Option to disable the octave button flashing

[puremusic]

The Internet sure helps a person's electronic's education!

[gphantom]

As for the micro USB cable, I have the Keylab Essential and, although it uses a USB A connection, I have a USB extender cable and I simply disconnect the female part so that once the cable is no longer working, simply replace the extension USB cable which will be done once every year or two.

[fungus]

The Internet sure helps a person's electronic's education!

The keystep is quite simple hardware on the inside, just the STM32F103 CPU and a few basic peripheral chips.

It would be cool to reverse engineer it and make a new open-source firmware.

I'd have one of the rotary switches to select the octave, the 'Tempo' knob as a MIDI controller and the four buttons above the pitch/mod strips as pads. We could keep the sequencer, that seems useful but I'm not a big fan of arpeggiators.

[morphik]

The Internet sure helps a person's electronic's education!

The keystep is quite simple hardware on the inside, just the STM32F103 CPU and a few basic peripheral chips.

It would be cool to reverse engineer it and make a new open-source firmware.

I'd have one of the rotary switches to select the octave, the 'Tempo' knob as a MIDI controller and the four buttons above the pitch/mod strips as pads. We could keep the sequencer, that seems useful but I'm not a big fan of arpeggiators.

Well maybe reverse engineering isn't needed. I found this page  https://idyl.io/arduino/how-to/program-stm32-blue-pill-stm32f103c8t6/ explaining how to program a STM32 with the Arduino IDE, so you could just write your own code (and release it to the public domain  ). Note that you need the 1.6.5-r5 IDE in order to be able to use other than 'official' boards.

[jaytee]

Just adding to the chorus here. Would love a different option. I’m using CV/gate, and if I want to play any bass, I have to have a bright blinking light going at all times. I may do the hardware mod listed above to just kill those LEDs but it would be nice to just get a software update.

[puremusic]

The good news is I just downloaded the latest updates and found an option at the bottom of the MIDI Control center to dim the LEDs.

Hurrah!

The bad news is that the octave buttons still flash and I don't see any option to disable that still.

[jimlapbap]

Created an account here just to chime in. I bought this today. I wasn't sure about this product at first but willing to give it a chance, but the flashing is what put me over the edge, and since it looks like there's no solution to the flashing, I'm going to return it tomorrow.

[gphantom]

I don't get it.   People get upset over a flashing light which is supposed to let you know which octave you're in.  The latest firmware update let's you dim down to 10% brightness which is barely on.  If you want to get rid of a great product because of a flashing light, get an 88 key keyboard and you won't get an octave button at all...  Although, it wouldn't have a sequencer or arpediator... Maybe you can get such a keyboard at a nice price of -  Let's see, a yamaha 88 key workstation MODX8 goes for 1800.00, a yamaha Montage for 4000.00 etc etc etc...  Or you can use a 1.00 electrical tape roll and tape it on your offensive light.  On the other hand, just return the product and go for that nice 2,000.00 (U.S. Funds) keyboard and then find something to complain about it....

One man's opinion

[MajorFubar]

Created an account here just to chime in. I bought this today. I wasn't sure about this product at first but willing to give it a chance, but the flashing is what put me over the edge, and since it looks like there's no solution to the flashing, I'm going to return it tomorrow.

Read the post above yours which explains there is now a facility to dim the light to 10%
If a flashing light is pushing you 'over the edge' I'm not sure how you cope with real life.

[midenok]

If you're awesome at soldering you could replace the resistors with a different value to make them much dimmer. Annoyingly, four of them are inside a resistor "4-pack" so that makes it impossible to replace those resistors selectively, you have to replace the whole thing (eg. you can't replace only the resistors for octave buttons because one of them is in the 4-pack, although ... maybe you could resolder the pack one step lower down and put an extra resistor in the gap left behind )

I think it could be possible to drill that 4-pack. If the drill is big enough and placed correctly it can rework both resistors at once. We should figure out the exact point on top of the case so that users could drill the keyboard without disassembly. The only problem is precise 90 degree, but I guess the warranty could be expanded to cover that.

P.S. No more Arturia keyboards for me. Just tired of drilling them...

[masi]

You are right, just blinking is enough.

Idea, when you press the buttons the will flash like they do now, but only for a limited time to signify the change. Then they will simply blink.

Masi

[fato]

I've owned a MiniLab mk2 for a few years now and the flashing Octave buttons have always bugged the #### out of me.
After searching/hoping for a firmware fix I decided to open it up and deal with the LED's directly. (no Midi Control Center dimming options on the MLmk2 that I see)
The LED's that sit under the (silicone?) octave buttons are quite fragile and easy to crush with my flush clippers. (I was going to desolder but they shattered as soon as I plier'd them)
Put back together the unit works exactly as before but without led's lighting up under the button. Blessed relief.

- tried taping over the LED's with black tape directly on the PCB board but they light up so strongly light still get's/spills through.
- teardown/rebuild is very straight forward. i.e. all screws and plugs - no desoldering etc. (Just watch the ribbon connectors.)
- spent about an hour on the project.