Jon's blog

I was considering some of the pricey bluetooth footpedals for doing page turns in music-displaying apps like DeepDish GigBook, but I decided I don't mind a cable in this case, so I found this little gem for just $11: http://www.focalprice.com/CG101B

It's a USB foot pedal that can be programed (via a Windows-based utility program) to generate a keystroke or key sequence that looks like it came from a normal USB keyboard. Once programmed, the pedal can be connected to an iPad via the USB Camera Kit adapter. An error is displayed claiming that the device isn't supported, but after acknowledging the warning, it actually does work. For DeepDish GigBook, I programmed the pedal to send a down-arrow keystroke to advance to the next page in a piece of music.

This completes a killer setup for musicians like me with severely impaired eyesight. I can re-format PDF scores or charts cropped and zoomed to as big as two or four measures per page, then step through them with the footswitch without having to take my hands off my instrument. If I had had this when I was still in school, I would probably be a much better sightreader!