Details regarding the hardware network interface- MIDI specs, pinouts, voltages

    Hello!


    I'm an electrical engineer and product developer in the U.S. that loves biting off more than he can chew. I'm very experienced in developing microcontroller based systems and would love to attempt to design and build a custom MIDI controller for the Kemper. Mostly for fun, really. I expect it would end up being the sort of thing that would cost twice what a Remote goes for and work half as well. But sometimes it's about the fun of building something!


    Anyway, I've never actually integrated with a MIDI interface on a chip / connector level. Is there information on the Kemper's network RJ45 pinout? Is it straight MIDI with a remote uC or is it MIDI over Ethernet or something? What voltage is the midi interface? Baud rate?


    Do you know of any independent projects that have developed MIDI controllers from scratch? I'd love to see some reference designs.


    Thanks everyone

    To my knowledge, no on has built a MIDI controller that uses the RJ45 connector. I doubt the Remote/Profiler communication is MIDI. MIDI only uses three pins. So 6 would be needed to send/receive and provide power. There appears to be a lot more going on than just MIDI data.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

    Quote from BayouTexan

    You can hook up a meter to the network jack and find your answer.

    I could, but if anyone in the world knows anything about the Kemper's midi implementation it would save me a ton of reverse engineering.



    Quote from Ruefus

    To my knowledge, no on has built a MIDI controller that uses the RJ45 connector. I doubt the Remote/Profiler communication is MIDI. MIDI only uses three pins. So 6 would be needed to send/receive and provide power. There appears to be a lot more going on than just MIDI data.

    Well, I know the Behringer FCB-1010 is a commonly used 3rd party MIDI controller and it's datasheets specify that it's a standard MIDI interface. I do suspect that it's straightforward MIDI with PoE. But I'd like to get confirmation from someone who knows

    I don't mean to come off snooty but usually someone's first post is about how happy they are as a new Kemper owner. A rare few make a first post about a problem with the Kemper itself. Your original post reminds me of a Security Salesman asking what kind of security the house has and copies of the floorplan --- and he ain't no salesman.


    I'd be surprised if Kemper gave out schematics readily.

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

    Edited once, last by BayouTexan ().

    A little snooty, yeah. I've had my Kemper for awhile so I guess the rush of excitement has worn off haha. I went through that whole deal with my dad- he and I have played together since I was a freshman in high school. Anyway, building electronic stuff is just one of my hobbies. I built a retro arcade in a suitcase using a raspberry pi 4 a few years ago. It's about 10 times the size of a laptop, about the same price, and about one tenth the processing power hahaha. Anyway, with electronics there's a lot of camaraderie in that community. In those circles there's a lot of helping each other. In fact, there are a few communities of guitar pedal electronics enthusiasts that I follow, like buildyourownclone and runoffgroove. I know that isn't that community but I figured asking here was my only option.