Foot pedal USB w/ Keyboard HID, Remapping second keyboard to custom keys

[fragged]

Hey all,

I've recently purchased a foot pedal USB device from Ebay, and it appears to interface as a keyboard rather than a joystick.

It appears that the device is using keyboard protocol (See lspci dump below).

Currently, without any configuration, tapping the pedals results in the equivalent of pressing the keys a b or c depending on which pedal is pressed - which is fine for my needs.

I'm wondering, how would I go about re-mapping the keys for one specific USB device to keys of my choice? I'm hoping to bind these to events in Ratpoison wm eventually, which means they can be pretty much any key, but given I need my current keyboards a, b and c keys to function correctly, things get a little complicated... I'm scratching my head as to where to start on this one, any advice would be appreciated :)

- Fragged

EDIT: lspci dump


Bus 007 Device 003: ID 0c45:7403 Microdia
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 8
idVendor 0x0c45 Microdia
idProduct 0x7403
bcdDevice 0.01
iManufacturer 1 RDing
iProduct 2 FootSwitchV1.0
iSerial 0
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 59
bNumInterfaces 2
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0xa0
(Bus Powered)
Remote Wakeup
MaxPower 100mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 3 Human Interface Device
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Boot Interface Subclass
bInterfaceProtocol 1 Keyboard
iInterface 0
HID Device Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 33
bcdHID 1.10
bCountryCode 0 Not supported
bNumDescriptors 1
bDescriptorType 34 Report
wDescriptorLength 119
Report Descriptors:
** UNAVAILABLE **
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0008 1x 8 bytes
bInterval 10
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 1
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 1
bInterfaceClass 3 Human Interface Device
bInterfaceSubClass 1 Boot Interface Subclass
bInterfaceProtocol 2 Mouse
iInterface 0
HID Device Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 33
bcdHID 1.10
bCountryCode 0 Not supported
bNumDescriptors 1
bDescriptorType 34 Report
wDescriptorLength 41
Report Descriptors:
** UNAVAILABLE **
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0008 1x 8 bytes
bInterval 10
Device Status: 0x0000
(Bus Powered)

[archi02]

Did find now any answer ? I'm exactly in the same situation... thanks for help.

[irritum]

Greetings, I've ran across a similar problem with some defiant MCE remotes. There are a few things out there you can try. Option #2 and #1 may be the easiest to get things working for you, but I would strongly suggest looking into #3 as it provides a much cleaner solution without the need for 3rd party software.

1. http://www.bedroomlan.org/projects/evrouter - a daemon which captures input from /dev/input/eventX device and generates X11 key events according to your custom configuration.

2. http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=88560 - describes a similar solution using "hid_mapper" which also remaps events (or keys) but at a lower (HID) level. You should also read 1st comment to this post: http://www.omcentre.com.au/hardware/m350-media-centre/wireless-multimedia-infrared-ir-remote-controller-deal-extreme-34435/#c471 - it describes how to automate hid_mapper with udev.

3. http://askubuntu.com/questions/69804/how-do-i-change-the-keymap-of-a-single-device-logitech-presenter - this is by far the best way to go in the end. This method uses udev and thus much more likely to survive a release upgrade, kernel or library change than non-maintained (by Canonical or its partners) 3rd party software.

I hope this helps!

[rgerganov]

Hi,

Looking at the productId:vendorId combination, it seems that you are using the foot pedal sold by PCsensor. I have implemented command line utility to program this pedal and it runs on Linux. You can get it from here: https://github.com/rgerganov/footswitch

Cheers!

[ulrichard]

Hi,
I don't have a foot pedal, but a small handheld keyboard with only six buttons:
http://dx.com/p/6-key-usb-handle-hid-keyboard-173cm-cable-70892

It has the exact same vendor and device id as is listed above.
I wanted to use it as chording keyboard:
http://gkos.com/gkos/arduino/

But checking the output of "sudo /lib/udev/keymap -i input/event14", I'm not sure that's even possible.
When I keep key one pressed, I keep getting "a"'s in the output.
Now I add key two, I only get "b"'s in the output, and even when I release key one, there's no notice.

Assuming, the hardware supports it, is it possible to implement a chording keyboard with an udev keymap alone? Or would I have to write a driver for it?