Footswitches and encoder
On a Raspberry Pi, up to 8 footswitches and a rotary encoder can be wired straight to the GPIO header. No extra board, no resistor: each input is wired between its GPIO and ground, and the Pi’s internal pull-ups do the rest.
- Momentary footswitches (SPST, normally open), the kind used for tap tempo.
- Optionally, a rotary encoder with a push button (the common EC11 type).
- Wires to the Pi’s 40-pin header, ideally through a connector so the box can be opened.
Default wiring
Section titled “Default wiring”| Input | GPIO (BCM) | Header pin |
|---|---|---|
| Footswitch 1 | 17 | 11 |
| Footswitch 2 | 27 | 13 |
| Footswitch 3 | 22 | 15 |
| Footswitch 4 | 23 | 16 |
| Encoder A | 5 | 29 |
| Encoder B | 6 | 31 |
| Encoder button | 13 | 33 |
| Ground | 6, 9, 14, 20, 25, 30, 34, 39 |
Wire the other leg of each switch, and the encoder’s common pin, to a ground pin.
Settings → Hardware
Section titled “Settings → Hardware”Settings → Hardware sets what is wired:
- Footswitches: from none to 8, and the GPIO of each. A LED next to each one lights while it is pressed, to check the wiring.
- Tap tempo on the last footswitch: on by default with two switches or more. The last switch then taps the tempo, and held, opens the tuner.
- Encoder: its A and B GPIOs, its push button or none, and its steps per detent. Lower the steps if it takes several clicks to move.
Changes apply at once and are kept on the data partition.
What they do
Section titled “What they do”The footswitches follow the mode of the Live page: blocks on and off in Stomp mode, scenes in Scenes mode, presets in Setlist mode. They act when pressed.
The encoder moves through the controls like the arrow keys; its button selects, like Return.