What's coming is exciting but only moderately necessary, so if you're wanting to resurrect your orb, the old version works just fine and the new version may not be out for a bit, but I wanted to let people know so they could make a choice.
In the last couple of years, the power of the average microcontroller has grown significantly since the AtMega32u4, so while the original Orbotron 9000 was patterned closely after the Arduino Leonardo, I am taking a page from the new M0 series and moving to at ATSAMD21 chip, with much more memory and speed. It's worth noting that this will not affect the orb ONE BIT--it is already working fast enough to get good orb emulation. So if you have purchased an Orbotron 9000, you will gain nothing from the new version (so you have not missed out!) nor will you gain significantly by upgrading.
What the new chip will allow is easier support for more devices, and more flexibility, because the libraries have moved to a modular HID report--in other words, while the Orbotron and its firmware appeared as a keyboard, mouse, and six-axis sixteen-button device, the new device will support "pluggable" outputs, and so can easily appear as other devices... what this means is that software could be written to support pretty much any old serial device, from the Sidewinder-style joysticks to old Wacom tablets and such. In truth, you can get the exact same effect without custom hardware with an Arduino M0 and a serial shield, but having one nice small tight device is just "neater".
As such, the device name is up in the air. It's a generic serial-to-HID device... so I'm not sure what to call it. Any suggestions?
The second major update is the USB connector is probably going back in time to a Mini B. The #1 problem component on these was the USB Micro connector, because I assemble them by hand and it's not only impossible to get the dang thing to line up, it's really hard to fix if it goes wrong. Unfortunately USB Micro connectors don't come in right-angle through-hole versions, but Mini connectors do. I actually tried USB C, but they went from 4 connections to 24 (12 on each side since it's reversible) and it looks like it'll be REALLY hard to do that by hand.
So... it's either USB mini, or a micro connector that sticks up out of the board, which just seems weird and would introduce some odd stresses.
First prototypes are on their way (using USB C, but as mentioned I don't think that's going to work so I'll just kludge a cable coming off it). More updates as they come available. And as mentioned, if you just want it for your orb, I'd stick with the old trusted version; this could take a few months