i tried to update Genius firmware from 22.4 to 22.5 through OpenWareLaboratory.
it was seeming ok since “Firmware upload complete” was shown on display. however, after rebooting the module, it doesn’t work at all. display black, can’t connect from WebUSB DFU neither, and nothing appear on Device Manager on windows 11. i tried to short “boot” on back, but still no response. I disconnect all other modules, so it shouldn’t be power problem.
any help is appreciated ! thank you in advance.
Genius doesn’t use DFU bootloader. That’s only present on OWL1 and AC/DC (and other upcoming hardware based on Xibeca board).
When you’re in bootloader mode, there’s a MIDI interface called “OWL-BOOT”. If it doesn’t appear, it could be that current firmware build has broken something related to USB. I can’t confirm this on Genius, but it seemed to happen to me with the same release for AC/DC. So that’s very likely.
You could try to force bootloader mode is press button 1 while device is booting. This should prevent the firmware from loading and then you can try flashing again or restore previous firmware that worked.
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thank you so much for your support.
in my case, booting with button 1 doesn’t work. it seems pc doesn’t recognize Genius by USB anymore. so probably firmware broken.
i’ll report here if anything change !
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You’re correct that the problem with no USB device is related by firmware. But button 1 press is checked by bootloader before firmware runs. I think I’ve used that to force bootloader on Genius in the past, but can’t confirm at the moment as I’m away from all hardware until the end of the month.
I’m not sure if the failing USB in firmware causes some problems for Windows or you could be preventing the reboot by powering module via USB cable. So maybe something like this should be done:
- unplug USB cable
- press button 1
- reboot module
- wait a few seconds
- plug USB cable
Or try rebooting PC before step 5 here just to be sure that OWL MIDI device is the first thing it sees.
thanks a lot again for your kind suggestion.
unfortunately Genius doesn’t wake up in any try. probably i should contact Rebel Technology.
Sure, you can write to info at rebeltech dot org. Martin is not actively working on eurorack stuff at the moment, but hopefully he can find a way to resolve this. In worst case, I’ll be traveling to Japan this July and can take a programmer with adapter for flashing Genius.
I just tried this process with my Genius and had a similar outcome. After updating to firmware 22.5.0 it sat with a blank screen for a bit and eventually said “Error. Loading failed.” USB was not active so I could not connect from the firmware updater webpage to roll back. Holding down Button 1 when powering on did force it to the bootloader and I was able to rollback to 22.4.0. I erased and reset the device and was able to update to firmware 22.5.0 and get to the status page with no patch loaded. However, USB still did not function so I wasn’t able to load any patches onto it. Similarly, rolling back to 22.4.0 required holding down Button 1 again when powering up.
Damien, I think there are some issues in latest USB libraries. Not sure when they’ll end up resolved. It’s probably possible to use older version of them if you can compile a custom firmware.
In the past I’ve resolved some USB issues by downgrading Libraries git submodule to commit 9e8f64e07b7a64b76de32f67c164ecf9068b728c, so you might try that. You won’t have the latest USB audio code (not sure if it ends up even working), but I guess there’s plenty of bugfixes in v25 firmware to make it worthy.
Thanks, I’ll give that a go.
EDIT: Well, I tried it, but something didn’t work. It appeared to have compiled successfully with the Libraries submodule rolled back, I just got a lot of this warning:
/OpenWare/Libraries/Drivers/CMSIS/Device/ST/STM32H7xx/Include/stm32h743xx.h:221: warning: "__FPU_PRESENT" redefined
And then converted the bin file to syx with FirmwareSender and loaded it on with the Firmware Updater webpage. It seemed to go fine, but didn’t reset with the button. After power down and power back up the Status page on the device still said v22.4.0 so I’m not convinced updating the firmware even worked. Might poke at it more later.