Install the firmware

Installing Dialed Control replaces the factory firmware with ours, over Bluetooth, from the web app. It is built so that a failed or interrupted install cannot leave you with a dead device.

Beta, by invitation

Install and update are still being validated on hardware, so the firmware is closed to the public. To download it you sign in to the web app with an email address that has been given access. If yours has not, the app tells you so: ask in the Dialed Discord to be added, using the email on your Dialed Control account. The web app can also switch install off entirely until validation is signed off, and shows a notice when it has. Do not try to work around either.

Before you start

• Your device is a supported model on a checked factory revision.
• The battery is charged: above 50 %, or the device on USB. The app cannot read a factory-firmware device’s real battery level (the number it can see is a placeholder and can read as low as 1 % on a full battery), so it asks you to confirm the charge yourself.
• No session is running.
• You can keep the device close to the computer or phone, and keep the browser tab open, until it finishes.

Install

1. Connect your device. Because it is running factory firmware, the app routes you to the Install flow.

2. Check the summary: your model, the board, the factory revision, and the Dialed Control version that will be installed. The app only offers an image built for your exact board.

3. Start the install and wait. The page shows progress. Keep the device close and do not turn it off.

4. The device reboots into Dialed Control. The first boot takes a few seconds longer than usual.

5. A new install starts switched off. A few seconds after it restarts it looks dead: dark screen, no Bluetooth. Press the main button 5 times to switch it on. A Carta 2 then plays its boot animation. Connect again and you land on the dashboard.

What makes it safe

• Two banks. The device has two firmware slots. The image is written into the one it is not running from, and only after the whole image is in place and verified does the device switch over and reboot. If the transfer is interrupted, the firmware you were running is untouched.
• Built for this device. The image carries a tag naming the board it is for. The web app checks it before sending and the device checks it again, so an image for the wrong board is never made bootable.
• Your identity is kept. The serial number, Bluetooth address, model and calibration that came from the factory stay exactly as they were, and are never modified by Dialed Control.

First boot

On the first boot after installing, Dialed Control clears the spare bank, which still holds the old factory image. This takes up to about three seconds, once. It is what lets every later update and restore work.

After installing

• Your Classic presets, names and lights carry over, because Dialed Control reads and writes the same tables as the Focus V app.
• By default the device tells the official Focus V app that an update is available. That is deliberate: it is the way back to stock. If you would rather the official app stayed quiet, see Using the Focus V app.

If something goes wrong

• The transfer stopped. Reconnect and start again. Nothing was changed on the device.
• The device will not start. After four boots in a row that do not run normally, it starts in safe mode with only Bluetooth and updating available, and never heats. You can install or restore from there.
• The app refused an image. It means the image is not the right one for your board. Do not override it. Ask on Discord.

See Troubleshooting for more.