Firmware update utility (test).

[Firelord]

After some hesitation I decided to make a simple front-end for this utility. It is called MegaDrumUpdateGUI and makes the updating process a little bit more user-friendly

mdugui.png

Download (~ 112 KB)

Currently:
- It only runs on Windows and requires .NET 2.0;
- It ships with the MegaDrumUpdate.exe utility built-in, i.e. it will be extracted on first run if not already present in the GUI folder.

Any comments are welcomed.

[rockdude]

After some hesitation I decided to make a simple front-end for this utility. It is called MegaDrumUpdateGUI and makes the updating process a little bit more user-friendly

mdugui.png

Download (~ 112 KB)

Currently:
- It only runs on Windows and requires .NET 2.0;
- It ships with the MegaDrumUpdate.exe utility built-in, i.e. it will be extracted on first run if not already present in the GUI folder.

Any comments are welcomed.

Very nice Firelord! I'll try it later today when I'll experiment with the beta positional sensing firmware

[Firelord]

Found a bug in the front-end due to which it was only possible to update the firmware if MegaDrumUpdate.exe was present in the firmware's directory (not the GUI's directory). When I was testing the app for the first time I placed the firmware into a directory which accidentally contained the command-line utility.

So please, re-download the GUI from here.

[rockdude]

Do I still have to do all the steps below except for step 4 where I instead start the GUI-version by doubleclicking it's icon?

1. Power MegaDrum up while holding the key LEFT pressed. If you connect over USB and it is the first time you connect your MegaDrum to your PC, let Windows install drivers.

2. In MegaDrum select correct frequency for your Atmega crystal by pressing the key UP. Each time you press UP it will cycle one step through 16MHz-20MHz-24MHz-12MHz. If you use a 16MHz crystal for Atmega, you don't need to press UP since 16MHz is a default start up frequency for the bootloader.

3. In MegaDrum press the key DOWN. It will display 'Send Sysex now'.

4. From a command line run the utility, e.g.:
Code:
MegaDrumUpdate.exe megadrum32_16_32_20091217.hex e

Omit 'e' option at the end if your MegaDrum has an old type of the bootloader, i.e. without protection from accidental firmware erasure.

5. It will prompt you to choose which MIDI port to send the firmware to. Type a number corresponding to the MegaDrum MIDI port and press Enter. It will start updating the firmware and after a couple of dozen of seconds it will finish. MegaDrum should show 'Updated finished' and it will restart automatically in a couple of seconds.

[Firelord]

There is a quick guide in the GUI that tells you what to do. The GUI itself is meant to simplify the process of locating the firmware and evading the whole command prompt thing. Otherwise it's the same process, however:

- You can boot MD in firmware update mode and launch the GUI asynchronously. That is because it calls the console utility which dynamically generates the list of MIDI ports. Although the fact that you have to boot MegaDrum in update mode prior to UPDATING by pressing the UPDATE button via the GUI still applies;
- The firmware file can be located anywhere and its selection is done via a familiar GUI;
- There is no need to keep the GUI in the directory where the console app resides since it is automatically extracted if not already present in the same directory.

If I have more time on my hands, and given the source code, I might develop this into a cross-platform wxWidgets application. In this case there will be no need to call the console utility since its functionality will be implemented in the GUI application.

[Ken Forgettable]

there will be no need to call the console utility since its functionality will be implemented in the GUI application.

May I ask why do you think the MCT/Succ-U-Bus hack never got tested???

[Firelord]

May I ask why do you think the MCT/Succ-U-Bus hack never got tested???

Because no one knows anything about it?