What’s the current stage of the flash storage development?
Do you guys have a timeline for a release whatsoever?
I’m also interested on this. I think this will be the best improvement since I have the OWL.
Yeah! (Besides putting more buttons, faders and switches into that stomp box, which i am planning since long, but didn’t dare to do it yet…)
Martin? Any news about this?
I’ve been revisiting this last week, but hit a couple of reliability issues, which is not good for non-volatile storage. I’ll try to find the time to fix a few things and release a beta version.
To prioritise: what functionality are you most after?
- more user slots (ie all 40 programs)
- the fast
expandlogimplementations I’ve been promising - ability to store and retrieve data, e.g. samples
- something else?
Hey Martin, I’d test a beta version right away!
I personally i favor
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more user slots.
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replacing exp in gen with the codebox workaround i proposed here is not an option? Worked fine for me, though it actually might need readjustment for certain value ranges (untested besides i used it in a transpose to pitch situation).
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i have no use for samples myself, other than sampling from live input, which is possible already. Hardcoding sample into code could be sexy for some i suppose. A user Sliderule over at the Patchblocks site developed a cool idea for this including a sample to code converter on a website. Just FYI.
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some guitar pedal manufacturers provide MIDI over jack input things (Chase Bliss), this could be an interesting thing, if only to select patches without having to use the push button, but not just that.
Thanx for the good news!
Hello Martin,
I’m mainly using the owl for small, quick setups at live gigs, where I don’t like to bring Laptop etc.
So my list would be
- more user slots (ie all 40 programs)
- the fast exp and log implementations
- the ability to directly attach a midi controller via usb.
tnx a lot for all the effort
Seppo
Hi Martin,
Just checking in on the status of this development. I’d be happy to test a beta version as well.
Thank you!
The OwlWare firmware updates have become a bit of a mess. We’ve been struggling with adding features to an old codebase and with the lack of support for the ST peripherals libraries. No news there!
So I started a clean-room firmware implementation, taking all the bits that work well in OwlWare and restructuring the whole project. And making it work not just for the current OWL Pedal and Modular hardware, but also for the prototypes we’ve been developing here with updated hardware.
You can find it here: GitHub - pingdynasty/OpenWare: Firmware for OWL devices
It’s still a work in progress, but the new structure will make it much easier to add features in the future. And it already has a working flexible filesystem (more user slots!) and better memory allocation strategy.
The new firmware is really important going forward, to ensure that the current hardware will still be supported even if/when we launch new products.
Apologies that it’s all taking longer than expected, but the end result should be worth it! I’m hoping to have a beta release ready fairly soon. From there on it will be easier to accept push requests too, should others want to contribute.
Hi Martin,
sounds great. I don’t mind if it takes more time.
I see that there is some code for the STM32F7 family. Are you planning to make a new pedal/module around this micro?
Hi Jose, good to see you here on the new forum!
Yes there’s an F7 project there, we did a prototype device. The part we used runs up to 216MHz, so potentially it makes a decent upgrade to the F4 that we use which runs at 168MHz. But it draws twice as much power! So 28% more speed for 100% more current, and lots more heat.
We will keep the prototype for benchmarking against other devices. Perhaps in a slightly different form factor it could be a contender.
There’s also the STM32H7, supposedly out already although there’s still no availability, which will be pin compatible with the STM32F7. It delivers up to 400MHz - now that is much more interesting!
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hi martin,
congrats on the new forum and the new arrival 
is there currently anyway for me to store state? for example if the button is pressed to switch octaves, can the pedal remember which octave got set? I guess that’s the whole point of flash storage and this thread right?
all the best
oli
Thanks Oli!
You mean store for next time it’s turned on, right? The only non-volatile memory available at the moment is used to store the device settings (gain, block size et c) and the four user patches.