About SoulPedal®
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SoulPedal® started out over a decade ago as a hack for a burnt out bulb on an old Morley Wah Pedal by wiring a pressure sensor in my shoe for modulation. In 2015, I pulled together a team of Engineers and attempted a crowd-funding launch. But without a gyroscope, even a simple toe kick was not reliable enough to be fully trusted live, so there were no true users. The team gave up (but later paid back in full - just how I am and still my friends.)
Still up for the challenge, I added a new motion chip and seriously got into making stuff. After multiple iterations, maybe a few hundred or so, the pedal became more comfortable, under 3.5 oz, and was eventually made to fit practically any shoe. But without an FCC license, it was still a costly venture and was just a Wah and Expression Pedal that took forever to make by hand - even the enclosure.
Later with a new motion sensor, and a wooden Makerbot 3D printer, it made way for a more custom pedal and a better fit. But then I started noticing cracks in the plastic with battery contact issues. So I pulled in contractors from UpWork to start over. It needed to be manufacture-able. "Prototypes are easy, Production is hard." To quote Elon Musk. My code was re-written in C by one amazing programmer in Vietnam. The CAD was pulled together from a young rising star still in college. Other EE's have taken on parts of it to make it what it is today while I focused more on Design, Manufacturing, and the Human Interface.
Meanwhile, Converse showed us they could make a prototype Chuck Allstar shoe. They never went commercial for some reason - the curse of Marketing I'm sure. They used a familiar control method that I had already seen out of MIT years earlier. Meanwhile, I still preferred pressure control and kept on that track and mission.
In 2022, T Scot (Early Beta tester) from SlingShot Band, along my rock solid wife Maria (in pic with Bandit) did a reveal at NAMM '22. Again, I thought I'd be ready, but underestimated the build and could only provide demonstrations.
After the NAMM ‘23 show, sales picked up some, but the price is a bit steep for most, I get it. Maybe that changes in the future as this evolves, we’ll see. These are all hand crafted ground up, and built to last a very long time. The insole does not wear, is light and very flexible with multiple sizes available.
Dual pedals are also possible as multi-channel is now available (along with a dozen other goodies). A musician in S Korea owns a pair. No complaints.
SP-3 was introduced with Haptics (vibration), available upon request, but is semi-prototype. Warrantee is the same with a path to production where there is new interest.
The only thing that wears is the battery contact and the $10 replaceable foot pressure sensor. The insole will last longer than you, same with the box and there are no known bugs in code. All documented on Github, all versions.