Posts by slateboy

Anyone compared boot times between the last v4 and the current v5?
The last V4 was pretty quick, compared to its predecessors.

@and44 Can you please confirm what version KPA firmware is needed for these profiles AND the 12 days of christmas giveaway.
thanks

Quote from Monkey_Man

I'll refrain from banging on about this for about the sixth time.

Suffice it to say that I keep suggesting a leeway / play / dead-zone area, selectable for heel or toe (or both), and specifiable in percentages, ideally in the 1->5% range, but I see no reason why the option of dialling in a greater region shouldn't be possible.

Old / corroded / worn-out pots often fail at or near fully-forward and backward positions. This option would solve such issues and save otherwise-necessary pedal upgrades.

Please, do keep banging on about it!

Sounds like the calibration issue.
Check out this thread
Not convinced with kempers pedal calibration: FIX NEEDED?
I'm having the same issues due to the continuous "auto calibration" that can't be avoided or turned off.
Some more shouts on this and I think kemper will start to realise it needs addressing (if they haven't already)

Be interested to know how many KPA owners/users there are around the globe verses numbers on the forum.
I don't imagine that everyone who owns a KPA partakes within the forums. (there's bound to be a few read-only forum members and several who just haven't joined up)
Anyone hazard a guess? (only the mothership would have the actual figures)

Quote from Peto

I am using latest 5.0.3

- When I reconnect cable at pedal, calibration bar goes to 2/3 and I have to re-calibrate. I think this is consequence of KPA detecting resistance of full range of pot (10k) on tip/ring during jack insertion. But working range of my pedal is only 7.6k, because I am not able to use whole range of generic 300 degrees pot. So this is not problem at KPA side.

- When I reconnect cable at KPA, calibration bar goes to ~95% and I have to recalibrate.

I think Mission pedal uses full range of pot, so it doesn't have this problem. Probably it has 200 degrees pot or pot with characteristic I posted earlier.

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Kemper do an awesome job (no one disputes that!) but, as @Peto has discovered, the plugging/unplugging of a pedal can register "new values" and invoke the auto-calibration that is implemented (an unwanted side-effect for a few of us it seems)
As only a few users have highlighted their problems with their chosen devices in context @ckemper is correct, it does not warrant changing things for the sake of a few of us. I do wonder how many others have yet to encounter the problem perhaps by not noticing it (dont use an expression pedal), not letting it bother them or by avoiding it through using a midi-basd controller. (no news is good news)
I dont use my expression pedal enough to justify the cost of a "mission" or other pedal and for that reason will live with the issues i have or create a work-around. This aside, i have had other problems in the past and support as recognised them and fixed them so i have no qualms with the KPA team.

Think it might be time to put this case to sleep as everything that has to be said has been said?
but before we close the case, is there a list of "approved" expression pedals? (or even incompatible devices)
time for a new list....?

Quote from Peto

@Burkhard @timo Thank you guys for your time.

Now I see two solutions to my issue:

1. Developers would allow users to disable automatic continuous calibration by soft button, leaving setting of calibration range fully to user's desire. This would cover all those "toe-faulty" non-conforming pedals in the future,

or

2. I will somehow mod my pedal to conform to existing KPA calibration.

Judging it from developers' perspective, No.1 is likely not going to happen, if they don't have complaints about it. And I am OK with it.

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i think the kemper team understand both sides of the argument and that not everyone will choose to buy the mision "approved" pedal(s) in the same way not everyone will use the dedicated kemper remote.
i firmly believe they will consider to make allowances for all possible/future "realistic" scenarios (alternative devices?) and continue to develop a product that is flexible and beats the competition in every area, including what they're best at- listening to its customers.

I've calculated that my "dead" zone is about 8% at the toe-position.
Whilst relaxed on the toe switch this equates to 92% of the full-range, going all the way to 100% when depressing that sprung-loaded switch. Heel goes all the way to 0% (the rubber bumper on the heel-stop is negligible)

I wonder what percentage margin there is on the old crybaby's, which were always "active" unless the toe-switch was triggered, thus completely bypassing the device. I appreciate this is not a fair comparison with the Kemper, which is a different arrangement completely, but if someone was to convert their old crybaby into a Kemper control pedal (as im sure some users have done) it would become relevant.

Quote from timo

There are already dead zones automatically. Right now they are 5% of the current learned range at both ends.
What's funny that such a pedal as shown in the opening post is actually a faulty design since it would also drive an analog effect the wrong way (it might be more forgiving, but still... )

valid points, I do agree, and this design has been around for decades. Some of the major benefits of digital systems verses analogue is there is greater control and forms of "error correction" whether that's to combat analogue noise or something like the situation we have here.

Quote from paults

Do you still have this problem if you push the pedal far enough to compress the rubber stops when you calibrate the pedal?

Yes, the springy-ness of rubber stoppers gives the same "partial return travel" as the spring-return of a push switch.
Glad someone else has this experience (not glad for them personally, but glad the issue has been recognised and raised by another user)

+1 and also the threshold values of "toe" and "heel" position/values to cover all scenarios

Quote from timo

this has been fixed in 4.2.x. please update to the current release.

See my earlier post, 22 October.- I am on v4.22

Quote from ChristopheSeyler

@ckemper : I think the problem he encounters is simply the calibration data are reset when the pedal is unplugged ... that all ! The calibration process seems working well, but it is lost once unplugged.

...due to the continuous calibration that persists, even after exiting the "calibration" screen.
(Which is how it's intended to operate, according to K support)

Perhaps i've been misunderstood, my idea of calibration was to scale the full range between two points of a potentiometers range. I already own another amp modeling unit that allows the user to do this.

If my 10k linear pot, due to physical limitation, has a minimum value of 500 ohms and a max of 9500 ohms the Kemper can already deal with this through its calibration and scale the min and max points referenced to these values. I just request to be able to "lock" these values after a manual calibration.

The other request/solution was to set the threshold at which the "heel position" and "toe position" switch on/off at. (For those effects that turn off at heel/toe position) I'm not sure if this is currently 0% and 100% respectively but I would expect there is some way to adjust these values within the OS. Again I don't expect this to be made available to the user for the sake of just me but I'm sure it's possible.

Thanks again for taking the time to consider my issues and for commenting.

Ps, the purpose for this "no-name" foot operated pedal is for wah, volume and occasionally the LPF effect, same as most other users, I'd imagine.

thanks for taking time to read the post, CK.
My pedal is a non-branded expression pedal, 10k linear pot, but as described the toe-switch springs back the full range max-value a slight bit, which takes it out of the maximum (toe position) Ideally to set the threshold of the "toe on" value and the "heel off" value would solve my problems, or as already mentioned, being able to calibrate and lock those values (as i orginally thought the calibrate function was intended to do) therefore if i move outiside of the calibrated min/max values it does not rescale accordingly.

another device i used was a foot-expression pedal that, through full-sweep of the pedal, only turned the pot one-quarter turn (about 80 degrees) of the full pot-turn. This worked ok when calibrated but upon unplugging or replugging the device a significantly larger max value (or sometimes lower min value) was present at the pedal connection terminal and this conseqeuntly rescaled the min/max values therfore requiring recalibration before it could be used again.

i have contacted support on a couple of occasions and have been told that everything works as intended.
i understand the logic and benefits of constant recalibration and aware that there are many mission pedal users for which there is no problem at all.
Other users, such as myself may wish to use a different kind of device and encounter the side-effects i have described.
i do use the LPF filter effect which disengages at the toe-position but due to the nature of the issue described it often enagages as the pedal moves away from the toe-positoin due to the spring-return of the mechanical toe switch. For now i have had to assign a remote button to bypass the effect to avoid this problem.

i appreciate that one persons issues may not be enough for you to warrant to implement changes but i know you are a great team that listens to its users and understand the issues i have encountered and will bare this in mind, so thanks again for taking an interest.

recently upgraded to the latest public release and have also noticed a significant decrease in boot time. nice one kemper!. (not moved to v5 whist beta)
video demo

Just installed 4.22 and very disappointed to say i notice NO difference whatsoever regarding the calibration procedure.

Maybe the guys at Kemper can explain what the recent fix to this was? (probably explains why nothing was mentioned in the release notes)
my biggest question is- why is the KPA always in calibration mode (it defeats the object of having a calibration adjustment) if it constantly works on the min and max values delivered by the expression pedal?

I'd like to able to set (calibrate?) the KPA to work between point A and point B on my expression device and it "remembers" those two points/values.
If i temporarily move outside of those points i dont expect it to recalibrate and move my set-points.
I'll message support on this.

Agree, I didn't see any comments about it in the release notes, but I guess only the minority were affected and it wasn't a major issue worth mentioning. There's a lot of stuff we don't need to know about 'under the hood' but I see no harm in listing a fix like this. We all know Kemper listen to their users and constantly strive for new and improved features. I wish more companies worked this way.

Anyhow, hope I haven't spoke too soon, i'll report back when i've checked out this upgrade....

That sounds ace!!
I'm currently running OS 4.0.6.12337
I must have miss the that 4.2.2 is now the official latest version- quick check shows it is within the last 24 hours
(correct me if im wrong please)

will give it a go this weekend.

thanks guys

Im not convinced nor satisfied with kempers expression pedal calibration procedure.
the calibration screen shows what is expected but it appears that the KPA is constantly in calibration mode regardless of if the user selects it or not. (connected direct or to the remote unit)
The full-range (its working range values) is always based on the min and max value received at any time. This is fine for many situations but the following scenario will apply to many and they should be aware of it:

Here is a typical expression pedal:
[Blocked Image: http://thelookmusic.co.uk/kemper/expressionpedal.jpg]
So you've just calibrated your pedal to work between the regular range (red to blue) all is fine. Then you step on the pedal a bit harder (green position shown) to engage the switch but the Kemper now "thinks" this is your full-range, therefore you will mostly using 90% of the full range. This can be acceptable but effects that engage at 100% range wont be achieved. As a result, you can now not achieve 100% range unless you are standing on the button. At rest (blue position) it will lift a little to around 95% of it full movement. You will see clearly on the calibration screen.
I use the LPF effect and set it to OFF at toe position. In the above scenario the actual toe-position is when the pedal is pushed all the way engaging the button, not just between the red and blue lines the user thought they had calibrated to. Consequently this small deviation means the effect is always on as it is never in "toe-position" unless i hold my weight on it, therefore engaging the button which may not be intended.

The same is true for pitch dive effects where perhaps a soft spongy stop is at the heel position. the "at rest" position will be on this stopper. a little extra force may compress the sponge material and consequently adjust the low-scale value to the min value received. Noe when the pedal is at rest on this "stopper" the value is above the min value.

My request is that the calibration screen does what it says and when you exit the calibration screen the settings are stored and locked at those values attained. Otherwise whats the point of this screen?
I've had this discussion with the Kemper team and they tell me everything works as intended but im not convinced they have allowed for the situation described above
Maybe i'm missing something here?
I dont often have a whinge about the KPA as its otherwise awesome!

my video example shows an extreme case of what i'm trying to say (even though its an older OS its still relevant to v4)

I will give this thread an airing for a few days and depending on the response put it forward to the KPA team again.