If a firmware update is interrupted (e.g., power supply is disconnected before the update process completes), the pedal may appear to be turned off and can’t be powered back up until you apply the instructions below.
Some users report that unplugging a bricked pedal for a few minutes and then plugging it back in restores power. Your mileage may vary and if it does not work, then move on to the next steps for your particular computer OS.
These are instructions for Windows and Mac users on how to restore power to the BeatBuddy pedal. If after completing these steps the pedal still doesn’t work, buy a new 4Gb SD card but no larger than a 32Gb class 10 card (no need to format or erase the new card as it comes out of the wrapper properly formatted as MS-DOS FAT32) and follow the instructions one more time; if this doesn’t work, contact Support via e-mail: support@singularsound.com
Instructions for PC. Follow these instructions completely and in the order presented. Failure to do so will result in your pedal remaining non-operational.
UPDATED October 8, 2023 Instructions for Mac. Follow these instructions completely and in the order presented. Failure to do so will result in your pedal remaining non-operational. Strongly recommend you use a 4Gb card for the recovery process so this means having another SD card on hand that you’ve used the BeatBuddy Manager (BBM) to export your project to the card. Set it aside. If you previously installed any firmware version ≥4.0, delete the playlist folder from the SD card.
Press Flash! (you will be prompted to enter your Mac user or admin password); the flashing process takes (10-15) minutes
Once the image file has been flashed to the SD card, leave it in your computer slot reader
Copy the 5 firmware files from the folder to the top level of your SD card
Once complete, eject the SD card from your computer
With the power disconnected from your pedal, insert the card
Connect the power cable to your pedal and if the pedal recognizes the recovery SD card, the pedal display should now light up
When power is restored to your pedal:
• allow the firmware update process to complete; the pedal will display “INVALID SD”
• remove the SD card from your pedal and mark it as “RESCUE” and set it aside so that you won’t mistakenly try to use it as a project card
• insert your other SD card with your project that you exported from BBM to your SD card
• reset your pedal settings
NOTE: why should you mark your card as “RESCUE” and set it aside? Because it now only has 2.15Gb free space instead of the 4Gb of a new SD card. If you need to, you can restore the card to its original capacity by following the instructions on the Windows or macOS links listed in this thread at Pedal does not power on - #39 by persist
i have no idea what you are talking about rebooting this pedal ! it will not come on and i can’t use it! i need your help to get it working, as i’m completly computer illiterite but i would like to use this ! thanx paul
Persist,
I do not have a ‘dead’ pedal, but curious in the event it ever should happen.
On pedals that have been reported ‘dead’, but possibly recoverable, do they show the text "NO SD CARD’ when first powered on or just no response and a blank screen?
My Pedal is fine, but I have a question on the procedure for the “Pedal does not power on” fix before I try and help out a friend get his up and running…
Where it says “Important: use a 4Gb SD card”, does this mean that 4Gb is the minimum size SD card you can use, so for example a 32Gb SC card would also work… Or is a 4Gb SD card the only size that will work, and if so, is there a reason why…
The recovery process uses an image file of a 2Gb SD card. 4Gb is the minimum recommended SD card size.
If a user downloads and uses the 2Gb recovery image and follows the instructions to recover it to a 32Gb card, he will in effect have turned his 32Gb card into a mirror image of a 2Gb card (and will only be able to access 2Gb of space on the newly recovered card. This is why it’s recommended to recover to another 4Gb card—save that 32Gb for the project with dozens of folders filled with 99 songs and drum sets
As long as a user understands that he’ll be converting his 32Gb card to a 2Gb card with this process, he can follow these steps to restore his pedal. Once he gets the pedal working again, he can erase and partition the 32Gb card back to 32Gb.
If I get some time, I will try to create a 32Gb recovery image but it may be a while as Support will have to test it.
Thank you for the answer Persist… I think it has all the details I was looking for…
I’m not sure if it’s the same where everybody else lives, but for myself a 4 Gb SD card is pretty hard to find now so I wondered if one with more memory would work or if there was an unknown limitation for some reason…
I still have my original 4Gb SD card tucked away in a safe place, but my friend has no clue where his is (he just has the 32 Gb one he normally uses with all of his songs on it) so I was going to pick up a new card for him and then try and get his pedal going…
A 16 Gb is the smallest and cheapest I can find, so I’ll grab one of those for now to get his pedal up and running and tell him to tuck it away in case he has another “Pedal does not power on” problem down the road…
As I’m pretty sure I’ve toasted my BeatBuddy by unintentionally plugging in a 18V PowerSupply, I would like to ask - if there’s a fuse ore sth. that could be checked/replaced. Otherwise - can someone fix my BeatBuddy as I really miss him already??? Do I - sniff - need to buy a new one? 2019-10-11T22:00:00Z
That’s a bummer. My opinion is that your pedal is dead and is now a nice doorstop however, you can try to use the recovery instructions above on the very slim chance that you’re really going to get lucky
Tip: you might want to label or tag the cables for all your power adaptors near the power plug with the pedal that it’s for. It might help save you some future grief.
Hi, I have a problem running Win32DiskImager. The program starts, I get the mouse cursor turning to the waiting wheel, and then it closes without actually showing me its dialog. I tried Run As Administrator and the Windows compatibility thingoid to no avail. Running Windows 10 with all security updates
Meu pedal Beatbuddy parou de funcionar após a fonte de energia ter dado problema, estourou os capacitores.
Agora o Beatbuddy não liga com outra fonte de energia.
Testei fazer este procedimento por parecer o mais adequado, (a tela do Beatbuddy não acende). Mas não obtive sucesso. O Beatbuddy continua morto. Alguém pode me ajudar ?
My Beatbuddy pedal stopped working after the power supply failed, the capacitors burst.
Now Beatbuddy does not connect with another source of energy.
I tested doing this procedure because it seems the most appropriate, (the Beatbuddy screen doesn’t light up). But I was not successful. Beatbuddy is still dead. Can someone help me ?
For what it’s worth, my beatbuddy didn’t get its power restored until I put the firmware files onto the SD card after following all of these steps, which I may not have understood or noticed was called out in the steps. In other words, I had expected the device to have power before restoring the firmware. See the bullet point that says “If power is restored to your pedal: install the latest firmware…”. I hope this information is useful to someone.
