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Hot Hand USB - WORKS WITH IPAD!!!!

#41
Wow you guys are pretty amazing! That's solid customer service. Yes, the interface that I'm using is using the 30-pin connector. I need it to connect the iPad to my bass. Unfortunately, I'm using a windows laptop. While I suppose I could also find some virtual midi software here, I don't really want to have to carry my laptop out to jammings and gigs just so that I can transmit a midi signal to my iPad.

Anyway, I went to research the USB standard and as far as I can tell, the reason why the CCK works while other interfaces don't is because the CCK designates the iPad as the master USB hub. Other interfaces like the iO Dock designate the iPad as the slave, since (at least for the iO Dock) when the iPad is in the interface, it is expected to be possibly connected to the computer.

Apparently, the iO Dock not taking midi directly is a common complaint. I found a video tutorial on hacking the dock to allow USB devices to input (that means USB devices that're supposed to go to computer and not direct to iPad) via the iO dock. Apparently these devices generally work with the CCK too, but not the iO dock. In the video, the way it is explained is that the re-wiring is equivalent to putting a CCK in-between the iPad and the iO dock:

iPad -> CCK -> USB hub -> iO dock.

Midi devices can then be plugged into the USB hub. The reason why you can't just plug into the USB on the iO Dock, or plug a hub into that USB and then plug into that hub, is because it doesn't have the ground signal for the input. Or something like that.

So what I am going to try today is to buy a CCK, and hook it up in that order. Theoretically it should work, the only downside I'm seeing is that I might not be able to charge my iPad while it's doing this. I'm heading out now to get it, I'll update here whether I can get the hothand USB to work with the iO dock. If it does, then the same method is (in theory) applicable to other iPad devices.
 
#42
Update-
1) Plugging it directly into the CCK works perfectly! Thank goodness for that.
2) Plugging it into a hub into the CCK also works perfectly.

Now the bad news- I am unable to find a 30pin-female to USB-male cable/converter anywhere locally. I saw one model of it online, but unfortunately that particular model only transfer data and power, and not audio. To my understanding, the iO dock sends the audio signal through the USB audio path, so this is a pretty vital thing that's left out.

Well I've two options now:
A) Forget about the iO dock and get something else- I'm somewhat unwilling to do so
B) Mod my iO dock - Invalid Link Removed it looks fairly easy enough, and if I don't plan to resell my iO dock ever, I could probably do this. What I'd do is to take all the steps except cutting the hole for additional USB ports and test if it works. If that allows me to successfully link up my iPad, HH USB -and- iO dock interface, then I'll cut the hole.
 
#43
Update: It works!



I did it slightly differently from the website- I just soldered a microUSB and a USB cable to the connection in the iO Dock, and drilled a hole to let the cables out of the box. Connecting them to a USB hub gives the iPad access to USB devices. So I guess there's an alternative to using the CCK into a hub! I prefer this because it gives me all the jacks I need. Now all I need to do is to link my iPad to some wireless midi device and I can control all the pedals from a distance.
 

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