Owl 1 - what firmware should I be on?

OWL Firmware
#1

Hi!

I have an original OWL from the kickstarter in 2013 running Rev4-004 (1619 | 286352). I know that the firmware is outdated, and I would like to update to the most recent firmware that supports this board - but it’s unclear to me what that firmware is.

I understand that my firmware is old enough that I should first use OwlNest to update to some later version, and from there I can use OwlControl to do the “final” update. But, OwlNext (and OwlControl both) fail to download the firmware from the server. No problem, I went to the GitHub releases for OwlWare (the legacy firmware) and found the bin. I tried to use OwlNest to flash the bin, but I guess Juce’s file picker doesn’t launch on my setup (Arch Linux, KDE). I can hunt around for another computer, but I think I don’t have something from that era to hand - I wonder if it’s possible to use another tool to DFU flash the MK1?

My second question is regarding OpenWare Firmware - does that support the MK1? Or is that just for the MK2+?

Thanks!

#2

Yes, OpenWare received an update for OWL1.

Since you’re on Linux, you can use dfu-util to upgrade. Note that the most recent FW releases for OWL1 are in SysEx format only, so you’ll be able to flash it only after installing MidiBoot bootloader. Then you can use FW upgrade tool. There are ways to do it in console too if you’ll have issues with WebMidi in browser.

#3

Thanks! I’ve been able to flash the release linked to from your link - 21.2.1 - but from there I wasn’t able to use the FW upgrade tool. Does that release not update the bootloader? I haven’t been able to find a separate owl 1 midiboot bootloader in the releases page of that repo, but if I can find that, should I use the webdfu tool to upgrade the bootloader specifically?

#4

Yeah, FW and bootloader are completely separate by definition. And you have to be running one when flashing the other if you want to update with SysEx rather than DFU. So you have to update bootloader separately.

I’m not sure if you mean pedal or module for OWL1, either way you can find .bin and .syx bootloaders for flashing by DFU or MIDI here - Release v22.2.0 · RebelTechnology/OpenWare · GitHub . I would suggest using dfu-util as it’s a safer option.

Here are example commands for flashing FW and bootloader - as you may notice, they differ by file name and address on flash:

dfu-util -d 0483:df11 -c 1 -i 0 -a 0 -R -s 0x8008000:leave -D OwlPedal.bin
dfu-util -d 0483:df11 -c 1 -i 0 -a 0 -R -s 0x8000000:leave -D MidiBoot-OwlPedal.bin

If using webdfu, you should also make sure that you’re flashing bootloader to a different address, this happens when you click “Advanced mode” > “Flash bootloader” instead of “Flash firmware”

And just for completeness, to flash SysEx image for bootloader you can just use firmare update tool without clicking “Reset to bootloader”.

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