found some interesting pics in Jesper Kouthoofd his instagram account
http://instagram.com/p/yI2VyVuz-X
http://instagram.com/p/oDzO-fOz0s/
It seems like you don’t need all the pins to program it.
pogopins is what you’ll need.
Thanks @Mezelve ; check this out. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_Cortex-M the name of that programmer is the. Energy Micro Wonder Gecko STK Board with EFM32WG990
^ I ordered one of those a week ago 
but I don’t have a PO yet 
That first instagram picture confirms that at most 8 pins are required. The J-Link SWD interface has 6 signals: SWDIO, SWCLK, SW0, RESET, VPP and GND. The first thing to do is try to sort that out with some clever probing (those last 3 signals should be easy) and then check if the firmware is protected or not.
I think it must be hackable since TE show the programming header as a feature - otherwise what would be the point of mentioning it on the product page? That’d be cruel
Have you played around with simplicity studio yet?
@darenager I have installed ithe beta on my Mac (it is Eclipse based) and checked a few sample projects. The STK is not here yet.
Assuming TE has not locked out the original firmware, it will be hard to go thru the assembly code… do you know if it is possible to decompile an ARM image back to C?
Anyway, I’m sure I will be able to load a new firmware in there…
Curious, exactly how big are the POs? I plan do something similar to this… 
bigger than a bleep drum i think
Just to pass time until I get my hands on the real thing, I wonder what could be done in case the original firmware is protected and cannot be hacked… it won’t be easy, but maybe we could create a custom firmware as a community driven effort (both design and implementation). Some ideas that I had:
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Do something like the OP-1 endless sequencer (up to 16 programable sequences) instead of the current 16 step sequencer. The keys would play the transposed sequences. Of course, new sound engines and effects would need to be implemented, but there are plenty of open source projects to get inspiration (and code) from.
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Do a “master effects only” PO and used the knobs to control them, including some automation, in sync with the other POs. This depends on the input signals going through an ADC. That would probably be the easiest to implement.
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Do a “sample” PO by adding some flash memory. Not sure what the knobs would do here, maybe pitch and filter? This would depend on those exposed pads at the back allowing access to the SPI interface to talk to the serial flash chip.
Or maybe I should go read some more comic books instead…
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I think we can only make assumptions as to what is possible. Several of the odd choices in the POs seem based on limitations of the hardware. It is just an arm chip so anything is possible. Any modifications to the code will prolly cut down on batt life so possibly the first physical hack would be fitting as many batteries under the circuit board as possible!
I’ve only ever read graphic novels. Any comics you recommend? I love SciFi…
^ Yeah, and they seem to have done a wonderful job given those limitations…
I liked “The Planetary” very much, by Warren Ellis. It is SciFi and comes in a convenient omnibus format. I’m currently reading “The Sandman”, by Neil Gaiman (the complete boxed set). It is Fantasy, but such and incredibly good story.
Maybe Jon from TE could give us some pointers =)
Saw him posting the OpLab beta on the forums
I emailed them about “hacks” it was during a conversation. They ignored the question. Leads me to believe they have plans for the future to help us hackers out. Alternatively they could have just said no.
does anyone know the Teensy 3.*, a more or less arduino compatible ARM M4 board?
there’s a special audio lib for this board:
might be a good starting point …
^ That Teensy idea seems worth exploring… imagine doing your own PO engine / effects in a Patchblocks like editor and creating a custom firmware?
@masterofstuff124 I directly contacted Tobias on that one or two weeks ago, but no reply so far…
@mezelve. Arduino micro controllers come in all sizes! I’ve seen 8 pin tiny discrete chips with decent arduino specs! Someone could def make something like the PO. It could also help for hacking. But arm is far more powerful than the arduino micro controllers. Plus the PO has a quality DAC(digital to audio(analog?) converter) the arduino does not.
^ Teensy 3.0 is a Cortex M4 @ 48MHz, so probably the same processing power as the EFM32 Wonder Gecko in the POs.
Has anyone written any sound generation in C? Is that what they’re programmed in? Sound on things like arduinos are pretty limited. There’s libraries like Mozzi that allow you to do stuff on these limited boards. I imagine the skill with the PO engineering is tweaking sounds out of the chip. Where would we look to explore this type of sound generation for hardware? Is there any tutorials to start off making some FX for example?