Please use a computer

Installing firmware is only allowed from a desktop or laptop computer (Chrome, Edge or Opera on Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS), with the FM-1 on a USB cable. Phones and tablets can sleep, switch apps or lose USB power halfway through an install, so the flasher does not run on them.

Everything else — samples, sounds, presets, the screen, the emulator and the manual — works on this device in the companion.

Install ECHOFIELD

1. Browser: Web MIDI with SysEx (Chrome, Edge, Opera)
2. Package checked: identity, every part's checksum, SHA-256
3. FM-1 found: —
4. USB data cable straight into the computer, no hub
5. No other app uses the FM-1 (M-UPGRADE, a DAW, the companion in another tab)
6. I won't unplug or switch off until this page says Done

Sounds after installing (only if the FM-1 has no samples yet: yours are never touched)

The 8 starter sounds (160 KB) All 14 factory sounds (268 KB) None

How this keeps the FM-1 safe

• The FM-1's own boot loader (the first 16 KB of its flash) is never written: its start-up and its built-in update mode always stay intact.
• The package is checked twice before anything is written: here (every checksum, the identity, SHA-256) and by the FM-1 itself, which only stages the update after its own checks.
• An install that is interrupted (cable out, power lost) leaves the FM-1 in its update loader: plug it back in and press Resume.
• If a firmware fails to start twice, the FM-1 opens SAFE MODE (no sound, USB on): this page installs from there. After four failed starts it enters the chip's own update mode.
• Your samples live outside the firmware's area: updating keeps them, and the sounds step only fills an empty bank.

Back to the stock firmware

Download M-VAVE's FM-1 firmware (m-vave.com → Download), choose the file here, press Find the FM-1, tick the boxes, then install. Or use M-VAVE's own updater, M-UPGRADE.

If the FM-1 doesn't start at all

1. Plug it in and press Find the FM-1. An FM-1 in SAFE MODE or in its update loader is found and can be installed or resumed.
2. Still nothing: the chip's own update mode puts stock firmware back with no extra hardware, from a Mac or Linux: fm1_rescue.py (see docs/RECOVERY.md in ECHOFIELD's source). It backs up the whole flash first and never writes the boot area.
3. Last resort, with an RP2040 board: FM-1-transporter.