Ground control pro, expression pedals and phantom power..

[Anonymous]

I have a GCPro and a Line 6 Ex-1 and trying to get the two to work together. I have tested the Ex-1 by running it directly into each of the Line 6 Pro racks using an instrument cable and it works. I tried to plug it into the pedal jacks on my GCpro and cannot get it to recognize the pedal with the cable all the way in. I tried a 1/4" TRS cable and no luck. Tried a regular instrument cable and if I have it halfway out of the jack the value will move from 0-127 very suddenly.

Attempting to rule out the possibility of a faulty jack I tried using my friends GCPro that he bought new a few months ago and same deal. I even took the damn thing into Sam Ash and tried talking to the "Pro Audio" guys in there and they were friggin cluless. I asked if they had any expresion pedals laying around and we tried a Roland Ev-5 and same deal.

Am I a total moron?

My friend also has the GCX and is trying to use it to power his GCPro. He has a standard 5to5 pin cable and nada. I'm thinking he might need a 5 to 7? Any ideas?

 

[vchizzle]

not sure on the xpression pedal deal. I've always had a pedalsnake cable so I just ran the length. Are you sure that midi cable 5 pin? Maybe its not a 5 pin "ACTIVE"? Just cause there's 5 there, doesn't neccessarily mean its wired to use all 5. Here's the manual info if you don't have it:

POWER
To use the supplied power adaptor, plug the body of the adaptor into a suitable power receptacle.
Then plug the cable into the jack marked “Power” on the Ground Control Pro.
If you have the GCX Guitar Audio Switcher, you don’t need to use the supplied power adapter.
The GCX will phantom power the Ground Control Pro through a standard 5-pin MIDI cable.
Note: If your Ground Control Pro doesn’t power up from the GCX, here’s the problem…
MIDI only requires 3 pins, so to save money some cables only have these 3 pins
wired. Since the GCX uses the 2 unused pins to send phantom power, these cables
won’t work! You need to make sure your cable has all 5 pins wired. Cables with all
5 pins wired are often labeled “5-Pin Active”.
If you are not using the GCX, but have a device that supports phantom power via a 7-pin MIDI
cable, this device can power the Ground Control Pro. Connect the 7-pin MIDI cable from
your Ground Control Pro’s MIDI Out to the 7-pin MIDI In on the device. Then connect the
Ground Control Pro’s Power Adaptor to the phantom power jack on the device.
MIDI
Connect a 5-pin MIDI cable from the Ground Control Pro MIDI OUT to the MIDI IN of your
first device. If you are using the GCX, it should always be your first device.
If you have additional devices, connect the MIDI THRU of the first device to the MIDI IN of
the next device. If the device has no MIDI THRU, then use its MIDI OUT. Continue to chain
your devices until they are all connected.
In some situations you may want to remotely call up presets on your Ground Control Pro, such
as slaving it from a sequencer or having your tech control it from off stage. You can also backup
or edit your presets with a computer. To do this, you’ll need to connect a MIDI cable from the
controlling device’s (computer, another foot controller, etc.) MIDI OUT to the Ground Control
Pro MIDI IN.


EXP. Pedal - ----------------------------------------- do you have it "turned on" in the GCPro?
PEDAL
To use guitar volume or expression pedals with the Ground Control Pro as MIDI expression
pedals, you must enable them here. If you don’t know how to connect a pedal to the Ground
Control Pro, please refer to the “Connections” section of this manual.
Enter Setup mode by pressing both [SETUP MODE] buttons at the same time. Then select this
category by pressing [PEDAL]. The display should read:

P1 IS OFF


To enable (turn on) the pedal connected to “PEDAL 1”, press [+/YES]. To disable (turn off),
press [-/NO]. Press [SELECT 2] to access “PEDAL 2”.


Mine has always powered up just fine without issues.
If you don't have it figured out by tomorrow, just call Voodoo lab up when you're by your rig and they will talk you through it. I had some program issues once and they were really cool about it.

 

[Giga]

To use an expressionpedal I think you need a stereo jack. That probably also explains the sudden valuechange from 0 to 127 with the plug halfway in..

The only difference, to my knowledge, between 3, 5 and 7 pin midicable is the added phantompower. Pin 1,2 and 3 are the only ones used for the actual midi-signal

Giga.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah I spent some time with the manual. I'm thinking dude's midi cable must not be 5 pin active. As for the pedal thing it's on but I cannot get it to recognize the pedal with a TRS cable at all. With an instrument cable it works if I have it halfway out (well sort of, it will jump from 0-127 rapidly when I rock the pedal). It isn't the pedal b/c it works in the rack units individually with a standard 1/4" to 1/4" and I tried the Roland and had the same results. Not the jack on the pedal either b/c my friends' brand new GCPro does the same thing. I made a few trips to the store for different TRS cable and nada. I think I will have to call them this week. Having an expression pedal would totally open up the rig.

If i get any info I'll post it here for posterity.