Footswitches: Which one and why?

[Ekimneets]

This is why I love picking other people's brains. One, I've already learned a new soldering technique. Two, I pride myself on my tight builds with little, if any, extra length of wire. Never once, did I consider the need for repairs.

OMG, I've got so much to learn.

Mike

[machfrequency]

My last couple batches have been the "Pro" 3PDT's from Mammoth. They were on sale for like 1.50 a piece so I bought a dozen. Lately I've been looking into opto/relay based set ups that use different switch types, and haven't settled on what to use for them really.

I've played with Tayda's soft touch spst stomp on my VFE builds and haven't had any trouble with it YET, but I can tell it does feel a little cheap. Thankfully given its design it will be easy to swap out if necessary (I use NASA style solder joins on them, straight wire soldered parallel to the pole piece, super easy to remove the wire that way)

Can anyone point me in the direction of an opto/relay switch seller/manufacturer?

1776 have a small PCB available to make one with a DPDT switch but It would be great to have a stand alone switch, like "The Gig Rig" OptoKick switches.

Cheers, Ben

(First contribution to this community, thanks everyone.)

[Govmnt_Lacky]

I have had 3 or 4 of the DPDT momentary footswitches (PCB pin) fail on me from BLMS. Funny thing is, when they failed... they failed as latching 

[Govmnt_Lacky]

I think he means this

Is this a woman in the pic? Wondering why "he" would be wearing such a large stoned engagement ring 

[somnif]

Can anyone point me in the direction of an opto/relay switch seller/manufacturer?

1776 have a small PCB available to make one with a DPDT switch but It would be great to have a stand alone switch, like "The Gig Rig" OptoKick switches.

Cheers, Ben

(First contribution to this community, thanks everyone.)

I can't find any pics of what the inside of the switches look like, but I can almost guarantee the switches themselves are momentary soft-touch with optical circuitry attached. I dug up the patent application for their "Quartermaster" board ( https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050056142A1/en?oq=US10%2f937%2c997 ) and it seems to use optical elements as muting/routing, pretty much as expected.

If you want something more compact than 1776's there is a switch-bottom sized version over at THCustoms: http://diy.thcustom.com/shop/optotronik_kit/

If you're looking for pre-assembled switches, that I'm afraid I can't help with. I have no idea where to even start looking for those.

[machfrequency]

Can anyone point me in the direction of an opto/relay switch seller/manufacturer?

1776 have a small PCB available to make one with a DPDT switch but It would be great to have a stand alone switch, like "The Gig Rig" OptoKick switches.

Cheers, Ben

(First contribution to this community, thanks everyone.)

I can't find any pics of what the inside of the switches look like, but I can almost guarantee the switches themselves are momentary soft-touch with optical circuitry attached. I dug up the patent application for their "Quartermaster" board ( https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050056142A1/en?oq=US10%2f937%2c997 ) and it seems to use optical elements as muting/routing, pretty much as expected.

If you want something more compact than 1776's there is a switch-bottom sized version over at THCustoms: http://diy.thcustom.com/shop/optotronik_kit/

If you're looking for pre-assembled switches, that I'm afraid I can't help with. I have no idea where to even start looking for those.

Thank you friend.

I will look into it.

[BryGuy]

I can't find any pics of what the inside of the switches look like, but I can almost guarantee the switches themselves are momentary soft-touch with optical circuitry attached. I dug up the patent application for their "Quartermaster" board ( https://patents.google.com/patent/US20050056142A1/en?oq=US10%2f937%2c997 ) and it seems to use optical elements as muting/routing, pretty much as expected.

If you want something more compact than 1776's there is a switch-bottom sized version over at THCustoms: http://diy.thcustom.com/shop/optotronik_kit/

If you're looking for pre-assembled switches, that I'm afraid I can't help with. I have no idea where to even start looking for those.

THCustoms has a lot of switching options and what is nice is he sells them in kit form. You get everything you need minus the switch. I've used the Optotronik sever times and they work well. Probably going to give one of his Uber Switches a try at some point; it's a relay/micro controller type.

If your looking for a relay bypass without a microcontroller PARASIT STUDIO sells such a pcb though I have not tried it myself.

NASA soldering standards are on the web, you can look at the inspection standards where I got this picture, http://www.sal.wisc.edu/docs/Soldering%20Basics.pdf,
or the soldering technical standards document https://nepp.nasa.gov/docuploads/06AA01BA-FC7E-4094-AE829CE371A7B05D/NASA-STD-8739.3.pdf. Few of us would literally solder everything to these standards.

A lot of good "what to look for" reference photos in that nasa document if you are concerned about your solder joints. A great reference source.

[pickdropper]

I think he means this

Is this a woman in the pic? Wondering why "he" would be wearing such a large stoned engagement ring 

That pic has been around for years.  It is a woman in the pic.  It's a staged stock photo picture with somebody who clearly is not in it for their soldering experience.  ;-)

IIRC, most versions are watermarked by Shutterstock.