[SOLVED!] HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

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birdFEEDER
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[SOLVED!] HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

Post by birdFEEDER » Fri Mar 06, 2020 8:31 pm

Hello all,

I was performing a firmware update on my SubPhatty and it appears to have gone off the rails. The unit is now unresponsive. The "LFO Rate" LED steadily blinks and that's it. Does anyone know if it's possible to factory reset the SubPhatty?

Any help would be appreciated!
Last edited by birdFEEDER on Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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till
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Re: HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

Post by till » Sat Mar 07, 2020 6:27 am

The blinking LFO is a normal thing while updating the SubPhatty. It means, the Synth is awaiting the SysEx data for the update.

See the instruction for updating manually:

Code: Select all

Sub Phatty Firmware Manual Update:

1. Power on your Sub Phatty.
2. Push both PITCH AMT and HARD SYNC, and while holding, push ACTIVATE PANEL twice. 
3. The MIDI LED will flash 3 times, followed by the LFO RATE blinking rapidly.
4. Load the C6 [rem: on Mac better use "SysEx Librarian"] sysex program.
5. In "Configure", set both Midi ports to Moog Sub Phatty.
6. Load the included syx in C6, mark it and then click on Send. The new firmware will be sent to the hardware.
7. Once updated, the Sub Phatty will restart itself with the new firmware.
Did you tried to update by sending the SysEx with a tool of your choice? Or did you use the "Sub Phatty Firmware Updater"?

I would recommend to send the SysEx file to your SubPhatty. It should recover that way.

And be sure to use same software and MIDI interface known to work well with MIDI SysEx dumps. I recommend for macOS the free "SysEx Librarian". And I am using either USB or my Emagic mt4 interface without problems here since years. Many DAWs are not good in sending large bulks of SysEx. Or the SysEx transmission is disabled by default on some. Others are not able to send SysEx at all. And never use USB Hubs while updating a synth.
keep on turning these Moog knobs

Sequence:
Prodigy * minimoog '79 * Voyager * MF102 * MF103 * MF104z * MP201 * Taurus 3 * Minitaur * Sub Phatty * MF105 * Minimoog 2017+ MUSE * One 16

birdFEEDER
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Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2013 12:56 pm

Re: HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

Post by birdFEEDER » Sat Mar 07, 2020 1:40 pm

Thanks for the quick reply @till, I gave the manual firmware update a go to no avail. It should be noted that I'm unable to execute step #1 in the list below because those buttons are unresponsive (the whole unit is unresponsive). What I did notice was that the MIDI LED started to blink rapidly once I started to send the SYSEX file over, however it continued to blink rapidly even after C6 completes sending the file. I let it sit for a while (about 15 mins) before manually restarting it. Upon startup, the MIDI LED blinked slowly a few times, then went back to the LFO Rate blinking slowly.

I tried both C6 (written by Elektron, but recommended by Moog) as well as SysexLib (by Snoize), both to no avail.

Not going through a USB hub, MOTU MicroExpress connects directly to MacMini2018.

birdFEEDER
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Re: HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

Post by birdFEEDER » Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:05 pm

I think I may have found the issue: the newest firmware (v2.2.0) doesn't mention this, but an earlier version does (v2.0.3):

"If you are still on Sub Phatty firmware v1 (serial# 2892 or below, and you’ve never updated to firmware v2), then you
will need to update your Sub Phatty to bootloader v2 before you can use this firmware update. Contact [email protected] and ask them for help updating the boot loader.
"

The 2.0.3 firmware update included a separate bootloader v2 SYSEX file, so I sent that over to the SB, immediately followed by the 2.2.0 firmware update and my beloved SB came back to life! HOWEVER, it's just droning on now, the keyboard is not responsive and the five Octave LEDs are rapidly blinking side to side (kinda like a strobe guitar tuner does).

It's progress tho still unusable.

birdFEEDER
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Re: [SOLVED!] HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

Post by birdFEEDER » Sat Mar 07, 2020 2:47 pm

SOLVED!!!!!!!

So, turns out, the C6 software has a speed throttle setting that needed to be checked, this is from Amos back in 2013:

"*IMPORTANT* in the C6 Preferences, "Misc Settings" section, set Turbo Limit to x1."

So, all told, this is what worked for me (in case others run into the same thing):
  • Connect SubPhatty directly to Mac via USB
  • Throttle C6 to Turbo Limit = x1
  • Update to bootloader v2 (because I had an early serial #)
  • Update to latest firmware (v2.2.0)
  • After it auto-restarted, I power cycled it
  • Profit

Birchy
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Re: [SOLVED!] HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

Post by Birchy » Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:35 pm

Hi, I am experiencing a similar issue, did you have to tick the turbo box on the main display of c6?

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stiiiiiiive
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Re: [SOLVED!] HELP! I bricked my SubPhatty!

Post by stiiiiiiive » Sun Mar 29, 2020 6:48 am

I think "Turbo x1" is like no turbo.

In case of doubt, well, just follow the piece of advice above... it worked :)

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