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<header><a href="/">Luke T. Shumaker</a> » <a href=/blog>blog</a> » footpedal</header>
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<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>
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