A Foot Pedal To Supplement Your Keyboard
A Foot Pedal To Supplement Your Keyboard
It’s 2025, and you’re still probably pressing modifier keys on your keyboard like a… regular person. But it doesn’t have to be this way! You could use foot pedals instead, a…
Finally I can use emacs the way it was intended.
My friend was a medical transcriptionist, which basically listens to doctor recordings and transcribes them. This doodad here was pretty much required to rewind parts for a relisten.
Unfortunately, those foot pedals are incredibly cheap in their construction. All plastic with a metal spring. Typically the plastic rod holding the upper piece to the lower piece is what breaks first. I've gone through many over the years using them as my push to talk button for various programs like teamspeak, mumble, and discord.
It's handy (or footy - ha! Dad joke) though to give yourself another key you can map to something other than your hands.
For their mod, it sounds like all they need is a momentary switch. You can go to any electronic parts provider and get switches.
Probably not the best for a foot, but one thing that is durable --- arcade buttons.
Could get yourself a chunk of plywood board, drill holes in it --- sounds like you need a 1 1/8" spade bit --- and stick a Happ button in. Those arcade consoles are pretty durable.
There are a bunch of momentary foot switches I see on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pedal+momentary
These ones look metal:
https://www.amazon.com/Hotone-Momentary-Footswitch-Controller-Switcher/dp/B08H1NQCGJ
Back when I did stuff for the sake of doing it, I mapped DAW transport buttons to these. I never bothered replacing them when they broke because I moved to a jog wheel to scrub through much more efficiently.
But do they give wah?
I bought a StinkyBoard thinking I would be so productive... I was not. Perhaps I'm not being imaginative enough with its use. 😅
It always takes way longer to think about what to type than to type it out. So any benefits from speedier typing don't speed up the ultimate road block: our brains.
the stinkyboard is 4 foot pedals tho?
I've been using one for years. It gets some use. Not a ton, but some. Most common use is as media keys or as the modifiers. Oh and escape in vim