Laptop Foot Pedal

Disclaimer:

MiniSolve provides these instructions in good faith, to help you save some money and time. We make no warranty, expressed or implied, that they'll work.

Unfortunately, laptop computers don't come with a serial port. Why? How much does it cost for  a laptop manufacturer to put a serial port into a laptop? Ten dollars? Anyway, a SingAround foot pedal will not work without a serial port. Fortunately, there's a solution.

You'll have to buy a USB serial adapter for an additional $26 (19.95 + $6.00 shipping). I know, we're sorry about that, too, but at least it's a solvable problem. You'll then have a foot pedal that will work on your laptop and desktop computers.

The adapter we tested is here: USBGear USBG-232MINI

It will come with a mini CD-Rom disk. If you're not used to mini-disks, don't panic. They fit in your CD-Rom drive You'll have to install the CD software on your laptop and your desktop computers.

The device comes with a 3-foot cable that plugs into the USB port of your computer and then into the USBGear device (nice of USBGear to provide that). Now you have a 9-pin connector into which you can plug your foot pedal. We suggest buying another short cable for your laptop, so you don't have to search around the back of your desktop computer to locate the USB port when you want to switch. You can plug the USBGear device directly into the USB port of either compter, but we don't recommend that. An accident on the laptop could damage the USB port, the USBGear device, or even the laptop. Really. Get another short, cheap, generic, USB cable.

The installation we tested was straightforward and worked without any hitches. SingAround recognized the foot pedal on Com4 on two machines, Com3 on another. That's fine. It doesn't matter if the laptop and desktop are different com ports. SingAround doesn't care.

What can go wrong? Any problems, call for help. Mention you're trying to install SingAround on a laptop.