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Problems

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 12:16 pm
by elbowpipe
I'm afraid I'm not getting on with the Warbl I bought in April. I had an iPhone 5C originally which wasn't giving satisfactory results, so I bought an iPhone 6S and then lockdown happened and my mind was on other things. But last night, encouraged by my daughter's boyfriend who's a bit of a wizard with midi instruments, we decided to give it a go again. 

Initially we got a tune out of the chanter, overblowing with vented mouthpiece, although not quite executing rolls and triplets. The configuration tool informed me that I needed a firmware update so I wondered if that was the problem. My laptop is a Chromebook so I had to download the adafruit drivers to my Windows 7 PC and install. I installed all of them, though I suspect I didn't need to do that? 

The QMK tool auto-flashed after a double tap and did everything the manual said. The result was the configuration tool still says I need an update and when I reconfigure, even after factory reset, the sensor calibration has got worse. IE. its almost impossible to play a tune.

I'm quite discouraged. I'm fairly technical and my daughter's boyfriend more so, but we're struggling. I kind of expected that out of the box I would quickly be playing tunes although getting the true 'uilleann' feel would take some tweaking, but this feels like something more serious.

Re: Problems

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 1:31 pm
by admin
Hi, I’m sorry to hear about the issues you’re having. Does the Configuration Tool say that you have firmware v. 1.8 installed now? If so, the update was successful— occasionally there’s a MIDI glitch that will cause it to erroneously say that there’s an update available.

It sounds like the main issue is the sensor calibration—I would try calibrating following the procedure in this video, if you haven’t already done so:

https://youtu.be/R7Xl5Db8QDM

Most people will need to calibrate the sensors after receiving the device and occasionally thereafter, because though I calibrate each one to my fingers, the reflectivity of everyone’s hands is different and changes over time. Having the calibration dialed in is definitely key to playing fast ornamentation successfully.

It sounds like calibrating should help, but if not we can pursue other remedies. If at any time you feel that WARBL isn’t meeting your expectations I’m certainly happy to refund the cost. Feel free to send me an email at info@warbl.xyz.

Thanks!

Re: Problems

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 1:54 pm
by elbowpipe
No, still 1.6. I'll try the video. But it would be good to have 1.8 installed.

Re: Problems

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2020 2:03 pm
by admin
Okay, it sounds like the update didn’t work for some reason. If you try it again and copy all the text from the QMK readout, I can see if I can tell what’s happening. I haven’t tried it on Windows 7, but there may be some issue with the driver.

Re: Problems

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:17 pm
by elbowpipe
For those following this thread, all my issues have been resolved. Some of them were not reading the manual closely enough and at least one was a brain malfunction! Thanks Andrew Mowry for your help. I'm considering a "Uilleann WARBL for Dummies" pdf as who else is better placed to write it! ;)

Re: Problems

Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2020 4:29 pm
by admin
My pleasure, and thanks for reporting back! By nature MIDI can be a bit confusing, and I’m sure that there are areas where my documentation could be clearer, so I’ll continue to work on that.