HOW TO UPGRADE THE DIGITECH RP20'S FIRMWARE TO VERSION 1.1504

After receiving some mail from people asking me how to perform this upgrade, I’ve decided to put this simple Web Page on-line, trying to explain in a few words how to upgrade the Digitech rp20's firmware.

My Digitech RP20 now with firmware 1.1504

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DISCLAIMER - IMPORTANT NOTICES
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The procedure below is simply the procedure followed by me to upgrade my units' firmware. In my case all worked fine, and it gave me no problem at all. However, I cannot be 100% sure that you will not have any problem trying to perform the upgrade. If you want to try the unit's firmware upgrade, try AT YOUR OWN RISK! I will be not responsible for any damage/problem caused by this upgrade to your effect's unit.
The firmware version 1.05 is the Digitech official one. The firmware version 1.1504 is a BETA VERSION (and now that digitech discontinued the support for this unit, it will be forever a beta version) . I can tell you that it's the one that I have in my unit right now, that it works fine and that it didn't gave me any problem, however, I take no responsibility for any eventual damage/problem to your unit. As I said before, TRY IT AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU WANT!

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First of all, you need the official Digitech's program "WRP20" or otherwise called "Updater", brought to you by Digitech, to upgrade the firmware version to v.1.05 (please note that normally the rp20, as shipped by Digitech, it is equipped with the 1.02 firmware version).
This update fixes some minor bugs (i.e. every time you enter "tuner mode", the unit increase by 2% the tuner's volume output), and it adds 2 new effects to your unit (sorry, I don’t' remember exactly which, I’ve performed it on my unit a lot of time ago)
With this software it is also possible to get/put your user patches in the unit, for backup purposes, or to load in the unit a patch found on the Internet in the .mid format. Is also possible to get/put a "midi Bulk Dump", a file that contains the "state" of your unit at the moment of the bulk dump, for backup purposes. (In case of problems, you will be able to do a factory reset and then reload the bulk dump in the unit to restore its state at the bulk dump time).




ATTENTION! IF YOU WANT TO PERFORM ALL THE UPGRADES, MY SUGGESTION IS DO THEM IN THE SPECIFIED ORDER
This is not mandatory, but usually helps avoiding troubles. Just keep in mind that if you have trobles loading a firmware into the unit, you can try to skip that particular version and try to load the subsequent version, or try to load straight the latest version.


To update to 1.05 firmware, proceed as follows:

To download the '"Updater" with firmware version 1.05, CLICK HERE

This firmware solves some little problem on the unit, like i.e. the problem that every time you enter in "tuner" mode, tuner output increases of 1%
Unzip the file, run Setup and install the program. Setup what midi ports to use (remember that MIDI-IN port on the unit goes to the MIDI-OUT port of your midi adapter and vice-versa) and then press the "UPDATE OS" button to start firmware upgrade.


To update to 1.10-4b firmware, proceed as follows:

To download the file rp201104.zip with the new firmware, CLICK HERE

This firmware adds some new effects to the unit, like the Sampler, the Reverse and the Time-Wrap. It's like to have an RP21 in an RP20 box!
The zip archive contains 2 files, tbl_1104.a01 and rpv_1104.a01. Go in the directory where you installed the 1.05 updater (default in c:\program files\updater), search for the files rpv_1050.a01 e tbl_1050.a01 and delete it. (If you will need these files again, you will be able to uninstall the program and re-install it).
Put in the updater's directory the two new files from zip archive rp201104.zip.
Now, run the program again and push "update OS" to perform the new upgrade


To update to 1.1504 firmware, proceed as follows:

To download the "Updater" with firmware versione 1.1504, CLICK HERE


Unistall previous updater version (Control Panel -- Add/Remove programs), unzip the file, run Setup and install the program. Setup what midi ports to use and then press the "UPDATE OS" button to start firmware upgrade.

IMPORTANT!! Before to perform the upgrade, make a backup of your favourites patches!!

The firmware update will delete ALL your user patches, restoring the unit's default factory patches in the user banks. PLEASE NOTE: YOU NEED TO MAKE A PATCH-BY-PATCH BACKUP! It's not possible to make a bulk dump of the unit, because if you will try to restore a bulk dump of the unit with an OLD firmware in the new firmware version, the restore will fail!

After you've made the backup of your patches, push the button "update", be patient and DON'T TOUCH THE EXPRESSION PEDAL ON THE UNIT! I've read that you can run into problems if you will move the expression pedal while performing the firmware update.

 

RP-EDIT DOWNLOAD

This firmware finally makes Rp20 works with RPEDIT! RPEDIT it's a very useful program for RP-Series pedalboards, but it was incompatible with Rp20, beacuse previous unit's firmwares had serious sysex bugs. The 1504 firmware solves this bugs, so with RpEdit you can edit your patches directly from you pc whit an easy user interface, and then you can store patches into your unit. You can download RPEDIT from here

http://www.langamers.it/mandricus/musica/RPEdit22Setup.exe

 

Warnings and tips: I’ve read over the internet of people having problem during the upgrade process, especially those who used a motherboard-integrated audio card (generally they are very cheap audio cards) and a midi adapter connected on the joystick port.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO PERFORM THE UPDATE WITH A JOYSTICK PORT-MIDI ADAPTER! I've read also of many people that upgraded their unit with this midi connection, without any problem. I'm simply warning you about what I’ve read. I can tell you that for me all worked fine with my midi adapter Midiman Midisport 2X2 usb, (I’ve made the upgrade to the 1.05 firmware first, then to 1.10-4b, and now 1.1504).
If you run into problems, be quiet, be PATIENT, retry, try to uninstall and reinstall the updater, and try to upgrade to firmware 1.05 first, and then to 1.1504

If you have an EEPROM programmer, you can try to program the internal eprom with the following .bin file (the file it's a dump of an unit equipped with firmware 1.1504)
http://www.langamers.it/mandricus/musica/rp20firmware.zip