RK008 BLE Radio ?

jako

I found this on the manual at page 6 and I don't get it.
What is RK008 BLE Radio ?
thanks

Albert Pauw

BLE stands for Bluetooth Low Energy. It is a requirement for Bluetooth midi, which the RK008 kan do.
It can communicate to BT midi dongles. Setting it to on makes the RK008 work as a "peripheral" device, setting it to party mode it will put the RK008 in "central" device mode. These quoted words are the official naming. As only peripheral can talk to a central device, most dongles will switch automatically, making one "peripheral" and the other "central", The RK008 does not have the automatic option, but it does work with e.g. CME Widi Master.

P.S. I'm not the Albert from RK008, just a customer with the same first name and am still learning on this subject.

Paul_Dablue

I can connect my Korg nanoKEY Studio to the RK-008 wirelessly with the RK-008 BLE MODE set to PARTY and BLE DIR set to either IN or IN/OUT.

And I can connect the RK-008 wirelessly to Koala Sampler on my Samsung A52s running the latest version of Android with the RK-008 BLE MODE set to ON, but using the MIDI + BTLE app for android the scan will only find the RK-008 when BLE MODE is set to ON (but the RK-008 doesn't find the nanoKEY when set to ON) but doesn't find the RK-008 if BLE MODE is set to PARTY.

I thought PARTY mode was meant to communicate both IN and OUT at the same time, Is this a limitation of Android ?

Albert Pauw

Just to make clear that this is how I understand it works, I maybe wrong.

BLE Midi connection can only be between a peripheral device and a central device, two distinct roles. Some devices (i.e. CME Widi Master) can change role when necessary. When two of these devices connect, one be in peripheral mode, the other central mode.

Some devices probably can only have one role, probably peripheral. RK008 BLE On is peripheral role, RK008 Party On is central role. So a peripheral can connect to the RK008 when in Party mode, but on just BLE On.BLE In/Out is separate and controls the direction of the Midi signals and has nothing to do with the role (peripheral or central).

I assume that that the Android Midi+BTLE app probably uses the central role to find the other devices (aka peripherals) and thus cannot connect to another central role device (i.e. the RK008 in party mode).

Just my two cents,
Albert

albert

@Albert Pauw : sounds correct.

we've deliberately used the name 'Party' trying to express the way the RK008 has implemented the BLE central role at this moment: it is a 'party-host' : grabbing & accepting all peripherals it can find (during boot-up; indicated by blinking BLE indicator). Maybe we'll change this in the future and implement a user-managed list.

the Android Midi+BTLE app is the playing the central role, but it seems maybe it can connect only to one peripheral? (will have to test that myself)

when the RK008 is set to BLE 'ON' it is acting as a peripheral, and is depending on a BLE central for the connection.

Paul_Dablue

Thank you for trying to explain the terminology, unfortunately this hasn't helped me clarify my issue, which is - Can the Korg nanoKEY talk to the RK-008 wirelessly AND at the same time the RK-008 talk to Koala sampler wirelessly?, maybe this is possible using an iPhone but I don't think it possible on Android, would love to be proven wrong if anyone knows the exact method.

albert

no.. this is not supported:
the RK008 is either a BLE-central (='party'), or BLE-peripheral (='on')... so it can not act as a central for the Korg, while at the sametime being a peripheral to the phone.

in that scenario the phone should be the BLE central, and connect to both BLE peripherals (RK008 / Korg)

ps: I'll try wether an Android device can do this

Paul_Dablue

Thanks, it was an instagram reel of the RK-008 paired with an iPhone running Koala sampler where a question was asked 'are there any cables or interfaces used to connect them?' and the answer given 'no, the RK-008 is paired to the iPhone via BLE' but I see that there was a midi in from a Novation launchkey (so the RK-008 is the interface), the Korg nanoKEY doesn't have a midi out, only usb or Bluetooth.

It's all good because I also have an Arturia Keystep and it would only be a novelty and not a necessity to have the three devices working wirelessly, although aren't we in the future now where this should be entirely possible?😉

g3o2

If you connect at least two devices using CME WIDI dongles, then you can connect multiple devices wirelessly in a group and it will also allow 1 non-CME BLE device in the WIDI group. With widi jack, master and uhost you have quite a few connection options. Not cheap but it works. Groups are set up using the WIDI app and then downloaded to the dongles, so you don’t need the app after that.

g3o2

Btw a note to anyone wanting to transmit clock via BLE, for whichever specific reason, it works by attaching CME’s WIDI Jack to the RK008’s Out and transmitting clock through that Out. Seemingly not too much of a drain on bandwidth in simple setups, at least not according to tests I’ve performed on my side.

albert

don't expect any thight timing though... we've deliberately disabled clock transmission on RK008's own BLE to avoid disappointing user experience