Foot Switches\Pedals

[SilverKnight]

I am just wondering if anyone has had experience with foot switches used as an addition to the keyboard\mouse? I have came across several people that use them for driving games and others that use them in Counter Strike to provide the walk\jump\crouch feature but other uses i see is in audio development mostly.

There's loads of cheap plastic ones floating around ebay\amazon but Scythe seem to be the key players in this niche market having what they call "Scythe USB Foot Switch II" of which they have a combo of 3, 2 and a single one.

I am personally considering getting it simply to having extra connectivity and less use of the keyboard in work\gaming to avoid RSI and strain on my hand.

Product page:

http://www.scythe-eu.com/produkte/pc-zubehoer/usb-foot-switch-ii.html

Some guys review of the original version:

[nanowatt]

http://stinkyboard.com/

is the best an they are hard to master

[kichilron]

I got some Rudder Pedals for piloting in games and I do like them, especially as you can use them for other stuff as well.

You can use them to drive, for example - giving you the extra bit of control rather than just full forward or nothing (WASD control).

You can also use them to run and / or lean - as your foot will be resting on them most of the time anyway.

Now I know you're not talking specifically about Rudder Pedals, but depending on whether you're going to use it at all it's definitely worth the investment in my oppinion. It's always nice to have the feet do something instead of onthing at all.

[404]

I just use a keyboard with NKRO and mash my foot into it. I have it set to 3 different zones using a macro software. They are designated for reload, grenade, and melee.

Okay, i only did this once...to a board that I was waiting for a return label for. It worked really nice though.

[Verne]

I have been thinking about getting an USB pedal for VoIP push-to-talk mainly for a long time now. Never gotten around to getting one, though. They seem to be really hard to find, being a niche product and something like StinkyBoard is just way too expensive. I, too, would be interested to hear if people have any experience from USB pedals.

[SilverKnight]

I have just bought a Stinkyboard from amazon thanks to this thread, although apparently they are working on a new version of it so it will be interesting to see what they do with it. I will let you guys know how i get on with it.

[kichilron]

I will let you guys know how i get on with it.

 

That would be nice. Let us know how you like it and how you're going to use it.

[SilverKnight]

I will be posting a unboxing video later however i'll post feedback below:

The hardware is good, great materials, non-slip rubber on the bottom, top feels great on your feet, top\bottom buttons are easy to press, left and right feels rather un-natural and perhaps not good ergonomically for your feet. The software however, even with the 1.2 firmware update is very simplistic and not-functional. The program fails to switch between application profiles most of the time, so a google chrome profile on counter strike go is not going to work very well for you.

However the main-highlight i had on two testing machines (Laptop\PC) Was that in both instances, one running Windows 7, another windows 8.1 - They both had a software crashing problem which seemed to happen at random, for instance, in the middle of a game, switching applications, the program would crash and restarting the program would simply result in a crash- restart loop with the only resolve to restart the computer entirely (Log-off does not resolve this)

I am returning my model and i would suggest any potential buyer to wait for the next revision of this product, it's good, but it's not there yet, the software lets down what could be a fantastic product.