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+  <title>My footpedal — Luke T. Shumaker</title>
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+<header><a href="/">Luke T. Shumaker</a> » <a href=/blog>blog</a> » footpedal</header>
+<article>
+<h1 id="my-footpedal">My footpedal</h1>
+<p>A collection of things I have written about the footpedal that I
+sometimes use with my computer:</p>
+<hr />
+<blockquote>
+<p>I have a VEC Infinity IN-USB-2 that I grabbed at Goodwill for $5.</p>
+<p>I love it. I tend to use it less when the RSI isn’t flaring up, but
+the first time I had RSI being bad is when I started to use it–it really
+helped. My RSI was in the few fingers on the pinky-side of my hands (so
+the opposite of <abbr title="Carpel Tunnel
+Syndrome">CTS</abbr>; I’m told this is less common, but I’m figuring
+it’s more common for Emacs users, with all the talk of “Emacs-pinky”),
+and much worse on my right hand. The pedal has 3 keys; I have them as
+(left-to-right) Control, Shift, and Alt/Meta, with the addition that if
+I short-tap the center, it does Enter; this basically means that I can
+avoid using my right pinky at all when typing. This allowed me to keep
+using the computer without making things worse, while I did other things
+to improve the RSI (stretches, wearing wrist braces at night). The
+tap-for-Enter seems a bit weird, but I added it after that motion seemed
+instinctual when using left-button for control in a repeated C-s search;
+hold foot-left and tap keyboard-S to increment search, then tap
+foot-center to complete the search.</p>
+<p>About the IN-USB-2 specifically:</p>
+<p><strong><em>It’s an XK-3:</em></strong> It’s actually made by P.I.
+Engineering for VEC; it’s a <a
+href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180119/http://piengineering.com/xkeys/xkfootRear.php">rear-hinged
+X-Keys XK-3</a><sup>(<a href="https://xkeys.com/xkfootrear.html">updated
+link</a>)</sup> with a different (less capable) firmware. The benefit of
+the crippled firmware is that the IN-USB-2 is way cheaper than buying a
+“real” XK-3 (even without finding one at Goodwill).</p>
+<p><strong><em>Firmware:</em></strong> On the downside of that, the
+firmware is less capable; unlike the XK-3, it shows up as a generic HID
+device with 3 buttons, instead of as a keyboard, and thus you can’t
+configure which button is which key. That is, you’ll have to have a
+program running to monitor the HID buttons and synthesize whichever key
+events you want, instead of configuring the keys on the device.
+Fortunately, the device is supported by P.I. Engineering’s Linux SDK, <a
+href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180119/http://xkeys.com/PISupport/DeveloperLinuxSDK.php"><code>pihid</code></a><sup>(<a
+href="https://xkeys.com/software/developer/developerlinuxsdk.html">updated
+link</a>)</sup> (<a
+href="https://github.com/piengineering/xkeys">git</a>), so that program
+is fairly easy to write (and as an Emacs user, you probably appreciate
+that configuration-is-code gives you more flexibility). The
+<code>pihid</code> SDK is a crappy little wrapper around the
+<code>hidapi</code> library with the appropriate magic numbers for the
+hardware. <code>hidapi</code> is portable to macOS; I imagine that
+getting <code>pihid</code> working on macOS is no trouble at all. (IDK
+if their <a
+href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180119/http://piengineering.com/PISupport/SoftwareControllerMate.php">ControllerMate</a>
+program for macOS works with it, or if ControllerMate requires the real
+XK-3 firmware.)</p>
+<p><strong><em>Hardware:</em></strong> The thing feels sturdy. If the
+switch ever craps out (not that I think it would), it’s a generic switch
+that’s in everything that you can pick up for $0.50; which is nice for
+peace-of-mind. The middle button feels a little wide; I generally have
+my foot around the left side of it, for Control, and it is difficult to
+reach over to the right for Meta, and usually end up hitting Meta on the
+keyboard instead.</p>
+<p><cite><a
+href="https://reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/7remed/has_anybody_used_foot_pedals/dswhzkt/">Reddit,
+2018-01-19</a></cite></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr />
+<blockquote>
+<p>I love it, but I don’t necessarily love it <em>more than I would any
+other foot pedal</em>. If you find a different one for cheaper, go for
+it.</p>
+<p><cite><a
+href="https://reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/7remed/has_anybody_used_foot_pedals/dswrf3r/">Reddit,
+2018-01-19</a></cite></p>
+</blockquote>
+<hr />
+<blockquote>
+<p>I found that my brain didn’t want to treat the pedals like it did
+keys–it wanted to treat them modally. I wasn’t <em>pressing
+control</em>, I was <em>entering control-mode</em>. I wasn’t
+<em>pressing shift</em>, I was <em>entering caps-mode</em>. Which works
+out, because it isn’t the quick keystrokes that cause the most strain,
+it’s holding the modifier with one finger while the rest of the hand
+moves around. I wouldn’t use the footpedal Control for the usual quick
+C-f/b/n/p, but it’s great for holding Control as you C-s through a
+document.</p>
+<p><cite><a
+href="https://reddit.com/r/emacs/comments/7remed/has_anybody_used_foot_pedals/dswrmo5/">Reddit,
+2018-01-19</a></cite></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+</article>
+<footer>
+  <aside class="sponsor"><p>I'd love it if you <a class="em"
+      href="/sponsor/">sponsored me</a>.  It will allow me to continue
+      <a class="em" href="/imworkingon/">my work</a> on the GNU/Linux
+      ecosystem.  Thanks!</p></aside>
+
+<p>The content of this page is Copyright © 2025 <a href="mailto:lukeshu@lukeshu.com">Luke T. Shumaker</a>.</p>
+<p>This page is licensed under the <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA 4.0</a> license.</p>
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