mvave-fm1
A starting point for working with the M-VAVE FM-1 synthesizer (JieLi AC791N): back it up, flash community firmware, recover it, and write your own firmware. Written as Claude Code skills plus a podman build container. Nothing here is affiliated with M-VAVE. Flashing firmware is at your own risk.
skills/
mvave-fm1-firmware/ back up, flash (ORBIT example), restore, unbrick; protocol, flash map, safety rules
mvave-fm1-software-development/ write firmware: hardware API, memory map, chip rules, build/package, firmware catalog
readme/
build-container.md how the build container works and what is verified
docker/
Containerfile podman image: JieLi pi32v2 clang + SDK files + Python/Pillow + gcc
vendor/README.md the JieLi files you must supply (hash-pinned; not in this repo)
mvave-build.sh fetch-vendor | image | clone | build | run | shell | check
Use the skills
Copy (or symlink) the folders in skills/ into ~/.claude/skills/ (or a project's .claude/skills/). They are also plain
Markdown: read them directly.
Order of work: back up first (mvave-fm1-firmware, section 5.2), then flash, then develop.
Build firmware in a container (also what CI does: .github/workflows/build.yml)
./mvave-build.sh fetch-vendor # on a network that can reach JieLi's hosts; or copy the files into docker/vendor/
./mvave-build.sh image
./mvave-build.sh clone dinghy
./mvave-build.sh run dinghy tests/run_host.sh # try an idea on the PC: WAV + PNG, no toolchain needed
./mvave-build.sh build dinghy # -> out/dinghy/dinghy.fwsc
Flashing happens on the host with the installers described in the firmware skill, never inside the container.
Status: what is and is not verified
Verified on real hardware (one FM-1, Linux): identity read, full-flash double-read backup via MvaveFM1Unbricker, and an
ORBIT 0.7.1 install (upstream release package) with the unit reporting FM-1_900 afterwards. The owner then tested the installed
firmware and reports it works (their report; no measurements recorded here).
CI (GitHub Actions, 2026-10-22, run 39823372989): the full image built with JieLi's toolchain (hash-verified) and Dinghy, Felucca
and ORBIT all built without a failing step (an initial run exposed a missing Pillow text library, libraqm, now in the Containerfile).
The fwsc-packages artifact is 1.35 MB zipped, consistent with three packages, but I could not download it to inspect it. No
package built here has been flashed.
Not verified: a flash of a container-built package, rollback from a custom firmware to stock, and the claims taken from other repos' documentation.
The firmware catalog in the development skill comes from the community hub README; only the platform bases were read in depth.
Sources and related repos
Read in depth while writing the skills:
| Repo | What it is | Licence (GitHub's detection, 2026-10-22) |
|---|---|---|
| aroum/fm1-custom-fw | Community hub: catalog of ~130 firmwares, hardware teardown, SysEx/OTA reverse-engineering notes | none declared on GitHub |
| hugelton/Felucca | The hardware layer and platform most community firmwares fork | GPL-3.0 |
| zvenson/dinghy | Smallest Felucca-based template: a sine synth plus updater, USB rescue, MIDI, audio, host mode | GPL-3.0 |
| dspaudio/orbit | ORBIT groovebox firmware (the one flashed in the example); web installer at dspaudio.github.io/orbit | GPL-3.0 |
| isod89/sloop-fm1 | SLOOP, the groovebox ORBIT descends from | GPL-3.0 |
| m-vave/fm1_open | M-VAVE's official open firmware and binary SDK (Windows toolchain) | GPLv3 + SDK linking exception (its LICENSE.md; GitHub reports no SPDX id) |
| Keitark/fm1-nes | Bare-metal example (NES emulator), application-only update flow | Apache-2.0 |
| Quixotic7/MvaveFM1Unbricker | Full-flash backup, restore to stock V15, soft-brick recovery over plain USB | MIT |
| kagaimiq/jl-uboot-tool | Reads/writes JieLi flash in WL82 UBOOT1.00 mode (used by the Unbricker) | MIT |
| Quixotic7/RemoteFM1 | Turns the FM-1 into a USB panel for firmware running on a computer | GPL-3.0 |
| Quixotic7/TransitFM1 | Safe stopover firmware between two custom firmwares | GPL-3.0 |
| w0ts/optimist | Modular firmware builder; source of the pinned toolchain hashes used in docker/ | GPL-3.0 |
Pointed to by the skills but not read in depth: AL-255/FM-1-RE (protocol and firmware reverse engineering), kurogedelic/FM-1-transporter (RP2040 hard-brick recovery), merthsoft/flipper-fm1-recovery (Flipper Zero recovery), czietz/fm1-firmware-patcher and smememe/fm1-macropad-patch (binary patches of stock V15), kagaimiq/jielie (JieLi chip documentation), r/MVaveFM1 (community), and the other firmwares listed in the hub. Check each repo's own licence before reusing its code.
Licence
MIT, see LICENSE: this repo's own text, scripts and workflow.