Whether you have full use of your hands or not, a foot-operated keyboard is a great addition to any setup. Of course, it has to be a lot more robust than your average finger-operated keyboard, so building a keyboard into an existing footstool is a great idea.
When [Wingletang]’s regular plastic footrest finally gave up the ghost and split in twain, they ordered a stronger replacement with a little rear compartment meant to hold the foot switches used by those typing from dictation. Settling upon modifiers like Ctrl, Alt, and Shift, they went about designing a keyboard based on the ATmega32U4, which does HID communication natively.
For the switches, [Wingletang] used the stomp switches typically found in guitar pedals, along with toppers to make them more comfortable and increase the surface area. Rather than drilling through the top of the compartment to accommodate the switches, [Wingletang] decided to 3D print a new one so they could include circuit board mounting pillars and a bit of wire management. Honestly, it looks great with the black side rails.
If you want to build something a little different, try using one of those folding stools.
Maybe one could use a foot tap then type in control to access the control panel that’s been baffling hack a day writers for a couple days now
What do you mean?
Presumably referencing this:
https://hackaday.com/2024/09/03/a-windows-control-panel-retrospective-amidst-a-concerning-ux-shift/
And suggesting some sort of macro like:
<Win+R>
control
Could do macros to other useful areas, ex:
– “God Mode” page
– specific tabs of applets, like AdvancedSystemSettings
– certain Settings UX pages with ms-settings:*
yep, got to it before I got back, it seems that they forgot the control panel still exists in windows and maybe a giant easy button would alleviate the confusion
If you’re not in the mood for DIY, there are commercial foot controllers that can send arbitrary keyboard commands, e.g. the XSonic Airstep. I don’t know offhand if that one in particular can be configured to work just as a modifier key, and of course it doesn’t come with a full foot rest attached.
I have did some single key adapters using cheap off the shelf pedal actuators along with a digispark.
Very useful to do melee attacks on FPS games.
BTW, did it with an “expression pedal” too.
https://hackaday.io/project/10446-fps-foot-presto-switch
Now you can tell your stenographer to step on it.
I blew a fuse doing the Charleston..