So sorry for the delay. Things have been... hm,
However, it seems to be at least back to a semi-hopeful state, and at any rate my social calendar is certainly a lot more clear these days (ahem), so I went searching through boxes and found my microcontrollers today.
Seeed Studio is indeed out of Orbshield kits. They want to do another batch, but do a large one, up to 50. I personally am doubtful we could ever sell that many and it would probably wipe out any semblance of profit, but I may do a decent-sized order (20-30) and we'll get them going again. I'll try to decide in the next week and put the order in.
The new version of the Arduino, the Arduino Uno, is meant to be programmable to appear as a HID device. If that's the case, the existing Orbshield will have a couple extra parts on it that aren't necessary, and it would be possible to simplify the design somewhat (no more swapping from one port to the other)... maybe. On the other hand, the existing shields would probably still continue to work, so maybe that's beside the point. Honestly, I probably don't have time to really redesign it, so I'd expect another batch of these same old shields.
Unfortunately, some people still are having trouble, sadly including Jay, our host! I even mailed him a "known working" arduino and shield and it didn't work. I'm completely baffled on this and it distresses me to run a new batch of shields which may not work for everyone. However, they
So! If anyone has any input, I'd love to hear it, but otherwise expect a new run of maybe 30 kits (maybe more just in case) to start soon!