iPad mini iRig Keys Mini lightning and camera card questions

[davideotape]

not sure how many people have one of those iRig Keys mini 25 key midi keyboards, but i bought one a long time ago on sale, noodled around with it on my laptop but never really used it too much, Dug it up to use with the ipad mini and realized a few things that might have been addressed to death when they were first known but searches didnt yield too much:

1. The lightning to micro-usb cable it comes with does not work at all. Is this a setting i need to change or did an apple update render this cable useless? Im 99% certain theres nothing wrong with the cable.
2. It works great with a micro-usb to usb via the camera card adapter, which led me down another rabbit hole. There are two types of apple usb lightning camera card adapters? One for usb3 and charging, and one for standard usb and no charging. Why keep the old adapter that you cant charge with around? Its like a $6 difference.

Ideally i can get the micro-usb to lightning cable to work because i want to keep my camera adapter home for my desk, any insight before i start calling irig? Google has been unhelpful, the best help article i found leads to a page that apple removed :/