Hey, all. Was super excited to join the club today. Received my brand new OP-1, plugged the included USB cabe into the USB port on my computer. The charge LEDs started doing their thing. I gave it a few minutes to make sure it wasn’t stone dead, and then I turned it on. (The manual says, “make sure to keep your OP-1 connected until you have fully charged the internal battery,” but doesn’t say it can’t be turned on while charging.)
I played keys normally, heard the synths through the internal speaker (along with a surprising amount of noise… Maybe USB noise? I’ve seen forum posts where people complain about that), saw the adorable little screen, I think I made it as far as the 6 button auditioning sounds and turning knobs before it crashed. A hex dump appeared on the screen with some flickering pixels. I didn’t get my phone out to take a picture before the screen went blank. Charge LEDs turned off. I left it plugged in for an hour, nothing. Moved it to a dedicated USB iPad charger for three more hours and read everything I could find. As it stands now:
With the power switch off, I can unplug USB, count to five, plug it back in, and I hear a faint “click” from the speaker.
I can also unplug USB, turn the switch on and hear a slightly less faint “click”.
Holding down COM doesn’t get me anywhere… Is there another way to update firmware? That seems to have resolved someone else’s issue.
- My OP-1 faintly “clicks” when I turn it on, but holding down the COM button doesn’t get me to TE-Boot. I’m following the second section’s suggestion of unplugging every so often and plugging back in to see if the lights start working but nothing so far.
My guess is the battery too, so don’t return it yet! I faintly recall having some similar issues when first receiving it. Just try charging it with a wall charger (not a computer USB port, although I’m not sure if this makes a difference).
I have definitely had moments where I left the OP-1 for dead. I had left it on accidentally and completely drained the battery. At one point it took four days of continuous charging to boot up, but it did recover and works normally. Not sure if that’s your issue, but maybe the battery was almost dead when you got it?
The noise issues followed by it “dying” sounds exactly like a dead battery. You may not even see the battery charging indicator at first when plugging it in to charge if it’s super dead. As others have suggested, leave it completely unplugged for a few hours. Then plug it into a wall charger with usb. Leave it while you go to work or overnight.
You guys, thanks. I found the battery calibration procedure that Motone suggested, and decided to give that a shot before bed last night. I’ve also seen others make the same suggestion that TheNeocitran made, that it just needs to stay on the charger for days. I’ve got a pretty beefy little USB charger, and the iFixIt post on replacing the battery indicates it’s a 1600mAh LiPo, so it shouldn’t take that long.
My theory is that the LiPo charging logic gets wedged and doesn’t get unwedged enough to start charging the battery until it falls below a certain point. If that’s the case the battery calibration procedure might be just the thing. That would also explain 4-day charge times. If my theory is right the first 3.5 days it’s probably not charging, and the battery is just running down slowly. The battery should be run down by noon if leaving the switch on is drawing any current, and then I’ll put it back on the charger and report back tomorrow morning.
Fingers crossed. The place I bought it from (a retailer listed on TE’s dealer locator page) has a terrible return policy.
For the record, TE responded with a boiler plate support email (seemingly without having read my email) with the same suggestions I found on that Reddit page I linked. I had already followed those suggestions for 11 hours with no change, TE!
Again, thank you all. You’ve got a cool little community here!
just a +1 for calibrating the battery. I remember thinkign mine was faulty for a long time as well before i got round to doing this, it would just die suddenly with no warning. Calibrated the battery then its been fine for the last 2 years
This morning I got a second e-mail from Teenage Engineering suggesting the battery calibration procedure. Thanks to all of you, I'd started that yesterday.
I turned the switch on at 9pm Monday night at 9pm. Leaving the switch on I plugged it in at 1pm yesterday, so 16 hours. Now it's 9am, so here we go...
I just disconnected the charging cable, counted to 10, and plugged it back in. After an agonizing few seconds the battery indicators lit up from bottom to top and turned off.
It turned on. I played some of the default patches again for 10 minutes through the internal speaker.
Then I turned around to my computer and started to type a triumphant message to all of you. It concluded: "While that was certainly the worst first 48 hours I've ever had with any product I've ever purchased, I have to thank you all. This community is probably the best thing about the OP-1. You guys are awesome."
Then I turned around and saw this:
I turned the switch off the unit stayed on.. It didn't turn off until I disconnected it from the USB charger.
Now I'm back to where I was. Turning the switch on causes a little click from the speaker. Plugging it in causes a little click from the speaker. Holding down the "Com" key and powering on causes a little click from the speaker, but does not get to the TE-Boot screen.
Guess it's time to e-mail Teenage Engineering again.
Ah man, hope you get it sorted or a quick replacement. Op1 def sketches me out. My initial unit had to get sent back and I had the weird ‘wouldn’t charge’ thing last week. And from comments on here I’m ‘waiting’ for the i/o to die or a key to stop working… Seems like a box with a habit of flaking out… No complaints for now tho…
Thanks, CalloftheVoid. I’m certainly sketched and disappointed too. And yet I’m still looking forward to when it’s working enough that I’m up at 4:30am to see if support has responded to my last email yet. Stockholm Syndrome?
How long did it take for you to get a replacement?
I’m three rounds of e-mails in with Teenage Engineering on that as well. Like most companies they want you to try everything before they do an exchange. They’ve been responsive, but the time zone difference is a drag for me. I get their responses between 4 and 6am, and by the time I’m in front of a computer they’re done for the day. I got in to work before 7:30am today to get them the serial number I’d left in my office… Hopefully they check e-mail before they leave for the day. If not, I get to begin the replacement process tomorrow, whatever that is.
I’ve seen other threads where folks have resolved crashing problems by reloading the firmware. Since it takes a day to get a response from TE, I’ve asked if I should do another full battery cycle using the battery meter calibration procedure and then boot straight into TE-Boot to attempt an update instead of letting the synth software boot. Nervous that if it crashed during an update it would be bricked, but it’s essentially bricked already.
Edit: The last cycle did result in the unit booting to TE-Boot, updating the firmware, doing the system tests, and doing a full user reset successfully. After the user reset it rebooted again and started creating AIF files for the recorder tracks and album sides, and it crashed during the creation of album side B, returning to the “nothing but clicks” state. It is really and truly dead. TE accepts returns for warranty service only from the shop where it was purchased, so I took it back to them today and they were gracious. Into the backorder line we go!
Keeping my fingers crossed for the quickest possible resolution. I want to replace my avatar with a happier bunny.
I’ve just sent an email to TE after following all of the steps above. This thread has been very very helpful. I tried a full battery recalibration but I don’t even get a click from the speaker.
Looks like I’ll be sending mine to them also. They were very helpful and thorough with their emails.
I suggest running the battery dry again: Switch on and let it stay for 24h. Then repeat the battery calibration. If successful, first reupload the firmware and make a factory reset. Should be fine then.
I’m going to do that, thank you for Te advice @motone.
Could you please confirm the exact way to recalibrate it. If you can’t then I shall reply to TE asking them for the exact way. https://www.teenageengineering.com/guides/op-1/help
I’m following the battery recalibration on this page and I think I need to leave it in the ‘on’ position once all the battery has drained. Have I got that right?
I have heard and tried both. This if from the e-mail TE sent me. It’s confusing because they say “do not manually turn off the unit”, before they say, “turn off the unit”. I think they say “do not manually turn off the unit” to convey that the unit will turn itself off when the battery is depleted. The second section indicates it should charge with the switch in either position unless you’ve disabled power-on charging, but since they literally say turn it off, go with that first.
---------From TE:--------
I think you should try and drain out the battery completely before trying to recharge your OP-1 again:
Disconnect USB, turn your unit on and leave it on until it turns off by itself. Do not manually turn off the unit. This could take up to 18 hours. The unit is off when the screen has turned black.
After this turn it off, charge it fully using a computer or any standard USB charger. This can take up to about 10 hours depending on your situation. (The battery is 1800mA). This should recalibrate the battery indicator.
Your unit will charge when:
It is turned OFF and connected to a USB power source. (computer / charger)
It is turned ON and connected to a USB power source, unless USB charging is turned off in the OPT menu. (SHIFT+COM, 4)
It is in TE-Boot menu and connected to a USB power source.
I think these things are important… First: fully drain battery.
Second: fully charge the unit (on or off might not matter)
Third: When fully charged, disconnect USB first, then switch on.
After that, re-upload the latest firmware and do a factory reset. The error mentioned above looks like a firmware quirk.
