DIY Pedal board for kemper


    Super boulot !!!

    Hey Alex, Great job on this.


    I would like to ask you some questions about your code as I'm thinking about doing a similar project. I wrote you a personal message (use the "Conversations" button at the top of the page). Thanks.

    Hi, I know this thread is quite old but I have used all the hard work done here to build my own board. I'm using 21 buttons and two expression pedals and an Arduino Mega serial port 3 for the midi.
    The whole thing runs on a Cat6 cable to an ethercon connector supplying midi and power. I have got all the buttons working and added some basic looper functions (still needs work). I am having a huge problem with understanding the leds and how they are wired and programed. I have stuck to 16 leds which keeps it at 2 595s but the mapping is really confusing me. Firstly there are 16 leds in the circuit but only 15 on the board, so "which one/end is missing ?" Also the diagram shows pin7 of the first 595 wired to pin 14 of the second, everything I have read shows it should be pin 9 to 14. So any explanations and help would be fantastic. I have attached my code/sketch for anyone to play with, but the led masks are wrong so definitely need changing.
    Here are some pictures.


    [Blocked Image: http://s3.postimg.org/k8p0nq49f/Photo_18_06_2015_14_48_49.jpg]
    [Blocked Image: http://s9.postimg.org/gs8den79r/Photo_18_06_2015_14_49_04.jpg]
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    Hi,


    Your controller looks really nice!


    See my attached picture for the Pin-numbering:
    One tlc has 16 outs for the LEDs (if its the tlc5940) - so you only would need one for your 16 LEDs. First LED is OUT0 (PIN28)... last is OUT15 (PIN15).
    PIN 26 is "SIN" means Serial input.. PIN 17 is SOUT... so from 17 it goes to 26 of the next tlc5940.


    don't forget to tell the tlc-library how many tlcs you have..


    Basically the tlc has no outs, but inputs for the LED. You have to wire all "+" of all LEDs to "+" of your source... and every "-" from the LEDs has to go to one "OUT" of the TLCs..


    all the SCLK, XLAT, BLANK and GSCLK go to all the tlcs .. so from first to second and third and so on..


    The wiring for the arduino mega is:
    Mega pin 51 (MOSI) -> SIN (Tlc pin 26)
    Mega pin 52 (SCK) -> SCLK (Tlc pin 25)
    Mega pin 11 (OC1A) -> XLAT (Tlc pin 24)
    Mega pin 12 (OC1B) -> BLANK (Tlc pin 23)
    Mega pin 9 (OC2B) -> GSCLK (Tlc pin 18)


    optional (i didn´t use them)
    TLC pin 27 - set this to ground when not used.
    TLC pin 16 - you can leave this unconnected.


    hope i could help


    Martin

    Thanks for that mortl, i'm actually using daltona's sketch and circuit, this uses 2 x 75HC595 shift registers for the leds, my original build was based on your code but I really liked the displays and the configuration menu in dortl's. I tried combining the code but it was just too much work for me, so i'm having to use his code and modifying for my needs.
    Thanks again for your help though.

    After days of banging my head I've finally got the LEDs working in browse mode, just the performance mode to do now, I'll upload the updated sketch later. For anyone trying themselves the problem was the spi mode, for some reason it needed to be 0 not 1.

    Stunning work guys!!!! I came across this and Morti's thread while looking in to foot controller options. You've all inspired me to take the plunge and build myself something. My day job is custom tooling and machinery design for the aerospace and automotive industry so I'm fortunate to have access to pretty much any workshop equipment I need. My electronics design is a bit rusty but I should be able to muggle through. Its going to be a learning curve but I'm up for the challenge, quite looking forward to it actually.


    Shane: your modifications to Daltona's original design pretty much nails everything I need out of my controller bar a couple of tweaks. What do you think about adding another 14 segment display to show the current performance name next to the existing rig name display? I'd plan to use the Arduino mega so there should be enough spare serial connections to add one without too much hassle. The only other thing I might do is add some kind of indication to the stomp and X buttons to show which type of effect is loaded to each slot. The colour LED method the KPA controller uses seems sensible and could be achieved using some three colour RGB LED's. This would mean some more shift registers (2 extra I think) but should be achievable. I could take it to the extreme and try for an LCD above each stomp and performance slot to display rig and stomp info like the Liquid Foot does, but its probably beyond my abilities and I'm not sure the Arduino could cope with all those displays.


    Just out of interest have you guys seen this post "More hidden functionality behind the KPAs built-in webserver?" It doesn't seem to have attracted much attention but for me it could be another possibility for DIY builders. I spent yesterday afternoon messing with it and what you get is effectively a fully functioning KPA remote displayed as a web page with real time sync and display feedback. yesterday I was using my android tablet as a remote while jamming and it works very well. I know the Arduino has limited capability when it comes to web and display functions, but maybe this could be used as the basis for some kind of Raspberry PI based controller?

    Motoman's Stash
    Kemper Toaster with DIY Power Amp
    Marshall JVM 410H
    2x Custom 1x12 V30 Cabinets
    Gibson Les Paul BFG
    Gibson Les Paul Studio
    Fender Lone Star Strat
    Chapman Guitars ML3-RC
    Peavey Wolfgang Special
    :thumbup:

    Quote from motoman

    Shane: your modifications to Daltona's original design pretty much nails everything I need out of my controller bar a couple of tweaks. What do you think about adding another 14 segment display to show the current performance name next to the existing rig name display? I'd plan to use the Arduino mega so there should be enough spare serial connections to add one without too much hassle. The only other thing I might do is add some kind of indication to the stomp and X buttons to show which type of effect is loaded to each slot. The colour LED method the KPA controller uses seems sensible and could be achieved using some three colour RGB LED's. This would mean some more shift registers (2 extra I think) but should be achievable. I could take it to the extreme and try for an LCD above each stomp and performance slot to display rig and stomp info like the Liquid Foot does, but its probably beyond my abilities and I'm not sure the Arduino could cope with all those displays.


    Hi, i'm using a Mega, just a cheap clone off ebay, it works fine but may account for the differences. All of my 'stomp' and 'fx' leds are RGB, and that is an upgrade I intend to do eventually to give the correct colours, I already have the circuit breadboarded and the code for this is in mortl's sketch. The performance name is shown in the 14 seg display until the patch is selected, which is enough for me. But it would not be too hard to add another. I have looked putting at a small lcd above each stomp using nokia 5110 display which are very cheap and easily available. That again is an option I may add later. I was completely new to Arduino when I started this so it's been a steep learning curve, and the current controller I have was more about learning than giving me my final controller.


    I've added my latest iteration of the code, still very much work in progress.

    Hi Shane. Thanks for sharing your Sketch. I'm not at the point of having the hardware mocked up yet so I hadn't realised that the performance name feature was already built in to the current display. The designer in me wants to get a case drawn up and made then mount everything to look nice first, but something inside is telling me I might regret that. I'm lucky enough that the software engineer on my work team has some previous Arduino experience and he's lent me his prototyping kit which has all kinds of modules, lcd's & breadboards. I'm going to sort through it this week to see whats usable then order the rest of the kit. One thing that I'm still confused about is how to work out the values of the capacitors from Daltona's original circuit. I get that the resistor values are dependant on whichever LED's I chose to use but the caps have stumped me ( told you I was rusty ). While we are on the subject of LED's did you consider the NeoPixel upgrade that Daltona recommended for the multi coloured LED's? from the reading I've done it looks like they can be wired in a chain using only one output from the Arduino. This might remove the need for the shift registers all together.

    Motoman's Stash
    Kemper Toaster with DIY Power Amp
    Marshall JVM 410H
    2x Custom 1x12 V30 Cabinets
    Gibson Les Paul BFG
    Gibson Les Paul Studio
    Fender Lone Star Strat
    Chapman Guitars ML3-RC
    Peavey Wolfgang Special
    :thumbup:

    Don´t know if i posted this anywhere:
    I use RGB-Leds this way: They show the effect-type by color, and the on/off state by brightness. For example: I use "blue" for my compressor effect. If its off, the led shows blue at low brightness.. if its on, it shows blue with high brightness.
    So i don´t need two leds per button. It works really nice..
    recently i played on a bright stage (open air, sun). There you could hardly see the "low LEDs"... but wasn´t that much of a problem..


    martin

    Hi!
    First of all: sorry for my bad english.
    I am starting my project pedal. For now, he must operate just in perform mode.
    I plain to do something like this:
    [Blocked Image: http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x47/paco_reina/FootControler_zps3cqk7nqo.jpg]">[Blocked Image: http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x47/paco_reina/FootControler_zps3cqk7nqo.jpg]


    The five little LCDs will show te name of the slot, and the big one the name of the rig.


    Daltona or Smfelton, My first dude is:
    in the ethernet connector, Witch pin is the power+, the power-, the midi in, the midi out? and How many volts and amps can give me the Kemper?


    Thanks a lot

    Thanks, Mortl.
    So, you are using just one midi in and external power.


    I will study ethernet communication between KPA and his pedalboard.
    It would be wonderful if an owner of the pedalborad put the WireShark sniffer between the two to show some data on that communication.

    In my controller I use a 'breakout-box' which feed midi and power down a Cat6 cable. I don't use the ethernet connector on the Kemper. I believe they use a proprietary protocol to talk to the remote.