The first step to building any big project is to solidify the ideas about what you want it to be able to do.

My journey to this pedal came from my previous project.

https://www.instructables.com/id/USB-Midi-Foot-Ped...

After some time, the Teensy 3.0 chip died and I did a little research into other ways of achieving the same thing without buying another $50 chip.



You can see that research here:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Midi-Clas...

I had seen a few people make Midi pedals out of old organ pedals. I wanted to do the same, Organ pedals are actually pretty cheap and easy to get hold of, except, they usually come with a giant organ. I'm a bit of a parts hoarder, but I felt like maybe with my small shed, hoarding a whole organ might be a bit much.



So, I thought I would make one. I used Inkscape to explore the ideas and then I used Autodesk Fusion 360 to model the initial idea. You might notice that the initial idea has a heap of features that didn't make the final cut. Sometimes it's handy to start with the big dream and then narrow down to what is most important and what you can be bothered building. I figure that many of the other features can easily be added when needed, so I kept it simple. I have found that I don't miss them, so I saved a heap of work.

I narrowed it down to a few features:

1. I wanted to be able to plug it into any computer and have MIDI through the USB.

2. I wanted to be able to transpose it so that I could play along to my guitar with a capo and think in one key.

3. I wanted to have a full octave.

4. I wanted to have the ability to have it send midi control change signals as well as note signals and to switch easily.

5. I wanted it to be velocity sensitive.



I thought of a range of ways to get number 5, but instead chose to be able to vary the velocity at the push of a button so it could be changed quickly and easily, but was easy to code. I could use a single switch for each of the pedals and didn't need to figure out an elaborate way to do it. For me, this was the difference between starting the project and forever researching.