Stinky Gaming Footboard Foot Controller - PC

I lost the use of an arm in an accident and I bought this hoping it would allow me to play fps games. There are other ways to do it and a web search will show you how some of these remarkable people manage to play, for example, BF and COD with one hand and a standard x-box controller. These approaches were no good to me unfortunately.The board comes with 3 different spring sets, ranging from soft to stiff. There are even softer springs available from the supplier. These are the ones I use for WASD. For most FPS games this is a great solution, you wont be the most graceful person on the map but you will not be held back. I play CS 1.6 easily with this. However the board does have its limitations. I cant really play CS:GO with (just) the board. CS:GO requires perfect control of your movement. You needed to make rapid and very precise presses on the board to "stutter-step", an essential technique in the game. Players of the game will know what I mean. I said the board has limitations but the limitation is really in my foot and ankle. I simply don't have the control or dexterity make the required movements for CS:GO.Thankfully I found a solution that allows me to play CS:GO with little or no compromise. I use the board for forward and back and two of the side buttons on my Naga 2014 mouse for strafing.This is a great mouse and the combination with the board is perfect for anyone with restricted mobility of an arm. I highly recommend this combo. Decoupling WS from AD seemed to make everything click.About the board in general. The build quality is great, it should last for many years of stamps and kicks. Set up, install and configuration are all trivially easy. Some people have claimed the board is over priced for what you get. They followed the standard internet procedure of breaking open the product, adding up the cost of the individual components within and subtracting that from the sales price of the product. The result is the amount you're getting ripped off by to the penny. I don't know what profit margin they operate on but I can tell you that the people behind the company are absolutely not out to make an easy buck. I sent them an email telling them I was happy with the board and thanking them. The kindly offered to post a free set of super soft springs to try. Unfortunately the postal system let us down and I never received the springs, I emailed asking if perhaps something went wrong. I immediately received an email form them saying they sent the springs and I should have received them by now. They then sent another set of free springs and a free t-shirt, this time by priority post, that same day. I received both a couple of days later. I know its just an anecdote but they really are very nice people ( Canadians dont you know).The product does look deceptively simple, its just a few switches and plastic right? After you use the board for a few days you start to appreciate how well its designed and how much trail and error research and dev must have went in to the product. You can rest the full weight of your foot and leg on the board and none of the switches will activate. No need to hover, the bane of all foot switches. This is due to the large "neutral area" in the middle of the board. While rested on this its very easy to activate the switches with small movements of the ankle or foot. I believe they have achieved the best possible compromise between stability and responsiveness.I use the board in all games and most applications (I bind Alt, Ctrl and Shift to help with awkward key combos). I highly recommend this to any gamer especially those who you have a disability effecting the arms or hands.BrianUpdate 12/08/2015: I now use two stinkyboards for csgo. Left foot is duck, mic, drop weapon, jump throw. Right foot is back, forward, score board and inspect weapon (gotta see those skins). I have about 2000 hours on csgo across 3 accounts. The boards have never let me down once in all that time and work exactly like they did when new.I also got a Logitech G502 to replace the Naga. It has about 12 buttons. The side buttons are perfect for left-right strafing and the sensor is a huge upgrade to the Naga. I solo queued from MG2 to DMG in a couple of weeks after I got used to the new buttons, Im LE now (post vac wave). I highly recommend that mouse to gamers with limited use of their keyboard hand.

Seems quite well built. It's fairly heavy and consequently pretty stable in normal use (though on carpet it will still slide around easily if you bump it from the side).I find it a bit big for my U.S. men's 11 foot - I have to move my foot in order to comfortably press any one of the four directions, rather than leaving my foot centred and rolling it. Yet I also still find that I can't safely rest my foot in the middle, as it will frequently actuate the pad in a random direction. That's using the default springs (mid level resistance). The heavier springs might help that, but then I already find it tiring to use the footboard for more than a few hundred clicks at a time, due to the small but noticeable resistance against each press. After a "long" (twenty minutes; few hundred clicks) session with the foot board, I can feel my calves starting to get sore.It makes a rather loud mechanical "click" with every actuation, which makes it a little awkward and inconsiderate to use in a space shared with others. It's been compared [unfavourably] to "an annoying grasshopper". If you're very deliberate and slow, you can press it slowly and minimise the noise, but not eliminate it completely and in doing so you tend to risk triggering key repeat unintentionally.There's essentially no Mac support built-in - the configuration software is Windows only. There are 3rd party offerings, however. I recommend ControllerMate - it lets you create combinations and sequences of actions (for any input device) of practically limitless complexity. It's also one of the few USB controllers that work with the Stinky at all (e.g. USB Overdrive doesn't, not one bit).

I use the foot-board while working with a Wacom Cintiq, as it's not convenient to use a standard keyboard with the display out. I do have a keyboard mounted to the top of the display, which is good for typing things, but it can not substitute for a normal keyboard at waist level. Combined with a 3d mouse or the wacom remote, pretty much all functions are easily accessible.I have found that the foot-board works well as modifier keys (control, alt, shift). However, only the forward depression is convenient for frequent use. Pressing the board sideways or forward is odd. Adjusting the spring tension does not really help too much. Because of this, I find myself only using the front-most switch.At 80$, I can not say that it is worth the price. It's decently constructed, but the firmware and software provided is not very robust. DIY solutions are much better if you are capable.DIY alternative:You need a foot pedal (with microswitch -- most come with them), USB HID, and some soldering equipment.Pedal: heavy duty cast aluminum foot petals can be had for around 15-20$ (they are typically used for industrial applications like drill presses and rotary tools, and will last forever).HID: an old keyboard which usually has a small PCB with traces that can be directly soldered to for key presses. Programmable USB mice will also work, or gamepads, numpads, etc. An old logitech unifying mouse with programmable buttons would likely work as well.