SWITCH-CRAFT (got any creative uses of switches?)

[Feral Feline]

[EditWADJA-GAWT?]

I'm hoping this thread can be a catch-all for interesting and unconventional ways to use switches, whether rotaries, relays, footswitches, toggles...


Here's one for a starter:


I saw this a long time ago, supposed to be a DPDT "wired as on-on-on" that can act like a 3PDT.[EDIT SP3T]



and info collector that I am I DL'd the diagram, thinking it might have some use down the road.

Recently came across it again and thought the diagram is a wee-bit confusing so I fired up DIYLC to make better sense of it:


Simply add a jumper to an ON-ON-ON DPDT between lug 3 and 5 (type 2 pictured, but you could use a type 1, too, albeit reconfiguring the ins/outs)

It's supposed to act as a 3PDT, [EDIT: SP3T see post below] but in what way? There're so many ways to use switches.



I thought it could be a simple instrument selector: wire up the 3 outputs (Lugs 1, 4 and 6) to input jacks for 3 instruments.
Output is Lug 2 of course, into your pedalboard>amp.

You could add Eunas I mean buffers (euna what I meant anyway) and or attenuation pots on all the inputs to level the output signals between an active bass guitar and passive P-bass and piezo-under-saddle double-bass ...

So what could/would/should you use that DPDT On-On-On above for?


What cool switch-craft have you conjured or found cast?

 

[Bricksnbeatles]

That’s making a DPDT act as a SP3T, not a 3PDT— there’s one common (the teal wire in the case of your second diagram) and three selectable connections (the three green wires)

I use that configuration very often— one of the main uses I have for an on-on-on dpdt.

 

[Feral Feline]

Okay, time to bumparound some more switching ideas...


An oldie but a goodie, IMO, enables pre or post clip EQ on the Aion Cirrus, as posted here and here elsewhere in the forum:

 

[Feral Feline]

Here's my latest brain-fart-fluster-buster, dreamt up last night and executed on DIYLC today...


The JMK/THCustom Epic Looper has jumpers to switch a loop-channel between two modes of operation:
A) Switching 2 amp-channels
B) Bypass for an extra effects-loop

Even though it's not something one would switch on the fly, I'd rather open the enclosure and flip a switch than mess with jumpers. With jumpers I'd possibly loose one in the process or forget which jumper goes where (yes, map it on the inside of the lid, I sure could)...
Seems a trifle, I know, but that's the whopper-beauty of DIY, you can have it your way and I'd rather just flip a switch.


While the two outer jumpers, ketchup- & mustard-coloured below, each have a common point the relish-green jumper has no common, it floats completely separately, ie no centre-lug to be had on a 3PDT. In fact, relish could really be two separate jumpers, relish and sauerkraut.
Notable is that the relish-jumper always engages one of the mustard's contacts no matter which mode is engaged, but relish only connects on the ketchup side in one of the modes.

JUMP ON IT!
I went for a 4PDT ON-ON basically straight away, and added some jumpers of its own, as I guessed a 3PDT wasn't going to handle the relish...

I numbered the PCB's jumper-points area such as to match the ketchup's and mustard's pole-commons. Then proceeded to play with how to get the relish to jumparound.




After getting the 4PDT to work, I tried to button it down to a 3PDT — to no avail.

Craving hotdogs right now, can't understand why...


So, what switchery-wizardry have you got people?

 

[jcpst]

I don’t have a cool trick, but I do have a switch puzzle that I tried to figure out, but ultimately didn’t.

Ok, start with a 2-pedal combo build. The two bypass footswitches are using intelligent relays.

I don’t know if it’s realistic. Here’s the riddle:

You have a triple throw.

• In one position the two pedals are A -> B.
• In another position the two pedals are B -> A.
• The last position connects the two “ctrl” pads on the relay boards. This puts them on the same control bus so only one is active at a time. The order wouldn’t matter in this state.

I have a few pages of drawings where I tried to figure it out on a 4P3T, but no luck.

 

[Feral Feline]

We're still missing the "Hmm" imoji-response.
This one calls for the monocle, though...

While I can wire up a 3PDT ON-ON for the order-switching, and add a pole (4PDT ON-ON) for the relay boards' control pads — okay, fine ...
but I'm not sure how to deal with the 3-positions aspect. I suspect a slider type switch or rotary might be required.

Just a shot in the dark...
Perhaps a 4PDT on-on-on will elicit a solution:





Hmm ...
That 4PDT-on-on-on could be a wild-goose-chase with nothing at the end but a dead-end ;
but if we throw enough crap at the wall, some of it will stick, right?

 

[lowpitch]

Honestly, anything requiring 4 poles and 3 positions you're better off with a rotary switch in my opinion, both monetarily and from a brain power perspective Just for the fact that with a rotary you actually get 3 completely separate positions per pole and none of that shared lug middle position crap with the mini switches.

 

[jcpst]

It’s kind of goofy though- It’s easily solved if you do two switches. One 3pdt order switch and one spst switch for the control bus.

There’s certainly better ideas for ways to use switches.

One time I was trying to figure out how to do a 4 way loop switcher with order switching and a display for what order they are in. The order switching is easy:

Order switch between A B
Order switch between C D
Order switch order switch between AB/CD, which allows you to get all four loops reversed.

The display is where I went off the rails. I was thinking four single digit 7-segment displays. So you would have a display driver, and then based on the state of the four switches, use logic gates to display the correct order…

At that point it seems better to go into microcontroller territory…

 

[jwin615]

You need AND/NOR logic and a unicorn 4 pole On On On only provides AND OR.
At least that's what makes sense to me, being awake for 20 minutes.
Pretty workable with logic gates, which would take much more space than a microcontroller.

 

[Feral Feline]

I'd go the 2 switch route, myself or even more likely rotary.
I'm not familiar enough with AND/NOR stuff, and for indication I'd just use Bicolour LEDs — that oughta give me enough info on what's doing what & where in the chain.

 

[Feral Feline]

OKayDohkaymmkay?

Further to the Jumperound in Post#3...

I don't have an N1 board of the Cirrus circuit, but with the N1 build doc and the Switch PDF, I think it's fairly straightforward to make the PRE-POST externally switchable...



Here's the switch's datasheet info:




The pertinent part of the PCB, note how the corner pins match up to the Datasheet above:



So I'm fairly confident that my pin-numbering (in orange) is correct.




Matched up those numbers to the Cirrus N1 schematic and I get this:




Really, you don't even have to get the order of the poles correct, so long as you assign one pole per area of the schematic, for example you could swap 10,11,12 for 4,5,6 so long as you keep the wires in the same order on both the relevant poles. Know what I mean?

The wiring diagram would've looked a lot tidier if I'd ignored the SW1C, SW1B nonsense;
nonetheless, for the sake of "accuracy", I matched up the 2x6 switch's poles with the 4PDT's and of course also in keeping with the schematic's numbering.

For a lot of people, the internal switch will suffice as that's how they'll use the pedal, mainly in one mode or the other, pre or post.
For me, I'll keep my options open for when I change something else on my board and to get the desired result "pre" needs to become "post" or vice versa.


Given that I DO NOT HAVE the N1, the usual disclaimers must ensue — use the Jumperound diagram at your own risk, take a DMM to your PCB and make sure you've got the right wires going to the right place etc yaddayaddayadda.









[EDIT: Got tired of the messy less-than-clear wiring — pole position is up to you, leave whichever pole you want for another mod or for the LED...
or just use a 3PDT]

 

[CA138]

Here's my latest brain-fart-fluster-buster, dreamt up last night and executed on DIYLC today...


The JMK/THCustom Epic Looper has jumpers to switch a loop-channel between two modes of operation:
A) Switching 2 amp-channels
B) Bypass for an extra effects-loop

Even though it's not something one would switch on the fly, I'd rather open the enclosure and flip a switch than mess with jumpers. With jumpers I'd possibly loose one in the process or forget which jumper goes where (yes, map it on the inside of the lid, I sure could)...
Seems a trifle, I know, but that's the whopper-beauty of DIY, you can have it your way and I'd rather just flip a switch.


While the two outer jumpers, ketchup- & mustard-coloured below, each have a common point the relish-green jumper has no common, it floats completely separately, ie no centre-lug to be had on a 3PDT. In fact, relish could really be two separate jumpers, relish and sauerkraut.
Notable is that the relish-jumper always engages one of the mustard's contacts no matter which mode is engaged, but relish only connects on the ketchup side in one of the modes.

JUMP ON IT!
I went for a 4PDT ON-ON basically straight away, and added some jumpers of its own, as I guessed a 3PDT wasn't going to handle the relish...

I numbered the PCB's jumper-points area such as to match the ketchup's and mustard's pole-commons. Then proceeded to play with how to get the relish to jumparound.

View attachment 82693


After getting the 4PDT to work, I tried to button it down to a 3PDT — to no avail.

Craving hotdogs right now, can't understand why...


So, what switchery-wizardry have you got people?

I love this. You are a visionary. Thanks for the great ideas!

 

[Feral Feline]

Thanks, CA138.

I'm more of a stumbler, though... I've stumbled onto/into things after I've poked my nose where it doesn't belong — being inexperienced and naive enough to not realise some things just can't be done a certain way and trying anyway.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Whelp, fellow PPCBers, here's another brain-drift on toggles vs rotaries:

Sometimes you just don't have room in a build for a rotary, but a toggle can be squeezed in.

 

[Feral Feline]

Came across this old post today...

Still hoping for some more crazy-switcheroo tadoo from all of you...

Don't forget, the title is Switch-craft, the arcane usage of switches, not to be confused with Switchcraft the brand, which is more involved with connectors than switches, really...

 

[rschloz]

Copped this trick from an internet stranger’s notebook paper & pen drawing posted on a 15+ year old forum lol.

DPDT with the circuit output cap across the commons. Pins 1 and 3 select between the stock setting band pass and modded low pass filter outputs (pins 8/9 of LM13700) of the Waddlebox/FX-25. Either selection gets passed through the output capacitor, then gets routed to either side of the trim pot, which is calibrated to mitigate volume differences when the switch is thrown (low pass was much louder).

Also check out some wiring diagrams for push-pull pots on a telecaster for series/parallel pickup selector. Spaghetti time!

 

[DGWVI]

Nothing too fancy, but I've used it in a few commissions -

A momentary polarity toggle

Both the toggle and momentary switch are SPDT

Here's a shitty vid showing it in action with a stuttering sub octave -

 

[lowpitch]

I've been working on a buffered splitter/mixer/looper pedal with two FX loops. I wanted to be able to switch the order of the loops as well as run them in parallel, so I came up with this on a single 4P3T rotary switch:

 

[Feral Feline]

I thought more people would see the following here over time, than in its original thread, and find it useful.
Maertz13's cool idea is to have the bypass channel selection always visible, but to dim it when the pedal is bypassed.
I'm going to have to stick this in a few of my builds and it's got me thinkering about some other possibilities such as
RATE LEDs !

Dimmed-down RATE LEDs in bypass, and ...

What else?

I had a few idears. Hmmm maybe it's time to sleep.