Arduino MIDI Footswitch

Who knows me, knows that I love musical instruments, even though I’m no real musician.

I’m used to plugging my piano or guitar into my computer and playing with various effects in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), but I’ve always wanted to have some way to control effects while playing without having to use my hands.

That sparked the idea: I just need a MIDI pedal!

This is my very first open-souce project involving hardware. A USB MIDI footswitch made with Arduino.

In 2019, the first usable version of the project was released, and little by little it improved over the years.

I released the latest version early in 2026, featuring a pretty huge upgrade: A completely new firmware, featuring a web interface that, over Web Serial API, allows for firmware customization on the fly!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love musical instruments, even though I’m not much of a musician.

I’m used to plugging my piano or guitar into my computer and playing through different effects in a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), but I’ve always wanted a way to control those effects while playing without taking my hands off the instrument.

That sparked the idea: I just need a MIDI footswitch!

This was my first open-source project involving hardware: a USB MIDI footswitch built with Arduino.

The first usable version was released in 2019, and the project gradually evolved over the years (gaining even some attention on GitHub!).

The latest version was released in early 2026 and included a major upgrade: a completely rewritten firmware with a built-in web interface. Thanks to the Web Serial API, the firmware can now be configured directly from the browser, with changes applied on the fly.