vec-footpedal-hid-linux

A quick and dirty implementation of mapping for a VEC footpedal HID device on Linux

Features

• Allows remapping of a VEC footpedal to any keys/mouse events.
• Automatically finds the footpedal. Automatically reconnects on disconnection.
• Doesn't require sudo, if you follow these instructions.

Contributions

• Open PRs and GitHub Issues as you wish!

Setup/Usage

• Set permissions so you don't need to run as sudo.

• sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/40-footpedal-hid.rules

• Paste in the following contents.

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="05f3", MODE="0666"
		SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="05f3", MODE="0666"
		SUBSYSTEM=="input", SYSFS{idVendor}=="05f3", MODE="0666"
		SUBSYSTEM=="input", ATTRS{idVendor}=="05f3", MODE="0666"

• Exit nano (Ctrl+X, Y, Enter).

• sudo udevadm control --reload (or reboot)
• Install Python dependencies: python3 -m pip install -r ./requirements.txt
• Run python3 vec-footpedal-hid-linux.py
• Consider modifying the code to change the mappings.

Design Technique

• Run sudo evtest with the device plugged in.
• Select the footpedal with the list.
• Press and release each button, and record the output, as follows.

Event: time 1695265224.178439, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90001
Event: time 1695265224.178439, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 256 (BTN_0), value 1
Event: time 1695265224.178439, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1695265224.466374, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90001
Event: time 1695265224.466374, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 256 (BTN_0), value 0
Event: time 1695265224.466374, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1695265237.008789, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90002
Event: time 1695265237.008789, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 257 (BTN_1), value 1
Event: time 1695265237.008789, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1695265237.336736, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90002
Event: time 1695265237.336736, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 257 (BTN_1), value 0
Event: time 1695265237.336736, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1695265241.480220, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90003
Event: time 1695265241.480220, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 258 (BTN_2), value 1
Event: time 1695265241.480220, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1695265241.808159, type 4 (EV_MSC), code 4 (MSC_SCAN), value 90003
Event: time 1695265241.808159, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 258 (BTN_2), value 0
Event: time 1695265241.808159, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

• Read and understand the output.

• The code is the 3 buttons.

• 1 is a press, and 0 is a release.
• Find a way to automatically figure out the correct device event path: /dev/input/event*
• Write code using ChatGPT to read the inputs and call a function for the outputs.

Other Resources and Motivation

The following locations didn't really work, so I created this repo.

• https://saulalbert.net/blog/transcription-with-a-foot-pedal-under-linux/
• https://github.com/kostmo/footpedal

• Formerly: https://code.google.com/archive/p/footpedal/issues/4#c5