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+---
+title: Firmware comparison between Wavedrums Original, Black and Oriental
+tags: DIY,electronics,music,hacking,wavedrum
+---
+
+Since
+[my first post on hacking the Wavedrum](/posts/2013-08-11-hacking-the-wavedrum.html)
+two fellow musicians have sent me copies of the contents of their
+Wavedrum instruments, so I now have the data for the original silver
+issue, the black re-issue and the Oriental.
+
+The differences between the data from the silver and the data from the
+black Wavedrum are very few.  Of the files sent to me only five
+differ: `USER.BIN`, `CALIB.BIN`, `WD2_PROG.BIN`, `SYSTEM/VERSION.INF`,
+and `SYSTEM/WDX_M100.BIN`.  `USER.BIN` contains only the mapping of
+programmes to slots and banks, which have been altered by the
+respective owners of the two instruments, so it can safely be ignored.
+Likewise, `WD2_PROG.BIN` contains custom user programmes and hence is
+of no interest.
+
+`CALIB.BIN` contains as of yet unknown calibration information, just
+like the similarly named `CALIB.BOR` on my Wavedrum Oriental.  The
+contents of `CALIB.BIN` from the original Wavedrum are identical to
+those of the matching file on the Oriental.  The only difference
+that the Black has over the other two is a single digit.  This is from
+the Oriental:
+
+    01 00 00 75 00 00 00 00  02 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
+
+And this is from the Black:
+
+    01 00 00 75 00 00 00 00  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
+
+Not very exciting.
+
+`SYSTEM/VERSION.INF` contains the hardware/software versions.  Here
+are the contents of the Original, followed by the Black and the
+Oriental:
+
+    01 20 01 10 01 20 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
+    01 32 01 10 01 32 00 00  57 44 58 5F 00 00 00 00
+    02 02 01 10 02 02 00 00  57 44 4f 52 00 00 00 00
+
+Again, these are in decimal notation and are in this format: firmware
+version (two bytes), sub-version (two bytes), data version
+(two-bytes), two empty bytes, four bytes for an optional identifier
+followed by four empty bytes.
+
+|Type     | Firmware version | Sub-version  |  Data version  | Identifier   |
+|--------:|------------------|--------------|----------------|--------------|
+|Original | 1.20             | 1.10         | 1.20           | none         |
+|Black    | 1.32             | 1.10         | 1.32           | WDX_         |
+|Oriental | 2.02             | 1.10         | 2.02           | WDOR         |
+
+Looking at the version numbers above it becomes apparent that the
+sounds themselves are not covered by these numbers as the sounds on
+the Black are no different from those on the Original, yet the data
+version differs.
+
+The file `SYSTEM/WDX_M100.BIN` must be the firmware on both the
+Original and the Black Wavedrum, serving the same purpose as
+`SYSTEM/WDORM202.BIN` on the Oriental.  There are quite a few changes
+even between version 1.20 and 1.32, but I haven't yet taken the time
+to analyse them.
+
+More to follow.