Midi Foot Pedals

Description

xbox controller based midi foot pedals. front 8 channels analog 0-256 based on pressure, back 8 digital 0-1, 4 high resolution 0-32k analog channels on back for plugging in up to 4 standard wahwah pedals.

Uses resistive foam for the analog channels.

Added Alsa midi support into http://pingus.seul.org/~grumbel/xboxdrv/ for reading the additional analog channels.
Zero configuration. I just output a different type of signal on each midi channel. Note events for channel 1, Note events + poly pressure on channel 2, channel events on 3, etc..

Details

An original xbox controller has 8 channels of low-res analog, 4 channels of hi-res analog, and 8 channels of digital inputs.

I tied the low-res channels to my front row of pedals. Soldered a wire to a bit of pcb, ran the wire through the resistive foam, and through the base plate. The base plate acts as the ground plane, and the wire holds the foam in place.

Original xbox controller inputs expect ~0-4.7k on each channel. The resistive foam measured from ~0-1k. Added a 1k pull up resistor to each channel to re-center the input range.

The pedals are solid aluminum from a bit of bar scrap I had. Home annodized with an old UPS transformer/battery acid, dipped in Ritt dye, steam cured.

The force required is adjustable via the screws through the pedal face. They terminate in a nut through some latex tubing which acts as an effective return spring.

Rear row are micro switches from an old vcr faceplate and connect to the digital inputs.

The 4 hi-res inputs I terminated in phono jacks on the back panel for use with standard wah-wah pedals.

Discussions

Daren Schwenke wrote 03/15/2014 at 23:40

If I had to do them over again, I think all I would elevate the rear row. It's too tricky to hit the rear pedals without looking. I also toyed with the idea of cutting grooves in the face for 'grip', but I had already anodized them at that point, and the bar stock was re-used from another project so it had holes drilled almost all the way through it that I would have exposed. I may do that for a version 2.

I have 3 more xbox controllers left, but no more suitable aluminum.

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Daren Schwenke wrote 03/15/2014 at 23:19

I went round and round getting it to be repeatable. Using springs, foam under the front, etc.
What ended up working the best was also the simplest solution.

Screw goes through the red aluminum bit, an oversized nut, the face plate, the latex tubing, then a regular nut.

The effect is that without pressure, the oversized nut keeps the pedal perfectly parallel with the face. When you press down on the pedal, the edge of the nut acts as a lever, pulling on the screw. It compresses the latex on the back of the faceplate. Has worked flawlessly, and is adjustable without taking it apart as I used a bit of contact cement on the backing nuts, and on the latex so they don't spin inside.

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Eric Evenchick wrote 03/15/2014 at 23:09

I've wanted to build some foot pedals for a while. I'm wondering if you could go into a bit more depth about the design of the pedals themselves. I have hardware that can do the PC interface, but I'm curious about the mechanical bits. Thanks!

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Midi Foot Pedals

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