Pedal to MIDI

[JustJ]

Hi,
I have an old but good keyboard which I want to use as masterkeyboard. The problem is that the pedal port is broken. So I'm searching for a good alternative to the very expencive (110€) commercial pedal to midi converters. My first question is if there is any way to build one yourself. And the second question is if it was possible to use a direct rs232 connection (I have a few soldering skills I could use on that) and a program that would turn these into midi cc messages.
So thanks in advance,
JJ
edit: I don't know if this helps, but I'm using Traction 2