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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: Stomp box switches?

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5/2/2000 6:59 PM

Re: Stomp box switches?

these magic parts switches are OK, I've seen them used on some of the dunlop stuff. from the rear they look more square than the rectangular carlings, the contanct are in the shape of an "X"... one word of caution, the black plastic casing of the switch WILL melt, so don't spend too much time on it. other than that it seems like a good switch, however, I prefer the difinative "click" of the carlings.
Josh

4/26/2000 5:59 PM

Steve Daniels (Small Bear Electronics)

If you are willing and able to do some hand-crafting, there IS an alternative to the Carling-type stomp switch. You build an E-switch miniature switch onto your board and build an actuator into the case. You can see an example of a pedal that uses one of these "Bypass On Board" actuators on my site:

http://home.netcom.com/~smallbearelec

The article on the Bear Face shows the pedal with one of these actuators installed, and the article "Bypass On Board" explains how to make them.

4/27/2000 12:11 AM

Those do work very well, with only one problem - the board and housing that holds the mechanical plunger mechanism (very clever, by the way Steve) simply MUST be rigidly aligned within the tolerances of the plunger mechanism and hard mounted to stay that way. Most beginner DIY effects folks can get holes drilled, but having to get both lateral and vertical spacings right inside a box that they maybe can't do a test-and-fit is very difficult. It's a superior idea for anything that is pre-manufactured with some precision.

I'm pursuing a slightly different tack. I think I've located some miniature latching DPDT relays. With one of those and some SMD CMOS, you have a true bypass switch that can be driven by anything.

Another option for beginners without well developed mechanical skills is to make a "bypass strip", which is a metal outlet strip with relay bypasses inside and momentary or SPST footswitches for toggling the relays. The effects then don't need any bypass at all, just plug into the bypass strip.

This integrates with a DIY pedalboard in a really straightforward manner.

I don't think anyone's had the nerve to dig into my any-to-any programmable switcher yet - it's a big project to tackle.

5/3/2000 10:00 AM
paul perry	We must be in parallel universes R.G., I just posted in another diy fx list about using dip relays!! If you have a permanent source for suitable ones (small signal type, not power) I'd like to know. I find running the wires to a dpdt is a real bitch, they have to be sheilded etc & some switches (like the MCM?) have to be sheilded as well.

5/3/2000 3:32 PM

Yeah - parallel universes... I like it...

What you need is *latching* DPDT relays to avoid using up battery power all the time, and then a driver circuit to apply the state change pulses to the latching coils, and a slow-change driver circuit to keep the dv/dt on the coil from being coupled into the signal path inside the relay. There's a schematic of a suitable circuit posted in the Tech Tips page at GEO as a latching relay driver.

On a philosophical level, there are no permanent sources for anything; however, many small dpdt latching relays work in this circuit.

5/4/2000 1:03 PM
JD Sleep	Re: Stomp box switches? Paul, Where did you post that? JD

5/4/2000 12:04 PM

R.G. said

..I don't think anyone's had the nerve to dig into my any-to-any programmable switcher yet - it's a big project to tackle. ...

My buddy asked me to do it for him. He would liked to have it in 6 loop/8 program configuration .. but..
I did some adding, and realized that it was going to be a surprisingly expensive project (at least with quality parts and our prices here in Finland)
About 250-300$ (1500+ FIM) per unit and that's without the boxes and labour.
We decided to get into it, when we have found a reasonable pricing parts supplier, or get them somewhere else.(relays from wrecked modems and so on)

Jukka

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