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Help me find a clickless momentary stomp switch

Started by mlabbee, February 22, 2013, 11:19:41 PM

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mlabbee

I'm trying to build a tap tempo switch for a Strymon Flint, which requires:

"a normally open, single pole, double throw (SPDT) type switch that switches the TIP between the SLEEVE (ground or 0VDC) to the RING (5VDC)."

I found a momentary DPDT switch on Pedal Parts Plus which kind of works, but the switch itself clicks. This appears to confuse the Flint (it sometimes treats the "click" as two stomps). Plus, it is hard to operate - you really have to stomp on it and the results are inconsistent. 

Does anyone know where I can find a clickless SPDT or DPDT momentary switch?  I e-mailed Small Bear and they only have the switch I've already tried (their clickless switches are all single throw, which will not work, according to Strymon).  Mouser doesn't appear to indicate if their switches are clickless or not (at least I can't find any indication.

Thanks!

midwayfair

I'm not sure it's really possible; there's probably a reason you can't find it.

Think about what's required to make a clickless momentary: All it has to do is bounce on a spring and disconnect from a connection point.

Now think about how a throw would have to work: You'd need to be sure that when you press on the switch that it makes contact with the other point.

Are you sure you'd even WANT a clickless switch with a throw? You'd still have to stomp on it to make absolutely certain you're making contact, and you wouldn't have any tactile confirmation that you completed the throw.

I'm pretty sure that the clickless switches in the new version of the El Cap are just relays (using CMOS switchers or something), and that's why they can both be clickless.

mlabbee

That makes sense - so to do it with a soft switch I'd need a relay . . . anyone know of a simple relay based momentary switch schematic I could use for this?

RobA

I don't know how the Strymon works, so I may be off base here, but it sounds like you just need to debounce the switch. I say this because you mentioned that it only registers two clicks sometimes. It's typical to need to debounce because as the switch makes (or breaks) contact, it may actually do this several times. The processor may read the pins fast enough to register these and cause problems for the program's logic. Debounce can be done in software, but they may not have done it or your switch could be bouncing too much. You can make a hardware debounce using an inverting Schmitt trigger and it works really well.
Affiliations: Music Unfolding (musicunfolding.com), software based effects and Rockā€¢it Frog (rock.it-frog.com), DIY effects (coming soon).

pedalman

id open the switch up, use a dremel to soften up the edges
there is a video on youtube somewhere
I mod cheap guitars because my local music store said not to.

rollo greb

If you want to go with a relay, i've used this layout many times and it works great:



I've also used the AMZ bypass pcb's a bunch too.

pedalman

I mod cheap guitars because my local music store said not to.

tagwap

I'm interested in using this layout for clickless switching. Can someone please explain where on the vero do you put the jack in/outs and the effect pcb in/outs?

kaycee

Quote from: tagwap on May 01, 2014, 08:25:34 PM
I'm interested in using this layout for clickless switching. Can someone please explain where on the vero do you put the jack in/outs and the effect pcb in/outs?

Yeah, I've never understood how to wire this up either??