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geekhack Projects => Making Stuff Together! => Topic started by: taako on Mon, 25 February 2019, 15:29:27

Title: Does QMK support foot pedal modifiers from a separate controller?
Post by: taako on Mon, 25 February 2019, 15:29:27

I am in the process of doing a Stapelberg mod on my Kinesis Contoured 130 and was wondering if it was possible to modify QMK so that it can receive signals from a food pedal (plugged in with an ethernet connector or something) and have QMK know when a pedal is pushed to temporarily activate a layer change or something?

Does QMK have a defined standard already to receive inputs from another board (maybe also running QMK?) and if so is there a standard method for adding foot pedals to QMK? I am designing my own stapelberg-like PCB so I have the opportunity to add a connector that goes to pins on the Teensy for the foot pedal control.

Title: Re: Does QMK support foot pedal modifiers from a separate controller?
Post by: Lanrefni on Mon, 25 February 2019, 19:07:26

I've been thinking about just soldering a connector to the pins on the bottom of the pcb for the layer switch,then just running a cable to a foot pedal,no coding necessary.

Alternatively you could define an extra row/column in your switch matrix and wire the foot pedals directly to the controller pins,a foot pedal is just an over sized switch after all,so just treat it like you would a switch on the pcb.

Title: Re: Does QMK support foot pedal modifiers from a separate controller?
Post by: 4sStylZ on Mon, 04 March 2019, 09:00:58

You can use a cable like for extending the row / column matrix if you don’t have many wires.
Else you can use QMK like some does for split keyboard with a controller wich is the master and another one the slave. With this option you aren’t limited for the number of switch on your pedal.

Title: Re: Does QMK support foot pedal modifiers from a separate controller?
Post by: urpcor on Sat, 12 October 2019, 14:01:35

Quote from: Lanrefni on Mon, 25 February 2019, 19:07:26

I've been thinking about just soldering a connector to the pins on the bottom of the pcb for the layer switch,then just running a cable to a foot pedal,no coding necessary.

May I ask, which pins on which pcb are meant?

Title: Re: Does QMK support foot pedal modifiers from a separate controller?
Post by: suicidal_orange on Sun, 13 October 2019, 06:26:23

Quote from: urpcor on Sat, 12 October 2019, 14:01:35

Quote from: Lanrefni on Mon, 25 February 2019, 19:07:26

I've been thinking about just soldering a connector to the pins on the bottom of the pcb for the layer switch,then just running a cable to a foot pedal,no coding necessary.

May I ask, which pins on which pcb are meant?

If you have some switches with no controller in another case (could be a foot pedal or anything else) you can connect one wire from the switch to the pin of a switch on the PCB and the other wire from the pedal to a diode then the other end of the diode is soldered to a diode in the switch matrix on the PCB, these connections could be made to a connector instead if you want the pedal to be disconnectable or if you're designing the PCB you can add traces to the connector...

What are you hoping to do?