#31

My ansible arrived without the usb cable (the importer chose to keep it for himself I guess). I see in the firmware page that Ansible 2.0 came out on July 7 and I purchased mine on July 4. Does this mean that mine shipped with 2.0? Changing programs takes me from Kria (orange) to Meadow Physics (white) to a third light orange option. According to what I read in the docs that should be Earthsea, so I guess it is 2.0. Am I right or is this not sufficient to know?

Secondly. When in a given parameter I press and hold Loop and choose a new loop duration by pressing the beginning and end steps, the new loop duration is applied to all parameters instead to just the parameter I’m on. I went through the docs a few times already and I guess I’m missing something, but I understand that only the loop for the current parameter should change. If I’m wrong please tell me and I’ll go over the docs in the morning cause I’m going crazy! :woozy_face:

#32

You can change the Loop Sync behaviour on the Config page. Sounds like you’re in Loop Sync Track mode, which is the default (all loops of a track are synced). What you want is Loop Sync None mode (all loops can be independent).

Here are the details…

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#33

Oh that’s it! I was too impatient to look in the right section. Thanks for the quick reply!

#34

Yeah, if you have Earthsea that is 2.0.0. Another quick indicator is the presence of a top lit row on the Kria octave page (track-wide octave shift). For 2.0 and future versions, it is possible to get version information by making a USB disk backup – the ansible-preset.json file will contain a version number + git commit hash near the beginning of the file.

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#35

I see, great, the octave page shows a lit top row. I’ll have to get an A-A USB cable eventually.

Isn’t a grid full of possibilities. I’ll have plenty more of nice surprises with ansible that I anticipated. Thanks you for the great job!

#36

You should also watch (and try) the latest Ansible beta versions, which added one bug fix after 2.0 and might add new features in future.

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#37

Hey everyone. I’m sorry for the dumb questions, but I’ve got two problems. First I have tried, unsuccessfully, to save any presets on my ansible running kria with grid. I read the documents, I press button two, and on grid the save patterns section pops up, but pressing the currently lit pattern and holding it does nothing. If I power cycle, I lose it. This has happened too many times and is really frustrating. I might add that momentarily pressing button 2 does not bring up the pattern section on grid permenantly, it only flashes up as long as I have the button 2 pressed. so I have to hold button 2 down to try and save on the grid, but it does not work.

Second, I’ve tried to update the firmware, and because I have norns, I’ve got homebrew etc on my Mac. I DL the version 2.0 firmware, plug in the usb, power up while holding lower right button and no lights flash or anything. I’ve tried running the script while holding the button, and also while letting go of the button after booting. The script says it runs, but no lights flash or anything on the unit. I then power cycle and it has not changed, still cannot save patterns. So I performed a USB backup to check the version and the json file has no numbers in front of the name, so I’m assuming it’s not upgraded to 2.0. Is this like a norns thing where I have to update to another version first, before 2.0? I did try updating to 1.6 first, and then 2.0, but no good.
Any help would be great. I love ansible but I really wish I could save some patterns.

#38

Sorry to hear you’re having trouble!

To access the Preset page, it should work to tap the preset button next to the USB port, this should not be a momentary switch. Time and Config pages are accessed by holding the buttons labeled KEY 1 / 2 above the bottom set of jacks (clock / reset):

The preset page should initially only have the top-left grid key lit. The right half of the grid is toggles for drawing a glyph to help you remember the preset. Tapping keys in the leftmost column picks a preset slot, and then long-pressing one of these keys will save a preset.

There’s not any visual indication you’re in bootloader mode on the module – no code has run to even configure the LED outputs. On my Windows 10 machine I get a rising chime / harp sort of sound when I’ve started the module in bootloader mode, then after running the script (specifically the dfu-programmer ... start command) I get a falling chime sound because the USB device has disconnected. No idea if there’s any similar kind of device connection indicators you can set up on Mac. But it sounds like you loaded the firmware successfully. It should be fine to update to 2.0.0 from any previous version.

There are a few quick signs you are on 2.0.0, like:

  • You can access Earthsea by holding the key next to the USB port once to go to Meadowphysics, then again to go to Earthsea (orange-white LED)
  • Kria octave page has 6 keys lit on the top left
  • Kria Time page has 3 different glyphs along the bottom, previously this was blank
  • You can do a USB disk backup at all.

I believe that at least some of the most recent batch of Ansibles shipped with 2.0.0, since it was released right about the same time that batch went on sale. When I make a USB disk backup, the resulting ansible-preset.json file starts as follows:

{"meta": {"firmware": "ansible", "version": "2.0.0-9ebf5ec", ...

The file is always called ansible-preset.json and at > 1 MB may be a bit of a pain to open / work with, but the version information should always be at the beginning of the file.

Hope this helps, and I’m happy to update any of the documentation that could be clearer on some of these details.

2 Likes
#39

Oh derp! Thank you. I seem to be able to save patterns now by holding the lit button and then on the left side switch to a new one by pressing a blank button with a double press. This is amazing! As far as the json file, can I open it in notepad on a mac to read if the version is 2.0?

I will try to see if i can bring up earthsea tomorrow when I wake up. I literally passed out just now playing with kria. Haha. I love it.

Seriously, thank you kind friend!

1 Like
#40

Yeah, any text editor should work, just some work better than others with large files. For just opening / viewing them it’s usually no problem. Your version is definitely 2.0.0 though, since the USB disk backup feature didn’t exist before that. Glad you’re able to save!

1 Like
#41

Would love some assistance here. Just bought a second hand Ansible that was previously loaded up to Polyearthsea. At the moment, I do not have a Grid so I have been wanting to use my Digitone or Native Instruments A49 midi keyboard for midi to cv. I got the firmware updated to 2.0 SEEMINGLY successfully but upon rebooting, I get nothing. No orange LED comes up when I plug either device in (I have played with the configuration on the Digitone plenty) and it seems completely unresponsive. Any ideas?

#42

Hm, I have seen some failure modes like this when I leave USB connected to my computer after an update and then power cycle. The PC supplying USB power seems to maybe keep it in a bootloader / other odd state, sometimes after additional power cycles (?). I have generally been able to recover from this by holding the button down while powering on, reflashing, disconnecting USB, then power cycling. However I would not rule out a bug introduced in 2.0 that causes problems when a MIDI device is the first device attached, since I have generally always tested things with a grid first. If the above procedure doesn’t work for you I will experiment with some MIDI controllers and see what I can figure out.

#44

Alright, so as you said, I plugged the computer in (powered down), held the button down, powered on, ran the .command file which ran successfully, unplugged the USB, then power cycled. Still nothing with either device :upside_down_face:

#45

I took a quick look at the A49 and it appears that it is likely a “class compliant” USB MIDI device so it should in theory work. I don’t have access to one I could test with but two potential issue come to mind. The first is that the USB device detection logic might be getting confused if the A49 presents itself as multiple USB endpoints/devices. The second could simply be power draw. I don’t remember off hand what the limit is set to in the current firmware. The ansible module can’t necessarily deliver the same amount of power as a computer.

With the Digitone I believe there could be similar problems to the A49 since it is a complex device. One strategy I’d recommend with the Digitone is just using a simple USB midi adaptor like the Roland UM-ONE mkII

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#46

Power draw was my first concern as well but the A49 does light up and seem to work as expected. It just seems as though Ansible doesn’t respond. So it seems like Ansible is sending power correctly just isn’t recognizing it somehow

#47

I have a iConnectivity mio2 which presents itself as multiple USB MIDI endpoints - I think it was working with the ansible MIDI mode but I can double check. One didn’t have control over which endpoint ansible used but it did use one of them!

One of the complications with class compliant USB MIDI is that MIDI interfaces are technically considered a sub class of USB audio devices. Depending on how devices present themselves it can confuse the device detection logic in ansible.

#48

UPDATE: I tried flashing to 1.6.1 and the behavior has changed with A49. The A49 begins to work light up and Ansible’s bottom TR light comes on and the the A49 powers off and the TR light stays on even when I unplug the USB. So that issue seems like it could be derived from power but I am beginning to think this might be a bug with the USB detection? I don’t see a reason why the Digitone wouldn’t work. Unfortunately, I don’t have any sort of conversion cables available at the moment so I can’t test that further.

#49

https://www.jaycar.com.au/usb-2-0-a-male-to-a-male-cable-1-8m/p/WC7704

I just moved and managed for years to hold onto 2 - TWO of those unicorns but the only thing I can’t find is that box…

Anyways this is the closest I can find easily but I just wanna make sure it’s gonna work as I have a nagging feeling it’s not going to…

Help my wracked memory :slight_smile:

I’m dying to upgrade my ansible and crow and norns arrive today

#50

info here: https://monome.org/docs/modular/update/

get a normal, inexpensive USB A-A cable such as p/n 1175-1035-ND on digikey. a “transfer” cable will not work.

1 Like
#51

I’m about to get a Digitone and was planning on using it as my main sequencer for live shows. My plan was to use Ansible (that is on 2.0 and I’m using with Grid as well) as midi to cv converter. The idea is to only bring the Digitone as sequencer for live shows. Has anyone been successful in finding a workaround to use Digitone (or Digitakt, I guess they share the same difficulties here) with Ansible as midi to cv?
Would something like the Roland UM-ONE mkII mentioned by @ngwese work for this? My case is full and the alternative would be to go with some external converter. But I’d very much like to make Ansible work if possible.
Hope someone has some advice. Thank you as always!