Frequently Asked questions
One year shelf life if the device is fully charged and powered off.
A skydiver who jumps every weekend should get roughly 4 months on a single charge.
A pro training every day would have to skydive for over 4 weeks straight before charging the Orbit again.
The Orbit is what we call “splash proof”. It can take an accidental splash (or quick dunk) in the pond. So go ahead, swoop the pond!
The logbook is a comma separated file, accessible on your computer or phone by simply connecting the device using a USB cable. When the Orbit is in USB Connect mode (select this mode from the menu), it will show up as a drive. Easily view your logbook, which can hold 60,000+ skydives, with your preferred spreadsheet program or logbook software.
The “short logbook” shown directly on the Orbit holds your last 20 jumps, for easy review during your skydiving day. But the logbook file is where you should go to see all of your jumps.
Easy, you don’t! The Orbit has a light sensor and will automatically turn on the display light when it detects a low light situation. This will happen during freefall, and under canopy. The light will also turn on for a few seconds if you press any button while on the ground or ascending in an aircraft.
One great feature of this sensor is that the light will turn on any time it gets dark, regardless of if you are on a night jump. For instance if it is a little dark in the back of that gloomy Skyvan, or you are on a sunset jump that is just dark enough to make it hard to see your altitude, the Orbit will automatically light up to help you out!
If you are the “trust but verify” type, there is also a menu option to turn the frontlight on. This will cause the light to stay on until a skydive is completed, or you set it back to “auto” in the menu.
Press and hold the select button for 8+ seconds, then release. The Orbit will reset itself and be ready to skydive in about 4 seconds (after display the Deep and Steep logo, followed by a function check of the current altitude).
This is useful in case you drive the DZ with your altimeter on (probably just don’t do that!), and it gets confused about what altitude you are currently at.
The jump countdown is a handy counter to assist you in tracking maintenance on your skydiving gear. Reset the counter from the menu and it will start at 0. Each skydive will increment the counter by 1.
One example of how to utilize this feature is to track jumps until you should inspect or replace your canopy lineset. When you get a brand new lineset, reset the counter. Now you have some idea of when to check on those ragged out lines. Stay safe!