Owner's guide · No. 01
Updating GLIDE
Every build is free, and your sounds carry across all of them. Ten minutes with a microSD card, or over WiFi once you know the way.
Current build
the latest release
This link always points at the newest build. Bookmark it; it never goes stale.
- Your Cardputer and its microSD card
- A computer with an SD slot or reader
- The newest GLIDE.bin — linked in step 03
- About ten minutes
- No WiFi, no account, no software to install
- Nothing to back up first
- You can stop halfway and pick it up later
Your sounds are not in the app.
The ten slots, your saved tweaks, every setting, the two generative sounds unique to your device, and the odometer all live in the Cardputer's own memory — outside the program you're about to replace. Updating cannot touch them. The patch library on your card isn't touched either. There is nothing to back up, and nothing to restore afterwards.
New to GLIDE?
One thing worth knowing before anything else: a switched-off Cardputer does not charge, no matter how long it's plugged in — slide the switch to ON first. That, and everything else about power, charging and the two top-edge triggers, lives in the playing guide. None of it affects the update below.
apps folderPower the Cardputer off, then pop the card out.
The microSD slot is spring-loaded: press the card in until it clicks, and it springs back out far enough to pull free. Don't try to pull it out without pressing first.
Power off first. Pulling a card out of a running device is how cards get corrupted.
Put the card in your computer.
If your computer has a full-size SD slot, seat the microSD card in an SD adapter and use that. Otherwise any USB card reader works. The card should appear like a USB stick.
Download the newest GLIDE.bin.
This link always points at the latest build, so it never goes stale — bookmark it.
github.com/CHARL3X/GLIDE-Synth-Cardputer-ADV/releases/latest/download/GLIDE.binSome browsers are suspicious of .bin files and ask whether to keep the download. Keep it. Note where it landed — usually your Downloads folder.
Drag it into the apps folder on the card.
Open the card, open the folder named apps, and drag the file you just downloaded into it. Your computer will ask whether to replace the file that's already there. Replace it.
Keep the name exactly GLIDE.bin
If your browser saved it as GLIDE(1).bin or GLIDE-1.bin, rename it to GLIDE.bin before or after you move it. A file with any other name will still show up on the device, but you'll be staring at two entries wondering which is which.
Eject the card properly, and put it back in the Cardputer.
Eject it from your computer first — on a Mac, drag it to the Trash or press eject; on Windows, use Safely Remove Hardware. Then slide the card back into the Cardputer the same way it came out, and press until it clicks and stays put.
Ejecting properly is what makes sure the file is actually finished writing. Skipping it is the most common cause of "the new version isn't there."
Halfway point — and why part two exists
The new build is on the card now, but the Cardputer is still running the old one. GLIDE is installed onto the device — that's why it starts the moment you power on, instead of making you go and find it every time. A newer file on the card doesn't replace a copy that's already installed, so part two clears the old one out and installs the new one. And the clearing out matters: Launcher adds an app rather than replacing it, so installing without deleting first leaves you with two GLIDE tiles. Two minutes, all on the device.
Screens drawn from Launcher 2.7.2. Later versions shuffle things around — the job stays the same.
Power on — and press any key immediately.
You have a couple of seconds. Press a key before the GLIDE splash appears and you'll stay in Launcher, which is the menu you need. If the synth starts up instead, you were too slow — press the left trigger on the top edge, marked BTN RST, which restarts the device, and tap a key as it comes back up. (Holding ` inside GLIDE will not get you here: it restarts GLIDE, and you land right back at the splash.)
Move down to the GLIDE tile, and delete it.
GLIDE is the red tile on its own row at the bottom — it's in the picture above. Move down to it and select it, then choose Delete from the options that come up. Confirm if you're asked.
Don't skip this step. Launcher doesn't replace an installed app, it adds another one — install without deleting and you'll have two GLIDE tiles with nothing to tell them apart.
This does not delete your sounds
You're removing the program, not your work. Slots, settings, your two generative sounds and the odometer are stored separately and are untouched by this. They'll be exactly as you left them when the new version starts.
Get back to that same menu.
After the delete, return to the Launcher menu — press any key at the start screen again, the same way you did in step 06.
Select SD, then apps → GLIDE → install.
The SD tile is the card browser — its line at the bottom of the screen reads Launch from or mng SDCard. Open it, go into the apps folder, and select the GLIDE file you copied over in part one. Choose Install and let it finish. A few seconds; don't power it off while it works.
Power the Cardputer off and on. GLIDE starts, and the splash shows the version top-right. If that's the number you just downloaded, you're done — go and play it.
The shortcut, for next time
Launcher can also fetch and install a new build over WiFi — no computer, no card shuffling. Press a key at the start screen, open OTA, join your network, pick GLIDE. Same result; the card stays as the fallback.
The update cases are here. Everything else that can look wrong — power, silence, saving, the mic — is on the troubleshooting page.
GLIDE starts before I can press a key.
Press the left trigger on the top edge, marked BTN RST — it restarts the device — then tap a key as it comes up. Don't reach for ` inside GLIDE: that restarts GLIDE and drops you back at its splash, not in Launcher.
I don't see GLIDE in the card's apps folder on the device.
It's in the wrong folder or under a different name. Back in your computer: it must sit inside apps, named GLIDE.bin.
The version on the splash didn't change.
Either the file never finished copying (eject properly next time), or part two didn't take. Run part two again — repeating it is safe.
I deleted GLIDE and now there's nothing to play.
Nothing is lost — the program is on your card, your sounds are in the device. Go to step 09. If the card is the problem, re-download in part one, step 03.
The computer doesn't see the card at all.
Try another adapter, reader, or port — nearly always the reader. Decline any offer to "repair" or "format" it: that erases your patch library.
I've got two GLIDE tiles now.
You installed without deleting first. Delete both, then install once from SD → apps. Your sounds don't care.
The menus don't look quite like the pictures.
Launcher moves its labels around between versions. The job is the same: remove the installed GLIDE, then browse the card to apps and install from there.