like some sort of electric or magnetic pulse is actuating the dot. I've done heavy research into mems technology over the past few days to try to satisfy my curiosity and answer the following questions. 1. why is orbit reader20 refreshing noise louder than expensive piezoelectric displays? 2. why is orbit reader20 so much more reliable than expensive pieoelectric displays? 3. what makes it humidity and dust resistant? 4. is there a microLatching system which lock pins into place, or is it using compressable braille cells which I found a US patent for? Or is it using a 3-way micro-pneumatic valve system where one position also latches the pin so it cannot be pressed down?

2018-08-03 06:18:24

well, as far as I had read before the official launch the technology they employ is pretty obscure and its called Tactuator technology. Apparently its made out of everyday of the shelf parts so anything could be theoretically fixed.. taking those apart should be a lot of fun, but I would guess, barely legal. I have friends that are quite adept at analyzing and even reconstructing hardware, sort of.

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2018-08-03 06:40:36

well sorry for the double posting, but I wonder where some titles could be obtained, I doubt anyone would remember this collection . I remember using this in school and it gave me plenty of reading. i am specifically looking for free resources, because I already know about the paid bookshare, or the one that is not accessible, the nls I think,  to us non-US or Canada folks. I guess those are still becoming more and more obsolete now that you can pretty much get any book and have it into braille thanks to translation software...

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…

2018-08-03 19:39:54 (edited by queenslight 2018-08-03 19:42:39)

A few other places to find downloadable books for free include:

http://www.readhowyouwant.com/

http://www.tsbvi.edu/braille-resources/ … book-files

http://www.blindbookcase.com/

http://www.gutenberg.org/

For convert text books in to braille, check out

https://brailleblaster.org/

2018-08-04 16:11:00

thanks a lot! I really have not got a clue in how you use braille blaster, I tried but was not successful but I will definitely bookmark these.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…