Bosun is the Android companion for the PaintAudio MIDI Captain (10-switch, and experimentally the 6-switch Mini 6) running the open-source Bosun firmware. Configure the pedal from your phone and use Stage at a gig. Features: - Configure footswitches, banks, rigs, LEDs and expression pedals, then save them to the pedal - Profiles for Kemper Player, Head, Rack and Stage, plus Generic MIDI - Stage shows the current rig, bank, effect states, a tuner and Morph controls - Connect directly over USB-OTG, or through a Raspberry Pi hub on the local network or its Wi-Fi hotspot - Android can route MIDI between the Captain and a USB Kemper - No account required; the pedal connection works without internet access Requires a MIDI Captain running Bosun firmware, installed with Bosun Desktop. Kemper support is experimental: Head, Rack and Stage have not yet been validated on hardware.
First release: Nov 1, 2026, 1 total release.
Most recent release: Nov 1, 2026.
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0 sats / 0 zaps received in the past year.
Sats Received
Underlying data available via MCP: app_zaps, app_releases.
Zap Count
Underlying data available via MCP: app_zaps, app_releases.
Releases
- Nov 1, 2026 0.8.6Bosun 0.8.6 updates the Raspberry Pi from Bosun Desktop, without SSH, and adds a screensaver with your logo on the Captain TFT and the Stage display. ## Changes - **Update the Raspberry Pi from Desktop.** Maintenance > "Update Bosun" in Bosun Desktop, connected through a Raspberry Pi, now updates the Pi first and then the Captain firmware. No SSH or password is needed. - The Pi installs only packages signed with the Bosun release key, and never a release older than the one it runs. The signature is checked before
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anything is unpacked. - If the new version does not start correctly, the Pi restores the previous one by itself and Desktop says so. An update cut short by a power loss is undone at the next start. - A Pi that already has every system package it needs updates without an Internet connection. - **Once:** a Pi running 0.8.5 or older does not know this yet. Update it to 0.8.6 one last time with the Setup guide command; from then on Desktop updates it. Updating the Pi stays a Desktop feature; Android is unchanged. - **Screensaver.** In Settings > Display, "Screensaver after (minutes)" turns it on (0, the default, keeps it off) and "Screensaver effect" chooses Bounce, Breathe, Drift or Mix, which changes effect every minute. "Show now" previews it. The Captain TFT and a Raspberry Pi Stage display show the startup logo with the same effect. - The first switch press only wakes the screens: it does not change the patch, toggle an effect or send MIDI. A tap on the Stage also only wakes them. - A rig or patch change, turning the Kemper tuner on or off, and changes made from Bosun Desktop or Android wake them too. Moving an expression pedal does not. - While the firmware is updated, the "Updating" screen replaces the screensaver. Update the Raspberry Pi first (see above), then the app and the Captain firmware. The screensaver settings appear once the Captain runs 0.8.6. ## 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-0.8.6-setup-guide.html`), the Raspberry Pi setup package (`Bosun-0.8.6-pi-setup.tar.gz`) with its signature (`Bosun-0.8.6-pi-setup.tar.gz.sig`), the firmware update package (`Bosun-0.8.6-firmware-update.zip`), the browser Stage (`Bosun-0.8.6-stage.zip`) and `SHA256SUMS.txt`. ## Testing Updating the Pi from Desktop was tested on a Raspberry Pi 3 with a 10-switch Captain: a full update of the Pi and then the Captain, and a forced failure that the Pi undid on its own, leaving every installed file as it was. The screensaver comes with tests in the firmware, Desktop and Raspberry Pi test suites. Everything else is unchanged from [0.8.5](https://github.com/danmigdev/bosun-midi-captain/blob/main/docs/releases/0.8.5.md). Bosun is free software under the [GPL-3.0-or-later](https://github.com/danmigdev/bosun-midi-captain/blob/main/LICENSE) license.