Undocumented features - navigating folders with just the foot switches - 1.75 Beta testing

The switches on the extra foot switch pedal can be used to navigate folders, not just songs. So we don’t have to bend down to reach the knobs nor do we need MIDI to navigate the pedal. Or at least, this is a stop gap until full MIDI control comes along.

My extra foot switches are set up to ‘song back’ (left switch) and ‘song advance’ (right switch) when the pedal isn’t playing. I don’t know if this works on other settings.

When the pedal isn’t playing, a tap on either switch scrolls through the song list. Here’s how to navigate the folders - holding down on one of the two switches moves the screen to the folder listing. The L/R switches will now navigate the folders just like with songs. Holding down one of the footswitches will open the folder so the song list is displayed. Holding down the main pedal foot switch will bring up the first song in the folder, ready to play but not started.

I believe both lists scroll to the other end of the list (e.g. last song to first song, or last folder to first folder) when you reach either end of the list.

It’s that simple. I didn’t see this in the v10 manual and, based on some of the MIDI feature requests, I don’t think everyone was aware of these features. Note, I’m using firmware 1.75. I don’t know if these features are new or just unknown.

FWIW, I started playing around with this because another user was complaining about his foot switches moving to the folders when he pressed them. I’ll have to link him to this post - it looks like he was just pressing the pedals too long.

Correct. :slight_smile:

I can’t seem to make my extra foot switch pedal switch to folders by holding down either of the switches.I tried both switches , first left then right. I held them down for several seconds. I even tried holding both down at the same time. I have it set as follows: when no song is playing 1st (left) song back, Second switch (right) song forward. When song is playing 1st switch is accent hit, Second switch is pause. My main pedal is set to turn song on when pedal is released.Am I missing something? This would be a great feature if I can figure it out. Thanks. P.S. I just purchased my BB pedal and extra pedal about a month ago and it has the 1.4.1 firmware loaded to it I think. I down loaded the firmware before my pedal arrived. Maybe it’s not up to date?

Ask the support guy for the latest Beta firmware. He will email you the latest version. The instructions for upgrading are also provided her on the forum. My tablet won’t let me paste URLs into text boxes but a quick foirum search should get you the support email address and the upgrade instructions? You need at least v1.7.5.

Thanks for the advice and thank you Beat Buddy Team! Having a great time with my new Pedal!

Not quite the entire truth. The firmware misinterprets default-on pedals no matter what settings I choose in the setup. It won’t stay in the chosen folder and every time you press a pedal it takes ~1 sec and it jumps out to the root. You then have to press again and scroll using quick <1 sec taps to find your song. If you wait for more than 1 sec it goes back out.

MIDI for song selection works in 1.75. Bank LSB chooses the folder and PGM change selects the designated song within the folder. Numbering is related to folder and song structure in ascending order.

I’m not seeing that, not calling you a liar, just that my BB doesn’t behave that way. A quick press of the foot switch moves through the songs, a long press moves the display up to the folder level where quick presses navigate the folders. Is there any way for you to reinstall the firmware? Perhaps install an older version then re-install the newer version? Do you have a lot of folders/songs? Perhaps the software gets bogged down processing a large number of files/folders to the point where the foot switches behave erratically.

When using my FS-6 things work as they should, but not with my DP10s. My FS6 also screw up when I switch polarity and recalibrate. Tried 1.73, 1.74 and 1.75 and all show the same behavior. I have also tested after downgrading to 1.41 and then back up again to beta firmware. I also reset to default before connecting external pedals and recalibrate.

Bad cable?

Could have been, but not the case here. I’ve done repairs and fault finding to musical instruments for nearly 13 years and cables are always the first thing I check. Default on switches does not want to handshake with my BeatBuddy on 1.7x firmware. Did another test with some other default on switches I had laying around and the results remain the same. :slight_smile:

OK but there’s really no handshake here. Either the switches are on or off, polarity is normal or reversed, and either momentary or latching. These things are fundamentally mechanical. Yes, the Boss switches have some electronics but I’m sure your years of fixing musical gear gives you the sense that the mechanical switches should work correctly above all else.

Did you try cleaning all the contacts inside the Jacks? Try a different cable? Clean the various mechanical switches? Check inside the box for a loose ground?

BTW, the later BlackBerryersions only work with momentary

I recall a post from someone is support posting that later versions only work with momentary switches.

I m interested to this feature too. With 1.4.1 official firmware doesn t works. This works on 1.75 only?

All switches I’ve tried are momentary either default off (works) or default on (erratic behavior). Plugs are clean, BeatBuddy is clean and cabels are in good working condition. For me the setting that is supposed to switch the polarity of default on switches doesn’t correctly do so. It switches polarity, but it doesn’t calibrate, or take into account, for those switches beeing on when released and hence switching to root after 1 sec. The behavior is the same regardless of the setting chosen. Either it registers on pedal down or upon release, but it still backs out of the folder 1 sec after release.

By handshake I mean the routine to calibrate the connected pedals through setup to correct for pedals being momentary, latched, default on/off or being left/right.

PS. I might have been too bombastic. I seem to remeber that some Roland DP-series pedals use reversed polarity as well as being naturaly closed switches. That might throw the Firmware another curveball, but doesn’t explain my FS6 doing the same when reversed…

The simplest answer is just use the FS-6 along with whatever settings work and quit playing around with it.

I can’t tell if you want help with this but if you think its the firmware or the pedal, you need to contact BB support. My experience is that there’s nothing wrong with the firmware, foot switches, or the pedal as they’re designed to behave that’s causing this.

If you want help here on the forum - I suggest you stick to the mechanical pedal for now unless you have the old latching pedal. Those other pedals are electronic so it’s only a guess as to what might be happening electronically or to the ground. The mechanical foot switch is easy.

If you have the older latching pedal, ditch it for one that you trust to be momentary. Configure whichever switch you’re using to be momentary with normal polarity. Confirm those behaviors with a multimeter. Configure the pedal to recognize a momentary footswitch with normal (default off) polarity. Have the pedal do it’s detection as well.

If this works, stop playing with other settings and don’t use any settings that result in erratic behavior (polarity set to default on).

I can’t track enough of what you’re doing in any single setup to begin to guess at what might be going on because your switch settings and pedal settings, as posted, seem to be all over the map. It would help if you posted separate setups (which foot switch/settings, what pedal configuration settings, do the pedal detection) and the associated results so we could see if there’s a correlation that might point to a source besides the firmware or the pedal.

1.75 was a beta version release, they are currently testing 1.76a and are hoping to make 1.77 an official version - however as is clear in this post beta versions may contain bugs and beta testing is there to find them and fix them before general release.