The MJS PedalBox

The PedalBox is a very simple peripheral device that connects to a serial port and provides (via host software) a number of system-/program-control possibilites.

Because of its' simple hardware, it automagically works with both RS232 (12V) and TTL-level (5V) serial ports - without having to set any jumpers or switches, and without having to change any software settings.

It also will work at any baud-rate supported by the host system, and is self-identifing via the provided reference software (below).

For the curious, or those wanting to build their own PedalBox (it is relatively easy!), the original development project is documented at https://sparc90s.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/retrochallenge-2013ww/.


Reference Software

This software provides a generic PedelBox-monitor program for UNIX/Linux systems, together with an auxiliary program for Solaris that allows the pedal events to control the system speaker volume.

The event-stream reported by the monitor program is "plain text", so can even be interpreted (and acted upon) by a shell-script! See the protocol manual-page for details.

There are also online manual-pages available for the host-resident device-monitor and the Solaris program that uses the reported device-events to control the system speaker volume.