GM36 Remote - iPad not connecting to amp

I have an iPad Air (WiFi) and have been using Grandmeister 36 Remote for a couple of years.  The app recently stopped working.  The message on the GM36 Remote app is "CONNECTING TO AMP - PLEASE WAIT ...".  There does not seem to be anything that I can do to resolve this problem.  I think that problem might have started after an iOS upgrade to version 12.

Does anyone know of a solution to this problem?

Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave, sorry to hear your GM is playing up. I'm not a Mac user I'm afraid. Always stuck with the hated PC as they are much more suited to engineering types like me to pull apart and put back together again as a kitchen blender or an intelligent toaster. Your idea of it being linked to an OS upgrade may well be spot on. This is the classic sort of problem that they cause. It is impossible for the software guys to check out every single piece of functionality on every available connecting device when they release these. It may be worth going onto the Apple site and reporting this as a potential bug. If you do, make sure to give them full details of all of the gear involved. The more info they have the easier it is to replicate it and track it down.

Any other users had this problem? If it is the OS upgrade I would have thought that a few more of you may be seeing it, or could even rule it out if you use the same setup and yours is working fine.

Thanks bordonbert for your reply.

I am not a fan of IOS either.

Hoping to replace the iPad, I purchased an Android tablet a couple of days ago (Samsung - Galaxy Tab A (2019) - 10.1" - 32GB - running Android version 9 (Pie)). The GM36 remote started but then stopped responding (crashed) within a couple of interactions. I returned that tablet to the store. I would be happy to purchase an Android tablet if I knew which one works. The same store has another tablet (Samsung - Galaxy Tab A - 10.1" - 16GB running Android version 6 (marshmallow)). The price is very reasonable and I would consider purchasing that as a replacement for the iPad if someone can confirm that GM36 remote runs on that device.

Thanks,
Dave

How are you connecting these bits of gear to your amp? Are you using a cabled USB/MIDI converter? I've done this with a converter into the USB port on my laptop and other devices and then into the amp and FSM432 floor controller. It works fine for me and I have used it with my wife's old Nexus 10 and even with a cheap "Chimp" tablet, (the Chimp is generic Chinese, and when I say cheap... ). They all work fine. The only problem I have ever had with this wired setup is with the USB/MIDI convertor. Not all of these work and there is a good reason. The convertor MUST support Sysex data transfer (messages can be non-MIDI-standard big data blocks) and units like the cheap Chinese types on the market which I started with do not. Have you by some chance changed your converter type?

I run from the USB output of the iPad (and the Android tablet that I mentioned) through a Roland UM-ONE mk2 USB MIDI Interface to the amp and FSM432. I have not changed that configuration.

If you haven't changed your configuration then there is nothing in the units which should be a problem. It must be in the way they interact or that upgrade has changed something.

I can only speak from the point of view of a PC user. USB ports often get into a state of confusion. You occasionally can get something in your setup where a particular device and a particular USB port on your machine just stop talking to each other. You plug in and the setting up process just hangs or worse, the PC spontaneously reboots. One of the methods of clearing this is to delete that particular USB port from the PC then do a restart and let the PC find the uninstalled USB port again which is still physically there and reinstall it. I'm not sure if this is possible or advisable on an iPad or Android device but it seems to maybe be worth looking into.

I did not realize that GM36 Remote was available for PC (Windows). I see now that it is available here ==> https://ctrlr.org/hughes-kettner-remote/

What version of Windows are you using GM36 remote. Maybe I can find a used Microsoft device at a reasonable price (the new ones cost more than the amplifier :-)

I'm currently on Win10 but I did get most of my use out of WinXP and, even more primitive, on Win2000.  As long as your version of Windows is XP or later and has reliable USB ports it should be ok.  Any old cheap laptop should do, the required spec isn't at all high.  MIDI is pretty primitive and is getting out of date itself nowadays.

EDIT: Remember, I used to have it working from a cheap Chimp tablet. If that can run it then any old Android device running an older version should do as an alternative.

I got to thinking that I should check the midi connections again. I found that one of the connections was unplugged (duh). Someone (perhaps even me) must have tripped on the wire and accidentally pulled the connection loose. Now don't I feel silly. Note to myself: always check for the obvious first.

Thanks again bordonbert for your help.
Dave

Hahaha! No problem with that Dave, we've all done it! Glad it turned out to be such a simple fix. (Now you know what the "i" on the front of all Apple products stands for. I'm too polite to say it! )