Foot Pedal on the Cheap

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Foot Pedal on the Cheap

Author
Giorgos Lazaridis
August 21, 2012

I am preparing a larger project which will need a foot switch to operate. I made once a foot pedal which was kinda tanky. This time,i made a lighter version, very simple to make, still with a nice operating feel. I don't really remember where i saw this design, i think from ebay.

The basic construction

The foot switch has only one piece of thin acrylic glass:


I got an 11cm wide 4mm thick acrylic glass piece	And i marked a 30cm long piece from it	And cut it

Then i used my acrylic glass folding heater to bend the piece...


I marked a perpendicular line at about 5mm from the center of the piece	Heated this line...	When the material became soft, i gave it an extreme bend	Now it begins to look like a foot pedal...

The electronics

At first i wanted to glue the switch on the plexiglass with hotmelt glue, but then i decided to make it more "fancy":


I cut a T-shaped perforated PCB	I will use this RJ connector, so i marked the fixing holed on the PCB	I drilled the holes for the RJ connector	And then i soldered the connector and a small PCB-mount switch

This is how it looks

Then i had to fix the PCB on the acrylic glass:


I marked a slot on the plexiglass for the soldering work of the PCB, and the holes to fix it	I cut the slot and drilled the holed for countersink screws	Almot ready...