USBotg (on-the-go) tech and the morph

I am looking into USBotg tech to solve some midi USB/USB issues. It seems I will have to spiecial order the cable as I looked everywhere in my local area today looking to no avail. So before I spend a week waiting for a possible fix I was wondering if anyone here had experience with USBotg and the morph. Will it act as a USB host as advertised?

While a USB OTG cable will allow you to physically connect two different devices with micro-USB ports, they will not magically make one of the devices a USB host.

I already connected the device physically. Just looking to create a host. Any help as to what will do that? Do you have any direct experience with this or would you prefer just to shoot the idea down with no real response?

Sorry if you read something into my message that wasn’t intended.

I believe you are attempting to use your Sensel Morph with another item that has USB MIDI but neither of them have Host capability.

The good news is, you likely already own something that can serve as a Host: a phone/tablet/computer.

You should be able to connect your Morph via bluetooth to any Host devices and then connect your other device via USB to the Host.

Loopop has made a pretty great video that explains the ins and outs of USB MIDI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neXswJJcatc

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Thank you this is very helpful. I don’t own a computer but I have an old iPad and a camera connect kit, I have not tried the method, and I will now. Thank you for your help.:v:t3:

I tried this method and was not successful. Is there any midi routing that needs to be done in the tablet to make this work? If so how?

So it seems a hub can magically connect though devices responding to USB otg tech.

By using a simple (and included) OTG Adapter cable you can even connect plain 5V power and a USB hub to the RK-006 and host multiple USB-MIDI devices. The RK-006 will interconnect them and merge them together with the existing hardware ports.

I am not in a place to spend that money and have ordered some otg cables and am going to try this method with my Kenton first and if it doesn’t work I will shell out for the RK-006.

If anyone actually knows something helpful about this technology I am very keen to here it. Thanks :v:t3::heart:

Yes, you’ll need to use some software to open some MIDI ports so the devices can route sources to the proper destinations.

I don’t have a Kenton USB Host or an OP-1, so I’m limited in how much advice I can give, but if your main goal is to be able to play your OP-1 from your Morph, it should be very doable. Until today I had only used my Morph with my Mac, so I tested it on iOS today and had positive results.

The set up:

Hardware:

Sensel Morph
iPhone SE (mkII)
Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter
Modal Skulpt synthesizer
Anker 4-port Powered USB hub
A couple standard USB-A/Micro-USB cables

Software:

midimittr (a free app, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midimittr/id925495245)

I paired the Morph to my phone in iOS Settings.

In the midimittr app I took the Morph online on the Devices tab
tapping on the Sensel’s piano overlay verified that my Morph was connected by flashing the midimittr logo upon every tap

I then connected the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter to my phone and plugged in the Anker powered USB hub. With a USB-A/Micro-USB cable I connected to my Modal Skulpt synthesizer.

After powering up, the Skulpt showed up on the ports tab of the midimittr app, I enabled the SOURCES and DESTINATIONS as needed and my Morph was able to control the Skulpt.

If I had batteries in my Skulpt, I may have been able to bypass the powered hub and connected the USB-A/Micro-USB cable directly to the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter and the Skulpt.

After doing that, I also tested unpairing the Morph from my phone and connecting the Morph to the powered USB hub with another USB-A/Micro-USB cable. That also worked.

If you’re strictly interested in controlling your OP-1 with the Morph, I’m assuming a similar setup should work and it sounds like you already have all the parts needed. If you wanted to add more hardware, a powered USB hub could work.

If you want to cut out an OS based device altogether, the Kenton Host should work, but as I don’t have one I can’t go too much further down the road of figuring out why it’s not currently.

Of note: you’ll need to ensure that your Morph (Source) is sending MIDI information on MIDI channels that your OP-1 (Destination) is listening to.

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This worked! Thank you so much! I know it takes time to write such a detailed response and I really do appreciate it.
I also realized that since I I’m stuck running through iOS with this method I can split the midi and send notes to my animoog app and play both at once. I cAnt wait to start building templates for this. I did need to be plugged into the wall for it to work so I’m still looking for a way to be portable as well, but it is great to finally play my op-1 with a fun keyboard. Cause fun is what it’s all about!

Thank you for jumping in and being so helpful here @invisbletouch!!!

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We’ll we didn’t actually resolve the issue presented but fixed it through another method. Still working on USB otg to help better fix the issue of not beating able to run though a single Kenton device to work with my op-1 and other host less USB midi devices. While your companies suggestion was 2 Kenton hosts, I feel there is a better option (such as the RK-006) and I will still move forward to look into that for you since I have not received a response on this possibility from your reps either in this forum or my emails. As long as you are giving out thanks I will extend a “your welcome” for pushing forward R&D with my own resources to sort out major holes in the usage and design of your product. Thanks for jumping in with the thanks but there is a LOT more work to do.
So I have ordered a bunch of cables to test out the application of USB otg tech with my Kenton device as well as contacted RK to try and further understand how they have implemented it in thier devise. Any new progress in this regard on Sensel’s side?