Foot Pedal Recommendations?

I’m dealing with RSI issues in my hands and researching a foot pedal to use instead of a mouse. There’s one by Kinesis, one by a smaller Michigan based company, and some generic ones on Amazon. I’m hoping that, regardless of the software provided by each one, I could theoretically program the buttons with Keyboard Maestro and/or Karabiner Elements. Has anyone used any of these? Any experience with this? Anything to watch out for? Thanks!

I wish I had more guidance. I have one of these for doing transctiptions, largely when I was in grad school. I imagine it can be remapped… https://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Digital-Control-Computer-USB2/dp/B002MY6I7G/ref=asc_df_B002MY6I7G/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309885973562&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12097664344192878413&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1027760&hvtargid=pla-406644951255&psc=1
I think this was mentioned in the most recent MPU episode… if you’ve not listened, it may provide insights, though if my memory serves me, it was not something Adam (the guest) was currently doing, but something he’d done in the past.

I’ve got one of the knockoff ones from Amazon arriving today! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MC456TC
Will update on here in the future if I get it working for anything cool w/KM. (got the idea from this week’s MPU episode).

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LOL that’s awesome! I’m guessing my transcription pedal could be reprogrammed, but… until listening to the episode during my run today, I had no idea that foot pedals were a thing. Well, beyond the one I have. But the episode did get me thinking that I could hack that thing… just don’t know that I need it. I believe mine has three buttons.

I’d be curious about this for musicians too! I’ve seen people use them for advancing music notations on screens.

FYI mine arrived and I was able to set it up. Works out of the box with Karabiner elements. Initially (mine at least) is a b key, so I could just remap b from that device onto F20 (or anything else), and then it works fine with KM. However, it is only a single press - so holding it down doesn’t register as holding (which is my target use). Instructions say I’ll need to boot into windows to change the pedal settings, so I’ll try that sometime in the future. Just wanted to update here to let you know that if you just want it as a KM trigger it works.

Just wanted to post an update – I landed on this Ikkegol USB two pedal option because I wasn’t ready to drop $150 on some of the nicer ones yet.

I was able to get it set up with Karabiner Elements. Like @KevinC the right was set as “b” and the left was “a,” so I remapped those to mouse buttons. This pedal does support clicking and holding, which has been a huge lifesaver for my RSI issues. I can hold my foot down and move my mouse around to drag.

Only complaint is that the angle of the pedals is a little high, so I can’t comfortably leave my foot on the pedal. I have to stomp it and take my foot off. But honestly it’s not that big of a deal so I feel like this is a pretty big win for less than $50.

Hope that’s helpful to others!

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Forgot to update this post! My pedal now works fine as a zoom unmute switch. Booted into boot cam to install the (sketchy) control software, and set it to be a continuous press of spacebar. It worked fine when back on macOS. Much easier for meetings when I only need to occasionally be unmuted.

I also own a pedal now :slight_smile:
PC sensor FS3-P

It is available on eBay or Amazon under different brand names, but you can always check if the pictures are matching. This is the one I bought.

Currently, I’m just using it to mute my mic and it works quite well. When I bottom out, it makes a loud thock sound, but it registers the tap well before that, so with some training, i could use it silently.

The good thing is, that there’s a Mac command line tool to configure it!
So no need for Windows shenanigans to get it configured.
The tool can be installed via brew, so you do not need to be a full-fledged programmer to use it.