USB Foot Switch: A Buyer's Guide

A USB foot switch is one of the least complicated things you can add to adesk: a plate with pedals on it, a lead to the computer, and the computer treating it as a secondkeyboard. Because it is simple, the buying decision comes down to four questions, and mostlistings answer only two of them.

How many pedals do I actually need?

Count the actions you repeat, then buy one pedal per action and no more. One pedal is enoughfor hold to talk, which is what most people end up using a foot switch for. Three covers a smallloop such as talk, yes and no. Four is worth it when a modifier lives permanently under a foot,or when you want space between the outer pedals so you can find them blind.

Pedal Three is $69 and puts three ribbed pedals on a curvedsteel base with a captive USB cable. Pedal Four is $85, a wideflat metal plate with four in a row and a USB lead. If you cannot decide, the comparison iswritten up in Pedal Three versus PedalFour.

Does the base and the spacing matter?

More than the switch does. A foot is a blunt instrument, so what you are really buying is ashape you can find without looking. Ribbed tops give you something to feel through a sock. Widespacing stops one press becoming two. A base that slides on a hard floor turns every press into asmall hunt, which is the usual reason a pedal ends up in a drawer, so look for weight or a matrather than assuming.

How is it programmed, and does software have to keep running?

Foot switches are set once with the utility supplied for them, and then they hold the settingthemselves. Two things are worth checking on the listing before you pay. First, whether a pedalcan send a combination and not just a single fixed key, because a switch limited to one plain keyis fine for push to talk and useless for anything with a modifier in it. Second, whether thepress is momentary or latching. Momentary is what you want for holding.

Will it work on macOS and Linux?

The pedal itself will, because it presents itself as a keyboard and every operating systemalready knows what to do with one of those. The configuration utility is the part that is notalways available everywhere, so if you are on macOS or Linux, check which platforms theprogramming tool supports rather than assuming it matches the hardware. We have written the Maccase up separately in do USBfoot pedals work as keyboards on a Mac.

What should make you walk away?

Any listing promising that a pedal knows what your editor or your agent is doing. It does not.Keystrokes go one way, out of the pedal and into whichever window is focused, and nothing comesback. Be equally wary of a pedal sold as working only with one named application: the mechanismis the same in all of them, so that is a restriction rather than a feature.

Price is the last check, and cheap is not automatically wrong here. We looked at that questionon its own in are cheap foot pedals anygood.