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

4PDT ON-ON-ON TRICOLOUR LED IDEA.png
FOR THOSE TIMES YOUR TOGGLE NEEDS VISUAL-AUGMENTATION BY LEDs

[EDIT]
Explanation of the situation:
To get LED indication for an SPDT on-OFF-on toggle (ALL THREE POSITIONS), I had to resort to a 4PDT on-ON-on toggle.
You say: "Why not just look at the position of the BAT?"
Well on a darkened stage away from your pedalboard, you can just look over at it and SEE THE LIGHT, but not the BAT, man. Woah Man!

The left-most 2 poles operate as per the SPST on-off-on. The middle position is off, nothing connected.
The right 2 poles are for manipulating the RGB-LED, getting a colour for even the "OFF" position of the switch.

To reiterate from its original posting:

Toggle Down = top row connected to common, RED & BLUE (gives you magenta)​
​
Toggle Centre = no connection for SW-1, BLUE ONLY​
​
Toggle Up = bottom row connected to common, GREEN & BLUE (gives you cyan)​

NOTE JUMPERS placement.
Make sure you get the right type of 4PDT on-on-on — DPDT equivalent is a TYPE 2. Read the datasheet(s)!

You can mix up the order of colours to taste, and achieve different hues with different CLR value, juggling their values to achieve the desired colour AND brightness.


*** IGNORE R12, that's just there as a reference point from the original circuit this lit-switch was intended for.
R12's NOT PART OF THE SWITCH(ING)!
Use the 4PDT switchery, minus R12, for any situation you want to replace the SPDT on-off-on for same functionality with LED indication.

IF ANYONE HAS A BETTER WAY OF GETTING LED-INDICATION IN THE "OFF" POSITION, PLEASE POST IT IN THIS THREAD!
 
Last edited:
mckillacuddy said:
Whaa? You’re gonna have to explain this one to the mint-flavored paste kid
Click to expand...
It's for someone who wanted LED indication for each position of a SPDT on-off-on switch.
Explained in the following quoted post from that thread:

Feral Feline said:
....

View attachment 91009
Toggle Down = top row connected to common, RED & BLUE (gives you magenta)

Toggle Centre = no connection for SW-1, BLUE ONLY

Toggle Up = bottom row connected to common, GREEN & BLUE (gives you cyan)

NOTE the JUMPERS; also, there are different kinds of on-on-on configurations, so make sure you know which configuration your middle position is when ordering 4PDT on-on-on switches. Read the datasheet(s)!

That gives you 3 different colours, one for each position of SW-1. You could stick any of the three colours in the middle position, for instance if you wanted a YELLOW light, you'd combine RED & GREEN.

Since the individual colours on the RGB-LED each have a different forward voltage from their neighbouring colours, it would be best to breadboard the switch to determine what value each CLR needs to be for an even brightness (if so desired!) and colour mixed to taste.


Here's a quick 1-minute primer on colour-mixing with light:







...
Click to expand...

I'll edit the post #22 above with the switch diagram.
 
Feral Feline said:
View attachment 91008
FOR THOSE TIMES YOUR TOGGLE NEEDS VISUAL-AUGMENTATION BY LEDs

[EDIT]
Explanation of the situation:
To get LED indication for an SPDT on-OFF-on toggle (ALL THREE POSITIONS), I had to resort to a 4PDT on-ON-on toggle.
You say: "Why not just look at the position of the BAT?"
Well on a darkened stage away from your pedalboard, you can just look over at it and SEE THE LIGHT, but not the BAT, man. Woah Man!

The left-most 2 poles operate as per the SPST on-off-on. The middle position is off, nothing connected.
The right 2 poles are for manipulating the RGB-LED, getting a colour for even the "OFF" position of the switch.

To reiterate from its original posting:

Toggle Down = top row connected to common, RED & BLUE (gives you magenta)​
​
Toggle Centre = no connection for SW-1, BLUE ONLY​
​
Toggle Up = bottom row connected to common, GREEN & BLUE (gives you cyan)​

NOTE JUMPERS placement.
Make sure you get the right type of 4PDT on-on-on — DPDT equivalent is a TYPE 2. Read the datasheet(s)!

You can mix up the order of colours to taste, and achieve different hues with different CLR value, juggling their values to achieve the desired colour AND brightness.


*** IGNORE R12, that's just there as a reference point from the original circuit this lit-switch was intended for.
R12's NOT PART OF THE SWITCH(ING)!
Use the 4PDT switchery, minus R12, for any situation you want to replace the SPDT on-off-on for same functionality with LED indication.

IF ANYONE HAS A BETTER WAY OF GETTING LED-INDICATION IN THE "OFF" POSITION, PLEASE POST IT IN THIS THREAD!
Click to expand...
Now I get it. I looked at “SW-1” and saw an actual switch rather than solder pads. And hadn’t even thought about magneto or ryan, so double thanks.
 
No SWITCH-CRAFT here, just a bog-standard A/B Loops selector with master bypass.
a-b-loops-with-master-bypass-diagram-png.91145
 
For anyone who wants both momentary and latching bypass for an effect, without resorting to an Intelligent Relay-based method...


MOMENTARY WITH LATCHING BYPASS both illuminated.png


By special request, I was asked to add an LED to the momentary — though not necessary, it adds a bit of fun.
If you don't need/want an LED for the momentary, delete the above 3PDT-momentary's middle pole, and use a DPDT momentary instead.


[EDIT] Request was for one LED...


MOMENTARY WITH LATCHING BYPASS (one LED).png
 
Last edited:
Buffered bypass with series parallel switch, with and without master-bypass:

A B SERIES-PARALLEL LOOP-SWITCHERS.png



Above based off Brett's post in this thread:

Brett said:
Cool, it's actually pretty simple.

You'd wire your switch as follows:
1702681803166-png.63348

Pay close attention to the tags, the I/Os for the effects are re-ordered compared to the previous images. Switch pins are labeled in the schematic.

You could optionally add an indication to the switch setting by going with a 3PDT as follows:
1702682397568-png.63349
Click to expand...
 
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I'd originally intended this thread to be more about oddball arcane uses of switches from everyone,
but it's turning into a dumping ground for all sorts of my switch diagrams.

Please contribute something if/when possible.





Meanwhile...

... a switch (toggle/stomper/momentary/whatever) to max out your volume (or gain or whatever... add another pot or trimmit for some control):

Feral Feline said:
full-blast-fffx-png.90948


You don't even have to remove the LEVEL pot from your build.
Just add the wires and DPDT as shown to go from the LEVEL-pot setting to FULL-BLAST.
If you need to tame full-blast just a smidge, you can stick a resistor inline between the pot and the switch, either
SW LUG-2 <> LEVEL-3
or
SW LUG-1 <> LEVEL-2.
Click to expand...
 
A DPDT on-off-on switch is often used for a three position filter switch, with two alternative capacitors across the end pairs of terminals.
The problem with this is that the layout of the options on the switch is illogical, with the minimum or maximum value on the middle position of the switch.

So here's an better alternative using a DPDT on-on-on switch that allows three alternative component options (or two components and a wire-link or open circuit) to be laid out on the switch in any order.

This seems very useful to me, but I couldn't find a diagram for it on the web, so had to work it out for myself. dpdt-on-on-on-switch-3-component-option-switching.jpg
 
PauloB said:
A DPDT on-off-on switch is often used for a three position filter switch, with two alternative capacitors across the end pairs of terminals.
The problem with this is that the layout of the options on the switch is illogical, with the minimum or maximum value on the middle position of the switch.

So here's an better alternative using a DPDT on-on-on switch that allows three alternative component options (or two components and a wire-link or open circuit) to be laid out on the switch in any order.

This seems very useful to me, but I couldn't find a diagram for it on the web, so had to work it out for myself.View attachment 98044
Click to expand...
I recently was looking at the octaking octave fuzz schematic and I appreciated the smart use of switching to achieve a logical layout

1751078393620.png

When the switch is up, c2 and c3 are in parallel resulting in 10n3 net capacitance. In the middle position c3 is out of the circuit, resulting in a 4n7 net capacitance, and in the bottom position the caps are short circuited and net capacitance is functionally zero.
 
PauloB said:
A DPDT on-off-on switch is often used for a three position filter switch, with two alternative capacitors across the end pairs of terminals.
The problem with this is that the layout of the options on the switch is illogical, with the minimum or maximum value on the middle position of the switch.

So here's an better alternative using a DPDT on-on-on switch that allows three alternative component options (or two components and a wire-link or open circuit) to be laid out on the switch in any order.

This seems very useful to me, but I couldn't find a diagram for it on the web, so had to work it out for myself.View attachment 98044
Click to expand...

I use this ON-ON-ON style all the time... WAYYYY MORE INTUITIVE user interface for toggle's positions:

SMALL
MEDIUM
LARGE


...instead of the often stupid UNintuitive on-off-on:
MEDIUM
SMALL (component wired between lugs 2&5)
LARGE


...Unless of course the on-off-on switch is wired as per @AceHyzer's post #36! 😻
SMALL
MEDIUM
LARGE

AWERSUM!!



@mckillacuddy — I hear you ! My lysdexia often causes to me "switchlexia" — which, way the by, I'm stealing for NAMING one of my loop-switcher-order-swapper pedals. 😻


This is the sort of stuff I'd hoped the thread would inspire-inform-innitiate!
Thanks for contributing, folks!
 
mckillacuddy said:
I love this thread! Of all the pedalometry I’ve managed to learn myself over the years, I still can’t hardly get my head around multi-pole switches. I think I have switchlexia
Click to expand...

All these arrangements are so obvious when they're laid out in front of you, but seem so difficult to envisage if you're trying to work them out from scratch.

Either we're all switchlexic, or conjuring up this stuff is actually quite tricky.
 
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Great thread @Feral Feline ! Thanks for the great tips.

One of the things that has triggered my OCD are SP three way toggle switches for changing between three different values of a component where the order is off - resulting in a left-to-right or right-to-left order that reads "Mid-Low-High". I took a DPDT (On-On-On) and wired it up with some jumpers to achieve a proper "Low-Mid-High" left-to-right (or bottom-to-top, depending on the toggle's orientation). And in so doing found I could use one less component to achieve three different applicable values.

3-Way_Toggle_On-On-On_for_Ordered_Cap_Switching_Diagram.png
 
LOVE that above configuration @Cybercow!

I think it is the first time I've seen a DP Switch with a jumper across lugs 2&5 that made sense.

I think a BIG PART of why that is, is because ...

ALL TOO OFTEN when working with switches, I get locked into thinking the INPUT has to be into LUG2 & OUTPUT from Lug5.


Kind of like those cool little GBOF boards from GPCB, I always think of GROUND being on the bottom, but you can make GRND be whichever part of the little board you want...

GBOF REGULAR.png


Often the biggest hurdle is letting go of our preconceptions!

That's what made me work on the Jumperound switchery (posted earlier in the thread) incessantly until I came up with a solution that worked — my instinct told me it could work and though I was quite green to DIY at the time, I ignored the inner voice of "well if it can be done, somebody would've already done it". I was surprised Kevin (Aion) didn't offer it on the Cirrus to begin with!



Letting go of preconceptions can lead to solutions, such as the Switch from the beginning of the thread, the OP takes a DPDT on-on-on to make it behave like a DP3T which can accomplish switching solutions offered by PauloB, AceHyzer and Cybercow above. The output doesn't have to be from the switch itself, but from the components attached to the switch:

DPDT ON-ON-ON (ACTS LIKE 3PDT) CAP:RESISTOR.png

The end of components 1, 2, & 3 that are not attached to the switch can go to their appropriate destination in the circuit;
Those components could be resistors, caps, relays, a mix of the aforementioned...
Of course, done in a way that makes logical sense for the user-interface too...

  • SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
  • SLOW MEDIUM FAST
  • BASS MIDS TREBLE
  • DGA, AGD, ADG
  • CTE, ECT, ETC ...
 
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