Is my MIDIFighter Pro bricked?

I followed the Bricked MIDI Fighter Reset Guide and there’s still no joy. The old MFUpdate app gives me this response:

Contacting DJTechTools
Unable to open temporary file:
Permisson denied
Flashing the Midifighter…
Midifighter erased.
Failed to send HEX file to the Midifighter.

And the other thing that is interesting now is that instead of the light at button 10 being illuminated when I plug in the USB, all of the LEDs are lit except for 2 and 16:
.*



***.

I have no idea what that means. :confused:

SUCCESS!!! I loaded the midifighter-20110511.hex into the old MFUpdate.app and now I get the snake lights and the LEDs illuminate when the arcade buttons are pressed!!! In addition, it can enter boot loader mode via the 4-button method.

Next step is to see what the new MIDI Fighter Utility (2.85) sees. OK, still no joy here – the Utility doesn’t see squat when the MFpro is plugged in.

Next step is to see what SNOIZE MIDI Monitor (1.41) sees. It sees it! But it lists “Midifighter” with no “Classic” or “Pro” additional designation. All 16 buttons transmit note on and off as appropriate but I’m getting no signal off any of the three analog controls, or the 4 digital buttons.

Next step is to look at the device tree in my OS. I already know it will have it, because MIDI Monitor sees it. It does! Here’s what it says:
Midifighter:

Product ID: 0x2048
Vendor ID: 0x03eb (Atmel Corporation)
Version: 0.02
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: www.djtechtools.com powered by Atmel®
Location ID: 0xfa130000 / 11
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 100
Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

So, I know that I can go into the button-and-LED menu structure and activate the digital and analog expansion pins - but I’m not sure if that will make the daughterboard’s special effects all work. I’m going to try that next.

Also, if anyone has a hex file of the MIDI Fighter Pro firmware, now’s the time to join the discussion. :smiley:

OK, I was able to go in via Menu Mode (How To Use the Midifighter Menu Mode (Classic & Pro only)) and activate Four Banks External mode and turn on the analog inputs. MIDI Monitor verifies signal from the three analog controls. However, when I went in to try to turn on the digital inputs, I was unable. There was no response from the four buttons (or any other buttons except for the escape key) and MIDI Monitor verifies that there is no signal when I push the four “bank” buttons on the MF Pro. So, just a couple of hurdles left to surmount here. I’m open to any suggestions!

OK, I was able to activate the digital inputs from the Menu Mode, however, I do not get any response from the buttons. They do not transmit MIDI and they do not light up. I’m thinking there must be some way to activate this final magical part of the MF Pro daughter board. Someone out there has to have been able to make this work. Help me, MIDI-Juan Kenobi! :smiley:

If you’re still using midifighter-20110511.hex, the utility isn’t going to work as it was created later that year (August/September 2011, IIRC) so that older firmware (March 2011) won’t have the required functionality. The late-2011 firmware also added DJTT’s own vendor ID (0x2580) instead of using Atmel’s, so we can see from what you posted that this firmware predates that.

Since you’re able to update now, I would suggest trying to update with the latest firmware (or at least one from late 2011/early 2012) and seeing does it now work.

Dude so cool that you’ve made some progress here, keep it on! And indeed, updating to a newer version now does seem like a smart idea.

I guess this is what you need. I would contact DJTT to ask for a copy as I have no idea where you might otherwise get it, unless you find one linked here in the forums somewhere.

Big thanks to @guywithknife and @DJDoubleYou – I’ve dropped a trouble ticket to DJTT support to see if they can dig up a firmware that can help me out - I’ll report on how that works out. I should probably email Mad Zach and ill.GATES and see if they’ve got the files in case support can’t find 'em. :smiley:

SUCCESS!!! Huge thanks to @guywithknife and @DJDoubleYou - I was able to interact reasonably with DJTT support and got a firmware update that got my MF Utility to see the board. DJTT Support also provided me with the firmware for the MIDI Fighter Pro, and with the utility now seeing the board, I was able to upload that firmware, and now the Pro is back to life!!! I’ve wanted one of these for so long and I’m extremely excited to learn it and do some fun stuff. I’ve saved all of my notes and files from this effort, so if anyone ever runs into this kind of situation, please do not hesitate to contact me, as I’ll be happy to share everything I’ve got to help you through the process. Thanks again, everyone!

One last thing – I sat down with my MIDI Fighter Pro and MIDI Monitor and drew up a MIDI map in case anyone is looking for one. You can grab it here: http://www.abductionproductions.com/midifighter/MIDIFighterPro-BeatMasher_Ableton-Mapping.pdf

enjoy!

This thread has been a life saver! I have a MF Pro Cue Master that out of nowhere started having the same issue (All or almost all lights lit up and no computer recognizing it as a device). I’ve gotten the sliders and faders working using the midifighter-20110511.hex but my four buttons next to the arcade grid don’t work. I was wondering @Uncle Noah if you still have access to the hex file for the pro? I’m going to email them as well but just in case you have it and see this sooner I would love to put it somewhere public for easy access! It took a little digging to find the old firmware files but in case anyone else needs them they’re here Midifighter - Browse /Midifighter Firmware at SourceForge.net

Just wanted to follow up that I messaged DJTT on their support site (Zendesk) and got the Cue Master hex file! Here’s the ticket for reference https://techtools.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/106334?page=1 and the link to the Cue Master hex file https://techtools.zendesk.com/attachments/token/bPYL0oIoiilzfo45wPXu2FAZU/?name=MF_PRO_CUEMASTER_RESCUE.zip
I asked them if they keep the MF Pro hex files somewhere public and if not to share them in hopes that anyone else running into this can fix theirs in the future! I’m still amazed at how well this thing runs for being so old now.

Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner – I’m glad they were able to get you that hex file! I have the one I used if you need it. DJTT really should have a public repository of stuff for the original MIDI Fighter and the MIDI Fighter Pros. The hex files, circuit diagrams, mapping sheets, 3D printer files for the front and back plates, those vids of Ean wiring the BPM strobe LED into the board, a reliable source for the threaded spacers from the original design, Gerber files for the Pro daughter boards along with Mouser project part lists, etc. It would just be incredible for the 10-15 of us out here still infatuated with these dinosaurs :smiley:

Yo! big shout out and big love to you for posting this. I found your post about the MFPro Cuemaster Hex file. Did the bootloader mode from the instructions and then was able to load the firmware using the MF_Utility.exe.

I love the midifighter. its so bad!