Home Made Footpedals, Adding an additional controler for gaming. Options

[Stickman]

Hi All!

I just got my footpedals working again, and thought I'd describe them for anyone interested in making their own.

Out of scrap wood, i built a simple "teeter totter" arangement I can operate with my feet. Under each end, I fastened a spring switch I bought at an electronics surplus store. These switches are on when depressed, with a spring that turns them off again when pressure is released.

Originally, I had these switches wired in parallel with buttons on my joystick; as far as the computer knew, my footpedals were actually joystick buttons. This was fine for COD, which allowed the joystick to be enabled, but not for COD2, which does not have such an option (hardly surprising... who the hell would use a joystick for this game?)

My solution was to wire my footpedals to my keyboard. This is a much better solution, as all games I know of use the keyboard, while joystick compatibility is less common.

Opening my keyboard, I was able to visually trace the leads. For any given key (excluding cap lock, scroll lock, and num lock) there are two leads which, when shorted together, indicate the key has been pressed. I soldered my footpedal leads to the small circuit board in the keyboard so that they would simulate keyboard keys. I ended up with "page down" and "Keypad -" as my keys, simply because they shared a common lead, were convieniently placed on the circuitboard for soldering, and were keys I don't use for gaming.

The only thing left to do was assing the keys. Into game options> controls>move i went, and selected "lean right" to modify, and when asked for a new key for that command, pressed the right pedal, which showed up as "pg down" as far as the game knew. Same thing for assigning the left pedal to "lean left."

The beauty of this approach is that you can build your own custom controllers in any configuration you like without having to wory about drivers or game compatability like you would with store-bought peripherals. COD has no idea I'm using footpedals; it thinks I'm using my keyboard like everyone else.

Does this give me an unfair advantage? Some might say so. I prefer to think of it as leveling the playing field, as I'm missing a finger on my keyboard hand. (Note to those who like blowing things up: never store friction sensitive explosives in a jar with a screw top. It's a really, really bad idea.)

Questions or comments? I realize my description is rather half assed. If anyone else wished to build such a device, I'm more than glad to help.

[gen.gomer-pyle]

got photos of it?

[Stickman]

got photos of it?

Arg! No, and when i went to take some, I discovered my camera batteries are dead, and the friend who last borrowed my camera neglected to return the spare set and charger! Grr!!!

I'll get back to you with the pictures.

[WPS_ROBBER]

foot pedal sounds cool but more interesting is explosives in a jar with a lid wtf?

hope you still have all your fingers and toes!!

[={DMG}=STUPAD]

intiresting, nice work