Help needed with the v4.0.2 update

Developers
1

Hi,

the firmware release v4.0.2(a) is available on beta.electra.one. It would be great if at least a few users were willing to run the update from the beta site, before it is rolled out to general public. There are two reasons for that:

  1. testing the new firmware update procedure
  2. checking if the firmware works fine with the latest hardware revision of the display boards.

The v4.0.2 brings several important fixes as well as some new and cool features. I tried to reflect as much of what has been discussed here on the forum as I could.

Hereā€™s the list of changes:

  • Allow users to assign presetā€™s custom Lua (user) functions to the hardware buttons. This builds upon introducing the Lua user functions in 4.0.0. Users can now use the Preset Menu screen (swipe down on the left side of the screen) to assign presetā€™s custom functions to the hardware buttons. The assignment stays as long as the preset is stored in the same preset slot. @Phommed

  • Move on-screen page selector to the top of the screen. It was at the bottom of the screen in 4.0.0. A few users mentioned that it would be better to have it at the top of the screen. @Electrolove

  • Move configuration of Remote knobs and MIDI Control routing to the Router screen. Routing is now managed from a single place. The extra routing screens for Remote knobs and for MIDI Control were a bit confusing.

  • Add a beta version of the on-device editor for the Performance page. I will write more on this in a separate thread. In short, Electra can be now switched to an Edit mode. For now, presetsā€™ performance page can be edited. This allows users to add and edit controls, macros, and modulators. This is the first serious step towards the new on-device preset editor. Any feedback and ideas are welcomed.

  • Improve swipe animations and the layout of the configuration pages.

  • Do not cycle the list items when using the knobs. The lists work as they did prior to 4.0.0. @jhh @NewIgnis @Electrolove

  • Return support for dimming inactive control sets. @J-Ox @alectroniq

  • Add lua function parameterMap.updateValue() to change stored value without triggering the Lua callbacks.

  • Warn users when creating an overlay with an ID that already exists. Warning is written to the to Lua log.

  • Add info.getText() function to query the text shown in the status bar. @SimonORorke

  • Allow using program and bank changes on the CTRL port. @Project

  • Fix issues with the midi.sendNrpn() function. @NewIgnis

  • Fix issues with broken sysex due to System real-time messages. @NewIgnis

  • Add preset.onEnter() Lua function. The function is called when users re-enters the preset. @Mint-Gecko

  • Make it possible to lock current controlSet with page.lockControlSet() Lua function.

  • Add Lua functions to set and query page visibility.

To update, please, update your bootloader first (unless you already done that). Make sure you have 4.0.0 installed, go to Electra One App and follow the instructions on the screen.

Once the bootloader is updated, restart the controller and go to Electra One App. The page should offer an online update without using the USB disk mode.

I will appreciate any feedback on whether the update went ok for you or not. I will be around the computer most of the time today and tomorrow ā†’ to provide support if needed. Thanks!

PS: I am updating the documentation nowā€¦

7 Likes
2

Update went smoothly. Did notice that the firmware upload was considerably slower compared to USB disk mode.

3

yup, USB disk mode uses raw block transfers of 8-bit data, while online transfer is the same data encapsulated in 7-bit USB midi and split into 4kB packets. It adds quite some extra overhead.

4

Hm.. not particularly happy with the on-screen page selector having been moved to the top. It is inconsistent with the ā€˜normalā€™ page selection screen (which is at the bottom). Worse: the last row of controls is now inconveniently close to the bottom of the screen. Can we make this a user configurable option?

5

BTW: is there a standard way to also reset the control to its default value when tapping the pot that controls it?

6

I like the returned support for dimming inactive control sets; but would be nice to select some level of dimmingā€¦ Current dimmed level is quite dark.

7

Just updated online and was straightforward. Quite slow, but there is a progress meter.

On the device itself, there were artifacts at the start and end of the progress bar from time to time (between 50 and 70%).

If possible, I would mask the interface during the upgrade, to make sure that itā€™s clear that it should not be used while this is taking place.

After that my presets seemed to work, from a UI perspective

8

Is it me, or is the swipe down gesture (to open configuration page etc.) not working when the on-screen page selector is active? (I need to swipe up first to remove that, and then swipe down to open the configuration page).

Also: Toggling sensitivity creates some strange artefacts at the bottom of the screen, and does not clearly display the state of the sensitivity toggle. Also, when opening the on-screen page selection information line where this information should be displayed is of course gone :wink:

9

Unless I donā€™t know which feature weā€™re talking about, the page selection (performance, pin preset, pages) is showing up at the bottom for me.

10

I was talking about the small page selection window that appears when swiping down from the middle of the screen on a preset.

11

Ah, OK, so yes, I have it at the top, but itā€™s pretty useless for me as the touch detection doesnā€™t work very well.

12

It is not logical that the Display Brightness moved to the System tab - it should really be in the Interface tab; perhaps in a second column?

13

P.S.: It seems that group labels are not dimmed.

14

Also, it seems the swipe down gesture (from the middel of the screen) to open the performance page does not work anymore.

15

Hi - I havenā€™t figured out how to actually use the new ā€œAssign Buttonā€ on the Preset Menu yet. I did manage to get this printed in the log whilst pressing some combination of on-screen buttons on the Preset menu page though :

19:27:23.775 CustomWriter: cannot delete file: ctrlv2/config4.cfg

Probably me just being slow, but has anyone figured it out yet (Iā€™ll update this post when I have grokked it)?

16

I am adding it to the docs as we speak. but a quick hint:

  1. press the ā€œassign buttonsā€ button. It will arm the learning mode. (yellow outline)
  2. touch and hold the knob you want assign to a hardware button
  3. press the hardware button while you old the knob (step 2). The name of the assigned button should show up on the on-screen button.
  4. tap ā€œassign buttonsā€ button again to disable the learning mode.
17

@jhh will process your input and will respond later.

1 Like
18

@martin Thanks very much - I could get it to map preset actions to the left-top and left-middle hardware buttons (I used the ā€œalternativeā€ mappings as I already have one of the right-hand buttons mapped to Alt. . Then could control my preset from the hardware buttons - so nice!! Some observations:

  1. For some reason I can only map preset actions to the left-top and left-middle hardware buttons. I have tried various combinations of setting one button, then going back to main preset screen then back to the Preset menu etc, but it only seems to recognise when I tap those two hardware buttons. This seems to happen whether I am mapping a button in ā€œnormalā€ or ā€œalternativeā€ modes.

  2. I wonder if it might be possible to add some on-screen prompts during the arming process, something like:

    1. a ā€œPress+Hold knobā€ hint somewhere on the UI (maybe even on the ā€œAssign buttons button itself in smaller font, or just above the Normal/Alt radio button?) whilst it is in arming mode

    2. then when a knob is being pressed + held, remove that prompt and show a ā€œTap buttonā€ prompt on the associated preset action button. If the knob is released before the mapping is made, just remove this ā€œTap buttonā€ prompt and show the ā€œPress+Hold knobā€ prompt again.

  3. I immediately hit a problem there are only 6 hardware buttons (x2 with the alt mode), but I also still want to use some of the normal button functions whilst using my preset. So I imagine most users will realistically only have 2 or 3 hardware buttons (incl. using alt mode which seems to woerk well preventing mistaken triggers) to use for this.

    Then I look at the 12 additional buttons on the knobs themselvesā€¦.

    Idea - in addition to the the new Preset Menuā€™s Assign Buttons feature, add an ā€œAssign Alt+Knobsā€ which would allow you to assign knob touch to preset actions also. I think this would have to be in conjunction with holding down an assigned Alt hardware key otherwise would make the main knob usage impossible. This might give great flexibility for the user to decide which of the 6 hardware + 12 knob taps to map to preset functions.

1 Like
19

For tech folks like me itā€™s always kinda confusing to have rather big additions in a release with a minor version number :grimacing: I believe thatā€™s a great update and definitely 4.1 material:)

20

the ā€œfeaturesā€ in the this release are either beta (waiting for comments) or work in progress. Hence I decided to keep it in minor. As well as it is not released out officially.