www.megadrum.info

This procedure describes how to load an encrypted MegaDrum firmware over MIDI or USB.

To use this procedure a couple of pre-requisite must be met.
1. MegaDrum must be programmed with the protected bootloader.
2. The procedure must be done on a Windows PC or Mac OS X.

Here is description of the procedure
1. Download and unzip the firmware update utility called mdfwupdate.
(Updated on 23/12/2011 to add Mac OS X version).

2. Download the latest encrypted MegaDrum firmware and choose a file matching your MegaDrum version, e.g. for MegaDrum on Atmega644 the file will be called megadrum644_20111213.bin where 20111213 is firmware version date.
3. 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. While keeping the key LEFT pressed the MIDI LED will be blinking indicating that it is entering the bootloader mode. When you release the key LEFT the LCD will show (on Atmega based MegaDrum):

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FwSUpdater 16MHz
DOWN-ok.UP-clock

or (on ARM based MegaDrum):

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FwSUpdaterSTM32b
StartUpdateOnPC


4. From a command line run the utility, e.g. on Windows:

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mdfwupdate.exe megadrum644_20111213.bin

On Mac OS X;

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./mdfwupdate megadrum644_20111213.bin

5. First it will prompt you to choose which MIDI output port to use. Type a number corresponding to the MegaDrum MIDI port and press Enter. It will now prompt you to choose which MIDI input port to use. Type a number corresponding to the MegaDrum MIDI port (don't press Enter yet).
6. Skip this step on an ARM based MegaDrum. 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.
7. Skip this step on an ARM based MegaDrum. In MegaDrum press the key DOWN. It will display 'StartUpdateOnPC'.
8. On the PC press Enter. Note, on Mac OS X this must be done within 1 second after step 7 otherwise MegaDrum bootloader will reset itself.
9. It will now start updating the firmware and after a couple of minutes it will finish. While doing the update it will show progress on the command line and on the LCD. On the LCD it will look like this:

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88886>ater 16MHz
StartUpdateOnPC

10. When update has finished, the utility will show

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Transferring.. 100% done.
MegaDrum updated successfully.

and MegaDrum will reboot and will start with new firmware.

This is a screenshot of the whole procedure on the command line:

I also recorded a video of the updating process (following the MIDI-OX video). It can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8M3KIRuPWQ

Firelord wrote:I also recorded a video of the updating process (following the MIDI-OX video). It can be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8M3KIRuPWQ

Excellent video Firelord! Much appreciated. Videos like this will make things very clear.

Hi dmitri,

I've not been around for a while, and missed the encrypted bootloader stuff. Is there any kind of timeframe on a Mac version of this software? I don't own or have access to a Windows PC and run entirely on Mac software, MCT and all. If you need assistance I can provide it but I'm aware that you probably don't want to divulge information for the system you're using.

This is a test java version (source code):


It works on Windows if sysex message length is limited to 22, using MidiSupport.writeMid(), or using 1 byte sysex messages, MidiSupport.writeShort(), but fails if using MidiSupport.write(). Haven't had time yet to figure out why.
Tested it on Mac as well using mmj and seems to work (as watched by MIDI Monitor) but I tested it only with virtual ports so don't know if it'll work with a real MegaDrum connected.

Any chance of getting the c/c++ source code for the utility?

+1 on releasing source, would only be beneficial to have the community contribute to it.

c++ source code:

On Windows with MinGW can be compiled as:

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g++ -D__WINDOWS_MM__ -Wall -o mdfwupdate.exe update.cpp RtMidi.cpp -lwinmm

On Mac OS X can be compiled as:

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g++ -D__MACOSX_CORE__ -Wall -o mdfwupdate update.cpp RtMidi.cpp -framework CoreMidi -framework CoreAudio -framework CoreFoundation

On Linux can be compiled as:

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g++ -D__LINUX_ALSASEQ__ -Wall -o mdfwupdate update.cpp RtMidi.cpp -lasound -lpthread

Much appreciated dmitri. I will make a simple OS X GUI wrapper for the program, if you'd like.