Top Left button LED only?

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Top Left button LED only?
Posted on: 25.04.2010 by Li Katterhenry
i'm not sure how to safely reset this thing. from what i've read, having only the top left button lit means the Midifighter isn't being recognized as MIDI device? also, the usbaudio.sys file is nowhere to be found.
robert chanda
24.08.2010
Originally Posted by ryanpkirby
-Held down the four corner buttons on your Midifighter and plug in the USB cable.
-nothing happened just the upper left led lit
-then i run the next command lines (i am pretty sure i did this wrong)
-then nothing again
Here's your problem. Holding the four corner buttons will drop the Midifighter into bootloader mode IF-AND-ONLY-IF the software was running correctly in the first place. The result should be a checkerboard of lights showing you that the Midifighter was ready for programming.

This didn't happen. This tells us the Midifighter firmware isn't working correctly and needs to be reflashed. Which is handy, because that's what you're trying to do!

You need to try the "piece of wire" method that Midifidler talked about. This wire shorts out the "BOOT" pins of the chip and will force the Midifighter into bootloader mode even if the firmware is toast, guaranteed. The downside is you don't get any light show to tell you what's going on, but you can tell that it's in bootloader mode if an Atmel DFU device appears in your USB devices list and if "dfu-programmer" making a clean connection (this will only happen if you correctly installed Atmel Flip and the DFU device driver - go back and double check those instructions).

If dfu-programmer fails to make a clean connection, that tells us that both the firmware and the bootloader program areas are toast and you need to use a piece of hardware called an "In System Programmer" (ISP) to force the chip to accept a new bootloader program, which is best accomplished by sending it back to DJTechtools for a replacement.

So next thing you need to try is the "piece of wire across the boot pad" trick.

Sorry this is so infuriating. We're trying to give everyone clear, step by step instructions. Just be happy there are several ways out of the predicament, we just have to try them one by one until we find the one that works for you.
Rana Saria
23.03.2012
I too am being plagued by this missing non noticed midi fighter as for what i have seen so far my midi fighter is fine along with many of yours its the junk we try to use them on lmao. Nah but really the best I have seen to describe this is what i have read from one of the moderators said was u are getting the solid light staying on top left because ur mf is not regestering there for not syncing to your pc/apphole. do any of u have a usb port on ur laptops or pcs that the plastic piece has broken out of or been pulled out by a usb cord?? thats the main issue with my laptop but my other ports work for my flash drives and camra but to no avail this midi fighter is a ghost to my system someone please help me with this issue
Lorelei Semrow
17.03.2012
Having the exact same symptoms as you jon6oy, though on MacBook Pro OSX 10.6.8 and MF Pro Beatmasher. Just happened out of nowhere during soundcheck last evening . Awaiting a response from support before I try anything.
Saundra Deguia
17.03.2012
Hey guys,

Just found I've got the same problem with my MF Classic as described in this thread. Have searched through but can't find a solution that seems to fit my situation.

Symptoms:

+USB IN
-Chasing light display
-Top Left LED Lights and remains lit
-No sound of recognition from PC/Laptop that USB device is detected

+Run MF Update
+Unplug USB
+Plug in USB whilst holding down four corners
-Enters bootloader mode (checkered pattern)
+Run MF Update
-'No MF detected'

+Run MF Utility
+Plug in USB
-'No Midifighter detected'

I have also followed the reset button routine with no success.

I do not appear to have the 'USBAUDIO.sys' file that was before stated but have been using my Classic and Pro with no problems (Classic for around a year and Pro four months). There is likewise no catalog of expired USB devices in Device Manager.

This is the second PCB I have had for this classic and I'm starting to get really annoyed with the time I'm having to put in to keep the thing working. Touch wood (*grabs hold of desk with both hands*) my pro has had any problems.

If there is something in the thread I have missed could someone highlight it for me, or suggest alternative methods. Think I have tried everything but there is always something I've missed.
Adolf Hit
22.09.2010
Hey try the instructions here. It appears the single jumper method does not work 100% of the time.
If this still fails contact support and have it swapped.
Leida Blasko
21.09.2010
It's number 99/100 with red LEDs. It has been working fine since I purchased at the beginning of summer. I have never updated firmware on it, and now I cannot do the corner button or jumper to put into bootmode.

I have gone to http://www.djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=11511 and tried that method at least 10 times with both the jumper on the outside holes of BOOT. Have tried many times with just powering on holding the corner buttons too. I believe I need to return and have this thing diagnosed, cause there is no reason this should have lost the firmware.

While trying to get into bootmode to use the Atmel bootloader, I cannot even find the Jungo section in "Device Manager". It appears that I have all the correct and up-to-date drivers.

Any help would be very much appreciated.
Versie Althoff
12.09.2010
Hello I have the same problem and it has been 3 months since I look without found one solutions can you me helped
Neva Hoppenrath
02.09.2010
disregard last post i found the contact info

-RPK
Neva Hoppenrath
02.09.2010
tried it again still not working... who should i contact to fix this?

thanks for everybody's help
-RPK
Adolf Hit
25.08.2010
Just to clarify people, to get into bootloader mode you must...

Fit the jumper as shown in W_ellis pics
Plug in the USB cable to both the midifighter & the computer
Remove the the jumper

The device will now be in DFU mode
Neva Hoppenrath
25.08.2010
strike 3, still none working, it keeps saying "no device present"

here is a screen shot:


should i send it into djranking and let the pros look at it?
robert chanda
24.08.2010
The folder doesn't matter where it is, just so long as you can open a shell inside it (open a shell and "cd" into it).

The commands can be typed one by one. The "&&" there is supposed to join all three commands into a single line, telling the computer to execute this THEN execute this THEN execute this. I guess we were trying to make cut'n'paste from the web page easier to do but the lines got broken up by this BBS.

The "reset" command at the end should make the Midifighter act as if it has just been plugged in, so if it goes successfully as soon as you press enter on that last line you should get the power on light show and it should start working.
Neva Hoppenrath
24.08.2010
tried it with the wire, no dice....

quick questions

do i need to put the midifighter-20100118 folder anywhere? because right now it is on my desktop

now in terminal, the last three command lines do I run each line separate or do i run all of them together?

the name of the file i downloaded was midifighter-20100118.hex so it should look like this, right

dfu-programmer at90usb162 erase &&
dfu-programmer at90usb162 flash --debug 1 midifighter-20100118.hex &&
dfu-programmer at90usb162 reset


thanks again
robert chanda
24.08.2010
Originally Posted by ryanpkirby
-Held down the four corner buttons on your Midifighter and plug in the USB cable.
-nothing happened just the upper left led lit
-then i run the next command lines (i am pretty sure i did this wrong)
-then nothing again
Here's your problem. Holding the four corner buttons will drop the Midifighter into bootloader mode IF-AND-ONLY-IF the software was running correctly in the first place. The result should be a checkerboard of lights showing you that the Midifighter was ready for programming.

This didn't happen. This tells us the Midifighter firmware isn't working correctly and needs to be reflashed. Which is handy, because that's what you're trying to do!

You need to try the "piece of wire" method that Midifidler talked about. This wire shorts out the "BOOT" pins of the chip and will force the Midifighter into bootloader mode even if the firmware is toast, guaranteed. The downside is you don't get any light show to tell you what's going on, but you can tell that it's in bootloader mode if an Atmel DFU device appears in your USB devices list and if "dfu-programmer" making a clean connection (this will only happen if you correctly installed Atmel Flip and the DFU device driver - go back and double check those instructions).

If dfu-programmer fails to make a clean connection, that tells us that both the firmware and the bootloader program areas are toast and you need to use a piece of hardware called an "In System Programmer" (ISP) to force the chip to accept a new bootloader program, which is best accomplished by sending it back to DJTechtools for a replacement.

So next thing you need to try is the "piece of wire across the boot pad" trick.

Sorry this is so infuriating. We're trying to give everyone clear, step by step instructions. Just be happy there are several ways out of the predicament, we just have to try them one by one until we find the one that works for you.
Neva Hoppenrath
23.08.2010
I also have this problem, my midi-fighter is 36/500 and my computer is a macbook pro 2.26 GHz running OS X 10.6.4

i do not know anything about using teminal, but i tried it anyway... this is how it went
-downloaded everything
-installed Apple Developer Tools
-installed MacPorts
-opened Terminal
-ran command line sudo /opt/local/bin/port install dfu-programmer
-a warning came up, i entered my password and proceeded
-terminal said a bunch of things (sorry i can't be more specific) but i believe it build and install dfu-programmer and dependencie
-Held down the four corner buttons on your Midifighter and plug in the USB cable.
-nothing happened just the upper left led lit
-then i run the next command lines (i am pretty sure i did this wrong)
-then nothing again


i tried it one more time and i took a screen cap of the teminal window.

Please help me, i miss my midifighter
Daniell Lessie
10.08.2010
Flashed my midi fighters and leds work fine now. Midi Fighter number 183 and 184 from the new batch.

if you have windows 7 64 bit and need a signed driver for flip check: http://www.avrfreaks.net/index.php?m...842&showinfo=1
Silvia Varelas
31.07.2010
Ok, so I reckon I've now tried every combination of the process with a few different bits of cable and with both my MFs. No entry ever appears in Device Manager (checked for DFU entries specifically) and Atmel Flip says "Could not open USB device." (after I got past the .dll error by copying the dlls from the usb dir into the bin dir).

I've attached some pics showing the numbers for each MF, as well as how I attached the cable.

Thanks,
Will
Lorelei Przybylowicz
30.07.2010
Cheers man. So you only ever need the two closes to the centre of the board for reset and boot?

Safe
Adolf Hit
30.07.2010
http://www.djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=15654

Here is a link to the thread with a simple diagram of the connections needed
Lorelei Przybylowicz
31.07.2010
Can one of you guys post a pic of how to short the boot and reset jumpers? Just in case people aren't doing it right. I know that I wouldn't quite understand how to do it as there are 4 holes for each if I remember rightly.
Melania Wollenhaupt
30.07.2010
still no luck with mine.
125/300
first batch with blue LED's

any other thoughts?
return it for repair?
new board?
Adolf Hit
29.07.2010
Shorting out that connection puts the MF into a DFU bootloader mode so windows does not see a USB audio device but instead a 'DFU' device

Are you looking for it under the devices menu?

The assembly of the device itself should not effect this problem, I would try to enter firmware mode using the strap method described above a few more times and if not contact support via email and we can arrange to send another your way

Out of interest what numbers were your MF'ers?
Silvia Varelas
29.07.2010
Won't Windows need to "see" the MF before Flip can connect to it? Certainly when I tried this before, Flip complained that there was nothing to connect to.

I'll try again toevening , in case I missed something in the procedure.

After that, I'll probably try disassembling and reassembling the units, in case I did anything wrong when hooking them up. I definitely had more issues getting the buttons in with the painted top panel than I had with the clear one I used originally. How does the circuit work? Would it matter if a single button wasn't correctly seated? Bear in mind that both MFs have worked for a time, before breaking.
Adolf Hit
29.07.2010
That procedure will just enable flip to connect to the midi fighter so nothing will change on the midifighter but you should be able to connect using Flip after that
Silvia Varelas
29.07.2010
Hi,

Thanks for the help, but unfortunately the boot shorting trick didn't seem to do anything for me on either MF. Still no sign of it in Windows afterwards.

Can I check the specific details? So, I made a short cable (roughly 2 inches) from an old fan molex connector and poked either end through the 2 holes on the outside of the PCB below the BOOT marking.

I then attached the MF via USB and removed the short cable. What should I expect to happen at this point? For me, nothing changed on the MF and nothing on the PC.

Cheers,
Will
Meg Reinoehl
29.07.2010
Originally Posted by Fatlimey
Try the trick outlined by Midifidler earlier that involves using a short piece of wire to short the pads on the "Boot" switch printed on the PCB. That will kick the CPU into bootloader more without having to have any working firmware.

http://www.djranking s.com/community /sho...highlight=boot
DOH! Yes, this is the most important part. I can't believe I forgot to mention this. Apologies.
robert chanda
29.07.2010
Try the trick outlined by Midifidler earlier that involves using a short piece of wire to short the pads on the "Boot" switch printed on the PCB. That will kick the CPU into bootloader more without having to have any working firmware.

http://www.djranking s.com/community /sho...highlight=boot
Silvia Varelas
28.07.2010
I can't enter DFU mode at all, i.e. if I do the 4 corners trick, the device is still not recognised by the PC at all, so the Atmel application can't access it.

I had previously successfully upgraded the firmware, so I know that the process I followed was working and the device functioned for a short while after the upgrade.

Thanks,
Will
Meg Reinoehl
27.07.2010
Originally Posted by w_ellis
Other information: Having tried unplug and plug a few times, MF2 is now fully lit on all LEDs, but again no light show or ability to enter DFU mode.
The same thing happened to me and this is what I did to fix it:

1. Plug in/power up the MF while holding down the 4 corner buttons to enter DFU mode. You should still either get just the corner light or all lights lit up. This doesn't matter (at least it didn't for me).

2. Follow the "1. PC using Atmel Flip" instructions from here to flash the firmware on a PC.

3. IIRC, after the flash is complete, 3 of the lights on the top row (C3, C#3, D3) will blink 3 times sort of slowly. You must wait for these lights to flash for the firmware to flash properly.

4. After you see the lights flash, disconnect and reconnect the MIDI Fighter.

This is the process that worked for me after hosing my firmware initially. Hopefully it works for you, too.
Melania Wollenhaupt
26.07.2010
Still no luck getting my midi fighter to work.
I would like to inquire how to go about getting the board replaced or re flashed to latest firmware from your side.
it's kind of bumming me out not having the use of it.
being an early adopter and all and being one of the first people to place an order i feel left out now as mine is not working.

please advise MF 125/300 blue LEDS
Silvia Varelas
25.07.2010
Other information: Having tried unplug and plug a few times, MF2 is now fully lit on all LEDs, but again no light show or ability to enter DFU mode.
Silvia Varelas
25.07.2010
P.S. I have tried connecting them directly to my PC and my laptop since and no different results.
Silvia Varelas
25.07.2010
Hi,

I have the same (or similar) problem with both my midifighters now. I spoke to Zach when the first one broke and he's going to send me out a replacement PCB, as they've seen the issue before and there's not yet a solution.

To be specific about the symptoms for mine:
MF1: Top left LED comes on immediately on powering up and no other lights come on at all. No sign of MF in Windows, no light-show, can't enter DFU mode.
MF2: As above, but all LEDs on except 2nd from left at top.

Will drop a note to the guys about the second one now, but I'm now nervous it's something about my setup that's causing problems. I'm connecting through this USB hub: http://www.dabs.com/products/d-link-...-hub-24L6.html

Thanks,
Will
Jarvis Soler
24.07.2010
I am having the same problem of the midifighter only having the upper left light being lit without the led "light show" during boot.
I had just built my kit today had it plugged into my vista system using it to control fruity loops 3 it was working fine. Once I removed it from the Windows Vista system I went to plug it into my xp system. The light show took place once then i noticed the second to the upper left corner LED was lit i figured it was a one time error so i removed the usb cable and replaced it. Now i get the continuous upper left led being lit without the light show. So far in attempts to resolve this problem I made attempts to reload firmware using the jumper method (jumpering the two boot pins as explained in the following thread :http://www.djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=15654) with no success to get it to work. Neither the Vista or the XP system even recognize that there is a usb device connected now so attempts to reload firmware would not work either. I also checked to see if the usbaudio.sys file was in the system 32 file it was not there so I added the file from a source online. I tried the suggestion where someone in this thread suggested to unplug the unit multiple times with results in the same symptom. The only variation i have observed is after a few times of unplugging and plugging in the cable I do get split second flashes of the other LEDs illuminating.
Claire Baratto
30.05.2010
I also have those issues. Sometimes i have to restart the MF several times by unplugging the USB cord. I have always get the MF to work after 5 to 10 times of unplugging.
Im more into djing than fiddle with my mac but i believe i have to take the bull by its horns.
Vernon Positano
28.05.2010
Gille,

The OP's problem happened without having a lightshow on boot up. If you are having a lightshow its not the same problem as the OP appears to have.

Check the start of this thread and FatLimey suggests some things for you to try.
Nolan Albrecht
28.05.2010
I just turned on my MF and i have exactly the same problem only left top "shift" button lights permanently after booting lightshow...

Wow, i have a gig starting tommorow morning and get under timepressure...

Is it the only way to make a firmupdate???:eek:

i use a macbook 2 and i deletet the midifighter in the midisection of my apple.
now if i plug in the midifighter it should be plug&play like be recognized by my apple. But it isn
robert chanda
25.05.2010
Originally Posted by djtim
should i get an indication that i am in DFU mode?
Yup, you should get a checkerboard of lights to show you that you are in Bootloader mode. One last thing, is there any chance you have a short between the pads on the "reset" or "boot" area on the top-left side of the board? If those are constantly being pressed, the machine won't ever run our firmware and instead will already be in bootloader mode without any lightshow (which is partly why I wanted you to try communicating using a DFU programmer).


Originally Posted by djtim
i want to get into DFU mode before i follow the steps above as they seem kinda long winded. if i can not enter DFU mode then i'm guessing the above steps wont help me.
Like I said, try communicating with the DFU programmer first before giving up and saying it's bricked.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by djtim
It would be great if there was a "one Click" app to update MF Device Firmware.
The one click tool is called "Atmel Flip", and it's a Windows-only tool...
Melania Wollenhaupt
25.05.2010
i have tried to get the MF to go into DFU mode by holding the 4 buttons while plugging in, seems not to have any effect. still the Top Left LED lights up.
should i get an indication that i am in DFU mode?
i want to get into DFU mode before i follow the steps above as they seem kinda long winded.
if i can not enter DFU mode then i'm guessing the above steps wont help me.

It would be great if there was a "one Click" app to update MF Device Firmware.
but i guess someone has to write it first.
robert chanda
24.05.2010
OK, so that's new information! You don't get the power-on light show. Now we have something to work with. We should try and reflash the firmware.

I have to update the "How To Flash Your Midifighter" instructions with Mac version, but here's the essentials (Thanks SarahEmm!) You will need to download the "dfu-programmer" command line tool from here:
and the latest ".hex" firmware from the Midifighter sourceforge site:

Then your steps are:

  1. Ensure you have the Apple Developer Tools installed (they come on a CD/DVD with new macs/new OSes)
  2. Install MacPorts. An installer can be found at http://www.macports.org/install.php.
  3. Open a Terminal window (found under /Applications/Utilities/Terminal) to get a command line.
  4. At the command line, run
    Code:
    sudo /opt/local/bin/port install dfu-programmer
    to build and install dfu-programmer and dependencies.
  5. Hold down the four corner buttons on your Midifighter and plug in the USB cable.
  6. At the command line, run
    Code:
    dfu-programmer at90usb162 erase &&
    dfu-programmer at90usb162 flash --debug 1 midifighter.hex &&
    dfu-programmer at90usb162 reset
    (without the linebreaks, where midifighter.hex is the name of the new firmware file to be programmed).
  7. Unplug and re-plug your Midifighter to start running the new firmware.


If any of the "dfu-programmer" steps fail to connect to the Midifighter, your board is most likely borked and you need to drop a line to orders@djranking s.com to find out what your options are.

Try it out and tell me what you find.

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