# Arduino PedalBoard

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909>\
**Category:** Support\
**Tags:** feature\
**Created:** [April 11, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909 "2022-04-11T15:03:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PaoloZaffino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/paolozaffino/32/81052_2.png) [@PaoloZaffino](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/PaoloZaffino)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/1 "2022-04-11T15:03:02Z")

</div>

Hi all,  
we are glad to announce that the [SlicerArduinoController](https://github.com/pzaffino/SlicerArduinoController) extension now has a new module for controlling Slicer view via a dedicated pedalboard connected to Arduino.

For the moment, just a basic set of instructions are implemented.

Any comments/suggestions/contributions are more than welcomed!

Best,  
Paolo

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2022, 8:39pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/2 "2022-04-11T20:39:58Z")

</div>

Sounds interesting, thanks for sharing. Could you attach an example video showing how it works?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Christian\_Simon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/christian_simon/32/14976_2.png) [@Christian\_Simon](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/Christian_Simon)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 8:11pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/3 "2022-04-12T20:11:36Z")

</div>

Here you are :

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8R6LfBqHNPY/maxresdefault.jpg "SlicerArduino Demo - Slicer Project Week Dec 2020") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R6LfBqHNPY)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [April 12, 2022, 9:42pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/4 "2022-04-12T21:42:32Z")

</div>

Thank you, this is a very informative video. Do you have anything that shows the pedal board in action?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PaoloZaffino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/paolozaffino/32/81052_2.png) [@PaoloZaffino](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/PaoloZaffino)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2022, 4:41pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/5 "2022-04-13T16:41:34Z")

</div>

I’ll ask my student to record a video, no problem

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PaoloZaffino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/paolozaffino/32/81052_2.png) [@PaoloZaffino](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/PaoloZaffino)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/6 "2022-05-03T17:20:14Z")

</div>

@lassoan here the video, sorry for the delay

[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/F_WdKU6zyXg/maxresdefault.jpg "3D Slicer Arduino PedalBoard") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_WdKU6zyXg)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 11:22pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/7 "2022-05-03T23:22:56Z")

</div>

Very nice, thank you! What pedal hardware did you use (brand/model)?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PaoloZaffino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/paolozaffino/32/81052_2.png) [@PaoloZaffino](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/PaoloZaffino)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2022, 3:38pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/8 "2022-05-04T15:38:34Z")

</div>

@lassoan we just picked a (random) pedalboard up and we customized it for our purpose (we took advantage of the mechanical part already there).  
Whatever 3-buttons hardware can be used.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/9 "2022-05-04T18:50:03Z")

</div>

We bought similar USB foot switches before and they were configurable to send keyboard shortcuts or mouse events when a button was pressed. Since [any keyboard shortcut can be mapped to any Python command](https://slicer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/developer_guide/script_repository.html#customize-keyboard-shortcuts), it might be simpler to use foot switches like this without modifications if the goal is to simply trigger software functions by the press of a pedal. Of course there could be more complex use cases for that is better if the arduino processes pedal signals. It would be nice to find and document those kind of more complex use cases.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PaoloZaffino](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/paolozaffino/32/81052_2.png) [@PaoloZaffino](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/PaoloZaffino)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2022, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/arduino-pedalboard/22909/10 "2022-05-06T14:57:27Z")

</div>

That’s definitely an option.  
Our idea was to catch the signal from Arduino board and use it for calling a slicer function that modifies the view.  
Ideally, we could call whatever function.