Need ability to re-install older firmware to deal with unexpected issues in new releases

Technical Support
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I started upgrading the firmware on a few of my older Morphs, and discovered that with firmware version 0.19.216, I can no longer connect 4 Morphs through a USB hub as I was able to previously and reliably for years. I have enough Morphs with older firmware versions and lots of USB hubs to try different scenarios. All tests with a mixture of pre-0.19.216 firmware work fine when four of them are connected to USB hubs (unpowered or powered). It appears that connecting any more than one (out of four) 0.19.216 Morph triggers the problem, which results in only 3 of 4 Morphs being seen. This occurs on two (out of three) unpowered hubs, and one (out of three) powered hubs.

Besides not wanting to use a powered hub (which adds another wire and doesn’t easily fit in my current enclosure), the fact that the problem occurs with at least one powered hub means that the problem may happen in the future even with powered hubs that currently work. I’m ordering a few more UBS hubs to try to find another slim and unpowered one that works with four 0.9.216 Morphs.

Since a hub (powered or unpowered) that currently works may not work in the future with some future Morph firmware upgrade, I think it’s extremely important to have the ability to revert to previous firmware releases after an upgrade, so that when the behaviour of the product changes in undesirable ways, we can go back to a previous firmware release.

…Tim…

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Thank you for reporting this, Tim. It’s possible that our newest feature reports are overwhelming the hubs, but the general power and devices have not changed.

We’ll look into the hub issue. As for downgrading, we understand the need but it would take a significant effort to deploy. Given our resources, we are prioritizing fixing existing bugs (such as this one) and creating new features.

As always, thank you for your feedback and patience as we sort this out.

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I certainly understand the need to prioritize things. The situation occurs immediately when the devices are plugged in (no pressure), so it seems unlikely that the hub is being overwhelmed with data.

What is meant by “newest feature reports”, and when are they sent?

Since there’s no way to downgrade, I will certainly no longer upgrade unless there’s an actual reason to.

…Tim…

1 Like
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Basically, we changed how the device reports what it is over USB. We added some additional buffer for MIDI, added new HID devices, and moved around some devices. When the Morph is enumerating, it’s possible that the hub cannot handle this specific arrangement of devices.