For the M-VAVE FM-1

Switch firmware. Keep every song.

usb-midi-host turns a small Waveshare touchscreen into the FM-1's home base. It backs up before every firmware change, brings your songs back when you switch back, and lets a USB keyboard play the FM-1 with no computer. Wi-Fi downloads, recording and Bluetooth MIDI are next.

What do you want to do?

You need a Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.69, a powered hub with USB-C ports, a USB-C data cable, and Chrome or Edge.

  1. Plug the board straight into this computer.
  2. Click Install and pick USB JTAG/serial debug unit.
  3. Move the board to the hub, with your keyboard and the FM-1 in its USB-C ports. Play.
This browser can't install. Use Chrome or Edge on a computer. Installing needs a secure page: open this over https:// or from localhost.

Never tick “Erase device”. It wipes every FM-1 backup on the board.

Install the loader, set it up once from a Mac, then switch from the board's screen. It checks the FM-1, backs it up, writes only the firmware and reads every byte back.

This browser can't install. Use Chrome or Edge on a computer. Installing needs a secure page: open this over https:// or from localhost.

Never tick “Erase device”. It wipes every FM-1 backup on the board.

The one-time Mac setup

The loader needs a file from the FM-1's chip maker that this page may not publish. With the board in Computer mode, run make flash-store CONFIRM=erase-store from this project, then add firmwares with make store-add PKGS="sloop.fwsc skiff.fwsc" (it checks each one against the Firmware Hub, so the Mac needs internet). Until then the board says Store unreadable. Each firmware keeps its own songs: switching never mixes them.

On the board, open Settings, tap Computer, and tap it again within 3 seconds. Plug it into this computer and install the build it already runs. Settings shows which.

This browser can't install. Use Chrome or Edge on a computer. Installing needs a secure page: open this over https:// or from localhost.

Never tick “Erase device”. It wipes every FM-1 backup on the board.

It's almost certainly not dead: the FM-1 has a recovery mode in ROM that no firmware can overwrite. This board can't reach an FM-1 that won't start, but a computer can: the Firmware Hub's Rescue, MvaveFM1Unbricker, or, if no computer sees it at all, the Transporter.

No port shows up

Try another cable: charge-only ones never show up. Or hold BOOT, tap RST, let go of BOOT, and click Install again. Tap RST once when it's done.

Installed, but the FM-1 doesn't play

Use the hub's USB-C ports, and keep to one keyboard: the board has room for the hub, the FM-1 and one controller. Green all along the screen means notes are getting through.