Is it easy to transform a volume pedal into a USB MIDI controller?

[amundsen]

Hello,

I have a Roland passive volume pedal. I want to transform it into a MIDI USB foot controller. I plan to use a Teensy microcontroller as an analog to USB converter.

However I have a few questions about the analog part of the circuit:
1. Is it mandatory to send some signal to the pedal’s input and take the pedal’s output as information to be digitized or is there some way to avoid sending a signal to the input?
2. In case it’s mandatory to send a signal to the pedal’s input, would you rather recommend to use an AC or a DC signal?

Thank you.

 

[Mark Tillotson]

DC, it will just be a potentiometer. However it will likely be log-law, and you would be better with a linear-law pot for digitizing the wiper voltage - it may be possible to replace the potentiometer part of the pedal if it uses standard variety of pot (and not some special purpose one)

 

[Gerrit Boers]

The Using USB MIDI contains general information and at the bottom there's a link to a foot pedal controller that might be just what you're looking for: Footsy - Teensy 2 based MIDI foot pedal controller

 

[amundsen]

I have found this article using a simple split-cable but I have to check whether my pedal has a linear or a logaritmic resisance if I want to use it with a linear ADC.

This one explains how to hack the pedal itself.


Thank you everyone!