ROLI Lightpad Block & Lightpad Block M (called Lightpad M in the article) are the core of the ROLI Blocks product lineup. As an innovative interactive music controller with many unique capabilities, the possibilities should be unlimited.

However, From my first purchased Lightpad M to the latest replaced Lightpad Block from ROLI support, I have encountered issues on most of the devices I tried and they are not all resolved yet at the time of my writing. Some of the issues are easily found on the problematic device alone, but some others might require comparisons to other normal devices to find.

I think I should share what I encountered to the public and hope it helps everyone who is considering to buy Lightpad Block or Lightpad M or just purchased any of them. And also hope this helps as a reference for ROLI to improve their product quality and support service in the future.

This article will focus on product hardware quality related issues. I have more issues related to software (Max7 integration, Littlefoot programming) which will be shared with another article.

Phantom Touch / Mis-triggering

Video showing the Phantom Touch issue on Lightpad Block M, recorded at local Apple Store

Symptoms:

When you play Lightpad M, sometimes notes are triggered on their own.

Solution:

Update to latest device firmware. (v0.4.2 at the time of writing) If above step does not fix the issue, contact ROLI support for device replacement.

Detail of this issue based on my own experience:

This issue happens on my first purchased Lightpad M from local Apple Store.

I updated the device to latest firmware, and found this issue. I think I got a problematic device and went back to the store, returned it and purchased another new one. I wanted to ensure I don’t get another problematic device, so I checked the new device right in the store and found the same issue happening. No one in the store knows what to do, so the staff suggested maybe I can try another one, so we did, and still the same issue. The video above is recorded the last one we tried that day, which is the worst. I ended up returned them all and posted the video on Reddit and also sent to ROLI via Facebook.

From responses from both Reddit users and ROLI support, updating the firmware should fix this issue. I am sure the firmware upgrade didn’t fix the first Lightpad M I purchased, but didn’t try updating on the other 2 units. (I didn’t know I can try updating, and they need to charge to 30% before they can be updated). ROLI support said they can replace my problematic device with another hand-tested one from them, but I had returned all the units already. So I went to Apple Store and purchased another again, want to verify again if updating really works. Before the firmware update, the device also has the issue (but is the least serious of all devices I had tried), and after firmware update, the issue is indeed fixed on it (but I encountered the LED issue so I ended up still returned it to ROLI for their hand-tested one, which is already updated and has no serious problems except part LED color is biased).

In conclusion, I think updating to latest device firmware should fix the issue, but not 100%. If it doesn’t fix your device, please contact ROLI support for replacement.

If you are interested in why this happens and why firmware upgrade can fix it, read “My thoughts about all these touch issues” below.

Abnormal LED (wrong displays, part LED color biased, etc)

Video showing the LED issue on the 4th Lightpad M I purchased from Apple Store.

Symptoms:

LED displays incorrectly (for example, vertical line shown in above video) some LEDs color are biased

Solution:

If you think the problem is serious, contact ROLI support for device replacement.

Detail of this issue based on my own experience:

I think this is a rather trivial issue. The LED issue shown in the video above is happening after I upgraded the firmware on my last Lightpad M purchased from Apple Store.

Another LED issue is found in the replaced Lightpad M, the LED color on some area is slightly different. But I think it is not a serious issue, so I ended up still accepted that one.

Hard to Trigger / Inconsistent Touch Sensitivity

In this video, the rightmost 2 Lightpad Blocks have worse touch sensitivity

Symptoms:

You feel your owned Lightpad Block is hard to trigger. You have multiple Lightpad Blocks, and some of them have worse touch sensitivity to trigger.

Solution:

If possible, compare with other Lightpad devices first (maybe go to your local Apple Store) If you are sure your device has touch sensitivity issue (before or after comparison), Contact ROLI for device replacement. But it’s possible that the replaced device is still problematic!

Detail of this issue based on my own experience:

This is the only issue not resolved by them yet. At the time of writing, I got 3 Lightpad Block (1st gen) here. The first one is from Dev Kit A, which is working very well. Its touch sensitivity is great and matches the Lightpad M units I got. Then I got another Lightpad M from local second-hand market, which is still in warranty. I found this second-hand Lightpad M is extremely hard to strike — Needs stronger force to start touch actions , and the triggered actions ends easier. I quickly made the conclusion that this device is problematic, so I asked ROLI to do RMA replacement for this device. Before I return that unit, ROLI sent another Lightpad Block to me first and I found its sensitivity is also very bad — not any better than the one I want to replace. I sent back this unacceptable device to do the replacement again, and got an acceptable device finally.

If you have multiple Lightpad Ms and Lightpad Blocks like me, maybe you will also feel that your Lightpad Blocks has worse touch sensitivity compared to Lightpad Ms. I think this is normal — In my conclusion, the normal situarion is:

The same strike force which triggers Lightpad Ms should also trigger a nprmal Lightpad Block. But you might get bigger strike velocity on Lightpad M with same 5D settings. In other words, if you finds your Lightpad Block harder to trigger than your Lightpad M, then it might be a defective unit.

Similarly, the same pressure which keeps Lightpad Ms sustaining (i.e. makes the touch gesture continue) should also have the same behavior on a normal Lightpad Block. (i.e. note should not stop earlier). Again, you might get lower pressure value on Lightpad Block than Lightpad M with the same 5D settings.

From the above description, you should be able to get performance (response velocity/pressure value) which is close enough on each of the different Lightpad Blocks and Lightpad Ms, after tuning the 5D settings on the units you use together.

Not sure if the same issue happens on Lightpad M, but according to my experience, the touch sensitivity on different units is indeed different. So it might still possible that some Lightpad M has extremely bad touch sensitivities. If you are interested in why this might happen, read “My thoughts about all these touch issues” below.

On Lightpad Ms, you might also get different touch sensitivity on different areas on the same unit. But it should not be a dramatic difference — If that’s unfortunately your case, you should also consider replacing your unit.

Dead Zone / Swiping Gesture Terminated and Retriggered

(demo video will be added soon)

Symptoms:

Some area on the Lightpad is not triggerable. If you do swiping (Slide/Glide) and move on the problematic area above, the swiping gesture will terminate and another note is re-triggered when passing through the area.

Solution:

Power off the device and power on again without touching the top touch surface at all. If above step does not fix the issue, contact ROLI support for device replacement.

Detail of this issue based on my own experience:

This is more like a side-effect of its firmware auto-calibration. I ran into this issue accidentally once (I didn’t find that issue before on that same unit) but couldn’t reproduce it again. When mentioning this issue to ROLI support, they suggested me that I might be pressing on the touch surface when powering on the Lightpad. I tried that and it indeed reproduced the problem, so though not 100% sure, but I think it might be my case.

I haven’t heard or met any devices myself having dead zone even it’s powered on without touching the surface, but if anyone is unlucky enough, please contact ROLI support to replace the problematic device.

My thoughts about all these touch issues

From the mail exchanges and some searches on ROLI forum, I am sure about this following facts:

It’s true that every Lightpad Block / Lightpad M have different touchpad sensitivity. I am not sure why it is and the team didn’t explain that to me. To deal with the above fact, the device firmware does auto-calibration when device powers on. (That’s why we can “make” dead zones by pressing on the surface when powering on). The above auto-calibration might be added only / improved in later firmware (That’s why firmware update is suggested to fix phantom touch issue), but it can’t fully fix the issues according to my experience.

This issue is especially annoying if you have multiple Lightpads, and want to connect them all together to have bigger surface to use. Like the demo video above, it’s not acceptable if certain Lightpad have worse touch sensitivity than others.

Though theoretically you can can indefinitely expand your playing surface with more Lightpads, from my actual experience i have spent quite a lot of efforts and time communicating with ROLI’s support team to finally get “playable” combined surface with 4 Lightpads. If I ever want to further expand it, I am not sure if I will bother myself trying my luck again.

I think there are 2 issues need addressing:

Touchpad sensitivity difference might be due to inconsistent hardware quality which needs improvement. There are currently no ways we can calibrate the touch sensitivity at device level. It’s automatic calibrated but maybe some manual calibration is still needed for actual operation using multiple devices

Conclusions (And tips to buy / contact ROLI support)

I still think Lightpad is an useful, fun and creative device to own with unlimited possibilities, but due to the above issues about touch sensitivity inconsistency, if you want to use large number (≥4) Lightpad together, and wishing them to have close enough sensitivity performance, it’s not impossible, but good luck!

I might still consider purchasing more of them if all the issues I found can get solved in the future.

If you are interested in getting Lightpad M now

My current suggestions are:

Avoid purchasing Lightpad M from Apple Store or Apple Online Store.

Buy from ROLI official website if possible. If you really care about getting a good quality (hand-tested) one, send support inquiries first to ask for their help before you actually make purchase, and if they agree to help, make purchase and provide your order number.

If you own problematic devices already / If you can’t get support response in time

Having exchanged many mails with them in this past month, though I don’t have any good special channel to communicate with the ROLI team yet, but I still do have some suggestions if you want in-time support from them: