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geekhack Community => Ergonomics => Topic started by: justsade on Fri, 28 September 2012, 17:24:49

Title: Kinesis LF with foot pedal?
Post by: justsade on Fri, 28 September 2012, 17:24:49

I'm taking the plunge and getting a Kinesis Advantage. After a lot of lurking, I've decided that the LP model with the red switches is for me.

But I want foot pedals too! Kinesis sells two kinds, one using USB and one that plugs straight into the Kinesis. Does anyone have experience with these?

I'm on OSX and I've read that the USB pedals can only be programmed with Windows, so I'm not sure about those. How would the other one be programmed?

Should I go either either of them, or should I find some other foot pedal?

Title: Re: Kinesis LP with foot pedal?
Post by: dorkvader on Fri, 28 September 2012, 19:30:16

I thought the kinesis with reds is the "LF" model, but it should be awesome either way.

Another option you might consider is adding switches to your kinesis. According to Sordna here, it's pretty easy.

Title: Re: Kinesis LF with foot pedal?
Post by: justsade on Fri, 28 September 2012, 22:33:25

Oops, thanks for that.

Title: Re: Kinesis LF with foot pedal?
Post by: sordna on Sat, 29 September 2012, 12:38:30

The USB footswitches are independent of the keyboard, they can be viewed as adding a mini keyboard to your computer. The normal switches that plug into the Advantage keyboard can be viewed as extra switches on the keyboard itself. I am using the latter and have both a kinesis footswitch, as well as some generic ones that I wired to an RJ plug. Since you are on OSX I would suggest getting the normal Kinesis footswitches (not the USB ones) since the regular ones can be programmed from the keyboard itself, just like all other keys on the keyboard, so it's completely OS independent. You can have up to 3 pedals hooked up to your keyboard, for different actions.