Bosun 0.8.2

Bosun is open-source firmware and companion apps for the PaintAudio MIDI
Captain, built to control a Kemper from the floor. This is the first
official release.

What you get

• Captain firmware for the 10-switch RP2040 MIDI Captain with 8 MiB flash.
  Footswitch press, release, hold and double-tap actions, LED colours, a
  configurable Captain screen, up to 125 banks and 625 patches, setlists and
  two expression pedals with calibration and curves.
• Kemper engine for the Kemper Player and the Kemper PROFILER family
  (Head, Rack and Stage, MK1 and MK2, Performance or Browse mode). Bosun keeps
  a two-way session with the Kemper: rig names, effect states, tuner, Morph,
  looper, tap tempo, BPM and the wah/volume indicator follow the amp.
• Generic MIDI profiles for any other MIDI device: CC, Program Change with
  bank select, notes, delays and multi-message macros.
• Bosun Desktop (Windows) and the Android app to edit profiles,
  patches, banks, the Captain screen and settings, with configuration export
  and import and a live MIDI monitor.
• Stage, a large-format view for a phone, tablet, computer or HDMI display:
  current rig and bank, effect switches, a fullscreen tuner, Morph controls and
  bank preselection, with adjustable fonts, sizes and colours.
• Raspberry Pi hub: the Pi hosts the Captain and the Kemper over USB,
  relays MIDI between them, shares the pedal on the local network and drives an
  HDMI display with Stage, behind a quiet boot with the Bosun logo. An optional
  Wi-Fi hotspot works without a router.
• Safe installation and updates: Desktop installs Bosun directly over
  factory firmware and updates it over USB or through the Pi. Every write is
  preceded by a verified full-flash backup, checked by full readback and
  followed by a configuration check; a failed update restores the original
  firmware automatically where possible.
• Bosun Stand, a 3D-printable display stand for the 10-switch Captain.

Downloads

System	Package	Installation
Windows x64	Bosun-<version>-portable-x64.zip	Extract the whole ZIP and run Bosun.exe. Requires WebView2.
macOS, Apple Silicon (untested)	.dmg	Open it and copy Bosun to Applications.
Linux x64 (untested)	.AppImage	Make it executable, then open it.
Android 10 or later	bosun.apk	Install the APK; connect over USB-OTG or through a Pi hub.

The release also carries the offline setup guide
(Bosun-0.8.2-setup-guide.html), the Raspberry Pi setup package
(Bosun-0.8.2-pi-setup.tar.gz), the firmware update package
(Bosun-0.8.2-native-update.zip), the browser Stage (Bosun-0.8.2-stage.zip)
and SHA256SUMS.txt. Keep the app, Captain firmware and Pi components on the
same release.

Supported hardware

• PaintAudio MIDI Captain, 10 switches, RP2040 with 8 MiB flash.
• MIDI Captain Mini 6: included, but untested on real hardware.
• Kemper Player over USB; Kemper PROFILER Head, Rack and Stage over USB or
  two-way MIDI DIN. PROFILER support is experimental; Head/Rack/Stage hardware
  validation is pending.
• Raspberry Pi with Raspberry Pi OS (Debian Trixie) for the hub, tested on a
  Raspberry Pi 3.
• Any MIDI device through Generic MIDI profiles.

Get started

Open Setup guide in Bosun Desktop, or follow the
illustrated setup guide and FAQ.
It covers six setups: the Captain directly on the Player, with Android, with a
computer, with a Pi, with a Pi and an HDMI display, and a Pi with Android over
Wi-Fi. Firmware installation and updates are described in the
update and recovery guide.

Tested on hardware

The complete 0.8.2 build was installed and tested on a rig with a Raspberry Pi 3
hub, a 10-switch MIDI Captain and a Kemper Player, both connected to the Pi by
USB:

• The Pi was installed from the 0.8.2 setup package, including the quiet boot
  logo, the Stage kiosk and the display mirror.
• The Captain was updated to 0.8.2 through the Pi with a verified full-flash
  backup. Its profile, settings and every patch read back identical.
• With the Kemper Player profile, every rig change was confirmed by the
  Kemper's rig name, in about one second each, and effect switches were
  confirmed by the Kemper in under 0.2 s.
• The MIDI monitor, profile storage (including bank 125 and accented names) and
  Stage on a 1920x440 HDMI display were checked on the same rig.

Switches were activated through Bosun's switch-activation command rather than
pressed by hand. Expression pedals, the Captain's screen and a Kemper PROFILER
(Head, Rack or Stage) were not part of this run.

Known limitations

• The Mini 6 has not been tested on a real pedal yet.
• Desktop is tested on Windows; the macOS and Linux builds are untested.
• Firmware installation and updates need Bosun Desktop; Android edits and
  shows Stage only.
• First installation from factory firmware was hardware-tested on Windows from
  PaintAudio 5.15; other stock versions and interrupted-write recovery remain
  unverified on hardware.
• The Morph bar shows the last position Bosun sent, not the Kemper's measured
  Morph position.
• Bosun Stand has been checked in CAD; physical fit and load testing are still
  to be done.

Bosun is free software under the
GPL-3.0-or-later
license.