the unit failed me in the field for the first time the other day. i was only running two channels instead of my usual four and wanted to change up the HP out routing from dual mono backups of CH1,2,3,4 to stereo backup of ch 1,2
so i booted into windows 10, hooked it up and downloaded what i thought was a good profile to the device. but i get in the field and boot it up and its acting weird. part of it could have been user error because it was full sun and LEDs were washed out. in any case it was locked up somehow and i couldn't get phantom on.
so i looked up on my phone how to do a 'factory reset'* (which isnt really a reset, more on that later). BUT this put it back into "mobile mode" and i forgot that sums all inputs and dumps out mono channels to usb and HP... so i walked away with a mono recording after lugging a stereo mic setup into the field. not a total loss but disappointing
so upon discovering this at home later on, i spent a few hours learning how to get it into a usable state from factory reset in the event this happens again
how to do it:
1. turn off device (if you can... longpress doesnt work when its frozen. in the field i was able to trick it out of its locked state by applying power to the charge port... have been unable to reproduce the bug at home)
2. wait at least 5 sec and hold down both HP volume buttons and boot. all 4 rows of level LEDs should light.**
3. let it boot thru, 10 sec or so
4. turn off and hold down SEL while booting. it should boot up with two lights on the level meter. this is 'mobile mode' so press SEL twice to get to six lights lit (pro mode). then hold down power button to fully boot in
5. in some cases behavior is still unpredictable (again not a real factory reset*), and you may need to boot through once or twice again
what this accomplishes
Good: MIC1, MIC2, and stereo aux in are correctly mapped to USB channels 1,2,3 and 4 and recordable via a phone
Bad: HP out is a mix of the four inputs, ch 1+3 on left and 2+4 on right. so if youre looking to route/back up something in a different manner, you are out of luck until you can get to a computer and correct the routing
Also bad (IMO/for my use case): USB-C power is reset to "charging". this makes my phone freak out because it cant provide enough power. clicking thru the error seems to clear it and it still records, but its unsettling.
Also bad, (IMO): display is reset from 'bright' to 'normal'
also bad (IMO): OTG is sent a mono mix of the channels, similar to the HP out
footnotes from above:
* 'factory reset' seems to be a misnomer as not all settings are rest, and often after a 'factory reset' teh unit is in an unpredictable state likely related to its state before reset. a true' factory reset' would restore th unit to a predictable state every time
**in some cases i saw only three rows of lights light up on reset, not sure if this is a bug or some hidden feature
below is a copy of the email i sent to topping support. If anyone here has an ear of actual topping engineers, please forward this to them. everytime i contact support i get the most useless first-level responses. like after sending the email copied below they literally sent me a picture from the manual showing the keys sequence for a factory reset, and claimed that the effects don't exist in pro mode by showing me a screen shot of the M control center where they are absent (I was talking about enabling the effects on the device itself)
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some bugs to report. Please forward to the engineer responsible for the device firmware:
-reverb and noise reduction are still selectable on device in pro audio mode when they should be disabled. too easy to accidentally turn them on with the buttons, they need to be permanently disabled in pro-audio mode
-factory reset doesnt reset all settings (testable by leaving P48 on or off on one or both channels)
-device hangs sometimes when not connected to computer, requiring reset
-in pro audio mode, device doesnt see mic input until usb-c is connected
feature requests:
1. better default operation for field use
why: many people wish to use device in the field without a computer. this is only really possible when device is configured via M Control Center. Device can be buggy and unpredictable and randomly become unresponsive in the field. It would be preferred to have the device be able to be factory reset in the field and usable without a computer. the 'mobile mode' is useless for stereo recording as it mixes all inputs to mono outputs on OTG and USB. Preferred default routing would have mic 1+2 output as a stereo pair on OTG, or USB out 1+2
2. default charging state for usb-c should be 'off' upon factory reset
why: when resetting the device in field the default is 'charging', and connecting a phone causes an error 'Cannot use accessory this device uses too much power'
3. touch lock indication is indeterminate
touch lock on and touch lock off are both indicated by a double blink, so a user never knows if it is on or off
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addl thoughts since i first sent that email:
-a useful feature would be to change the battery indication to numerically indicate the battery level on the multi-segment meters instead of the vague ring LED where you really cant distinguish 30% from 70% for example
-figure out a way to hard code keypress sequences for the missing functions that don't exist on the device itself (brightness, USB-C power state, OTG power state, etc). Yes i do realize these are programmable for the multi-function power button, but again, they are wiped if the device is 'factory reset' in the field, with no way to reset absent a remote or computer
-change blue indication on IN1/2 to actually indicate low level signal, say -40dB or whatever. As of now it indicates "something is plugged in" which isnt really useful at all
-some way to load profiles/device configuration from a phone and not requiring a separate windows computer. these profiles are apparently backup/exportable from M Contol Center so put them in a phone app or allow them to be loaded from an OTG thumb drive or something
-a phone app itself would solve many of the problems above and make the device more usable
all of the above should be correctable in firmware, the following suggestions are hardware suggestions for the next generation of the unit:
-add switchable 5V power to the aux in. the 2.5V on mic3.5 in doesnt power many mics adequately (and is only one channel)
-make OTG port configurable to be full USB out, with multichannel, not just 2 channel OTG in/out
-make BT input LDAC
-ability to take 2-channel SPDIF/AES input. "Mic-3.5" input could be switchable to take spdif in as you only need 2 terminals
-ability to gang two units (via OTG to OTG or USB-C to OTG) to allow for more channels out of the free USB-C port, all synched to same clock
-more generally, allow OTG input to be a host and actually use OTG/native USB audio devices for input (like a second M62 as described above, or other mobile native usb devices like for example Rode AI-micro or DPA MMA-A)
