Wiring a switch to turn power on/off (battery only, no DC jack)

mkstewartesq

mkstewartesq

Well-known member
OK, here’s something that seems like it would be relatively straightforward, but I can’t find any clear answer via Google: how to wire up a power on/off switch for a pedal, specifically one that will be driven by battery only (no DC jack).

I’m building a strap–mounted treble booster, which means that it will run exclusively on battery. Doing it the old-school way for treble boosters (no DC jack-the battery is connected or disconnected based on whether there is a plug in the input jack) doesn’t really work in this case because I plan to leave a short cable running from the guitar to the input jack at all times, and only plug into the output jack when I am actually using the guitar. So I’m really looking to wire up a toggle switch to turn the power on and off so the battery isn’t draining the whole time a cable is plugged in. All my searches have really only revealed how to use a DPDT for effecting bypass, which doesn’t really address the battery consumption issue (and, for my use case, I really don’t absolutely NEED a bypass state for this effect, as this guitar sounds great with a trouble booster but not so great without it).
  1. Any tips on how I would wire a switch between the battery and the board just to act as a simple power on/off to engage/disengae the battery?
  2. Having a switch would be my preferred solution so that I could just turn the pedal off during periods when I might want to leave both the input and output cable engaged (or forget to unplug them). Assuming that isn’t possible, however, is there any issue with having the battery run off of a switched jack on the output side, rather than the input side, so that the battery is disconnected when there is a plug inserted into the input jack but no plug in the output jack?
In a perfect world, a single switch would control BOTH power on/off and bypass (i.e., when the power is cut to the pedal, clean signal still passes) but if I can’t figure out something as simple as the power on/off, I bet that’s probably well beyond my capacity to noodle through.

Thanks,

Mike
 
Simple ON/OFF switch between Bat + and Board 9v + in.
You can wire an LDR and LED for power status on the board side of the switch.

I did this in a combo pedal for my wife, but the inside is so messed it's hard to figure what goes where...
 
Nic said:
Simple ON/OFF switch between Bat + and Board 9v + in.
You can wire an LDR and LED for power status on the board side of the switch.

I did this in a combo pedal for my wife, but the inside is so messed it's hard to figure what goes where...
Click to expand...
So, just a SPDT ON-ON, with the ground from the battery snap bypassing the switch and going straight to the board?

Thanks,
M

EDIT - you posted your diagram just as I was replying - thanks!
 
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Yep, the point is only to break the path ... from my understanding, maybe gurus will have their say on the topic.
 
I use 3PDT toggle switches all the time to both turn power off and true-bypass my bass (and guitar!) electronics. A 3PDT is basically a DPDT with an extra SPDT section. The DPDT does the standard true bypass wiring and the extra SPDT switches the battery's positive lead to the circuit or to nowhere. You can add a LED and resistor across the circuit power (9V to ground) to see when it's on.

BTW, I'm not a fan of using a standard LED as a power indicator on battery, since the LED could very well draw as much or more power than the circuit itself, ruining battery life. But that's a different story. I built a whole circuit to deal with this issue.
 
Last edited:
JTEX said:
I use 3PDT toggle switches all the time to both to turn power off and true-bypass my bass electronics. A 3PDT is basically a DPDT with an extra SPDT section. The DPDT does the standard true bypass wiring and the extra SPDT switches the battery's positive lead to the circuit or to nowhere. You can add a LED and resistor across the circuit power (9V to ground) to see when it's on.

BTW, I'm not a fan of using a standard LED as a power indicator on battery, since the LED could very well draw as much or more power than the circuit itself, ruining battery life. But that's a different story. I built a whole circuit to deal with this issue.
Click to expand...
Well, now, there's an idea. I wasn't even aware there were 3PDT toggles. Space will be at a bit of a premium in this build (I was hoping to keep it a bit thinner using an SPDT or DPDT) but the 3PDT toggle sounds a good route to investigate.Thanks!

Mike
 
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