Witch unusable after firmware 22.5 upgrade

OWL Witch
#1

hi all,

I have sporadically used Witch in the past year or so, but now I have decided to utilise its powers again, so I thought to start with the device’s firmware upgrade as there has been some progress in that area, before I start browsing through patches library.

  1. I have connected the device to my laptop and opened Witch page in Firefox (with WebMIDI API’s installed and enabled) The Witch
  2. Witch was recognized with firmware 22.0 which was correct version.
  3. In order to successfully update the firmware I have opened OpenWare lab’s page here OpenWareLaboratory
  4. I have downloaded the latest Witch firmware file which is for version 22.5
  5. Then I have followed the step as described on OpenWare page
  6. Followed the messages and when I got “Firmware Upload Complete” I was happy as there was only one step left to succeed: “Device Reset”
  7. Device reset was in progress for too long - I have waited half an hour and nothing happened - device went totally blank, no LEDs were on, and the OpenWare page was showing “OWL-BOOT” at Midi In/Out
  8. Then I reloaded the page - probably a huge mistake -, and the next in Midi In/Out was “none”.
  9. I have tried to reboot Witch and the laptop several times, removed cookies and whatnot, but not a single thing helped to get Witch alive again.

now, I am pretty much desperate as I might have ruined the device which I really liked and wanted to use more often.

every help and constructive advice will be utterly appreciated.

thank you very much in advance

Lev

#2

I don’t have a Witch to test myself, but its USB is probably broken in last firmware build. So what you can do is press button 5 when device is booting, this should force bootloader mode. Then you will see “OWL-BOOT” device again and can flash another firmware version.

Also, there’s no need to wait for more than 10 seconds when flashing the device, it will terminate way earlier than that. But you won’t always see completion message, I guess it only works for some combinations of OS/browser.

And don’t worry about ruining it, in the very worst case you’ll have to buy a cheap clone of ST-link programmer (5-10$) to flash its flash chip directly. However it would only be required if your bootloader is not working, I don’t think you had any chance to damage it.

#3

hi antisvin,

many thanks for your kind help and resolution, it all really helped and now I have Witch running firmware 22.5.0.
there is always room for new exprience and learning, so thanks for other infos as well.

cheers!

Lev

1 Like