My student has the latest version of JAWS 2025. I was successful in adding the Monarch as a braille display. However, although I can hear the Monarch moving, it does not display the braille. I can hear a clicking sound such as a blinking cursor, but that is all I am getting. I have tried shutting down everything and restarting both laptop and Monarch, but this does not change anything. Is there something else I should try?
Sorry you’re running into this issue. A couple questions. First, do you have a Brailliant or APH display as well? This is a known issue that we’re working on but with early builds, having a Brailliant or APH display like the Mantis or Chameleon connected via Bluetooth can cause issues for the Monarch. If you have one of those displays connected, can you forget it and then try the Monarch?
The other question is, is your Monarch in developer mode? If so, you may try turning it off before connecting to JAWS again. Please let me know if either of these help and, if not, we’ll get it figured out. Apologies for the delay!
Thank you for your response. The student has a Focus 40, but not another APH product. How do I know if the Monarch is in developer mode?
Thank You,
Go to All Applications, then Settings, then System, Languages, Gestures, Time, Backup to find out. Once you’re in System et al, if you see Developer Options in that list of options (should be the second to last item on the first page), then you are a developer and it can cause some issues. To turn it off, go into Developer Options and go to “Use Developer Options” and press enter. Please let me know if that doesn’t work or apply to your unit and we’ll go from there.
Thank you for this information. I will try it with the student next week.
Thank You,
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I checked and the Monarch is not signed in as developer. Would the Focus 40 settings be interfering?
Thank You,
JAWS is a little weird with Braille connectivity in general. I have a Brailliant at work, and also a focus. At home I have a NLS eReader and the Monarch and a VarioUltra.
What I’ve discovered is that I have to set the default Braille display in JAWS to whatever I’m using now, for example HID Braille display for JAWS and Monarch. You find that under Options/Braille.
Then, I close that dialog box with OK.
Next, I use the layered keystroke Insert-Space followed by F4 (the function Key F4) to restart JAWS. I might have to do it a couple of times, before JAWS realizes I’m now using a different display.
Each time I go to work with my laptop, if it was communicating with the NLS eReader at home or the Monarch and now has to communicate with the Brailliant, I have to perform this step.
Restarting the computer seems to be unnecessary; the actual JAWS program has to restart a couple of times before it finds the current display.
This is not an issue with NVDA which seamlessly switches between displays.
All of this is based on USB and a solid cable that supports the display. I haven’t tried bluetooth except with my iPhone and the Monarch doesn’t support bluetooth Braille terminal quite yet. But the iPhone seems to have less trouble switching Braille displays than JAWS.
I hope this helps. Remember you need a cable that actually is going to work; many cables only have the wiring for charging and not USB connectivity especially using OTG protocols. But if you can connect an Android phone, a Fire tablet or another Humanware display with a USB cable, it should also support the Monarch. In fact I used my cheap’o fire tablet to test cables because it’s quick and easy.