Strange behaviour?

[SimonSays]

Hey all

I had a big work change soon after I finished building my V4+ so I disappeared for a while... I plugged it all back in last night and immediately started enjoying myself again :)

But.. I noticed some behaviour I hadn’t seen before:

1. I accidentally started the V4+ with the SD card out. After getting the ‘searching for SD card’ and then ‘No SD card’ messages, I pressed a button as I picked the unit up and got a strange light animation (vid below). Is this “expected”or is a symptom of something else?

V4+ Strange Behaviour Video

2. The reason I ask if the above is a symptom is I also got a machine ‘freeze’ while playing patterns. I’ve had it before and can’t replicate it but changing menus while a pattern is playing caused the machine to lock up (non-responsive to input) and the tempo of the audio to fall by a factor (1/4 time, 1/8 time, perhaps?)

I have an outstanding fix to the OTG switch bridged connection that I forgot to do in the initial build, but I doubt that is connected to the above?

The behaviour in (1) obviously isn’t important as ther eis no problem when I reboot with the SD card attached, but I’m wondering if anyone recognises a problem from these factors?

Cheers, Simon

[Hawkeye]

Hi Simon,

first of all: that's one awesome datawheel knob! :)

Yes, the strange behaviour without SD card is normal - the v4+ looks for the hardware configuration/layout file on SD card, from there normally the midiphy config is loaded - if it is not there, it will assume an "unmapped/standard SEQ", which does not match to the layout of buttons/shiftregisters, etc.

Nothing can be damaged that way and all will revert back to normal, when you launch it with the SD card with the configuration file.

The stability issue could be caused by unstable/insufficient +5V USB power. I had a very similar problem with my LoopA a few months back, switching to a better USB power supply or a high quality powerbank (for mobile use) solved it for me - could you try that out?

Best regards,
Peter

[SimonSays]

Hey Peter - thanks for the response...

Glad you like my “top hat” :) It’s not a perfect fit but i like it... look here: Sourcingmap 30mm CNC Machined Aluminium Alloy Potentiometer Knob Cao 6mm Dia Hole https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00X77OLB2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_lO75DbN2DGBET. The grey knobs on the step columns are from Thonk.co.uk.

I have a very solid power bank - i’ll try that and use the shortest cable I can find as well. I’ll report back (although I’ve not read of same problem elsewhere, so I may be solving a unique issue).

Cheers