Footswitches: Which one and why?

[Ekimneets]

So this question is about Your go to footswitch, not special applications.

I want to know what you choose and why?

I geek out over quality, but is a $15 footswitch really justified. On the other hand picking up 10 for $5 off of eBay scares me.

I'm actually looking for a good balance of quality and fiscal responsibility.

I have no idea if  "soft touch" is desirable or that sort of thing or how important gold-plated lugs are?

-Mike

[jimilee]

I use the gold contacts from tayda


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[somnif]

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)

[Ekimneets]

 I'm going to have to look that up, I have a hard time picturing it.

-Mike

[jimilee]

I think he means this

[matmosphere]

I think he means this

Ouch!

Hahaha

[pickdropper]

I think he means this

I mean, it's so obvious.  Why would you need to solder in the CMOS battery on a motherboard?  It just snaps in.

[Ekimneets]

Somnif, those (pro 3pdt at Mammoth) are what I have defaulted to for now until something changes my mind. I don't think I'd go for anything cheaper than that, but I'm trying to figure out if there is any advantage on spending more. Or, is it more of a preference sort of thing.

Jimilee, I'm dense. When I get some time later today I'll look it up because I'm curious and because right now, I haven't got a clue what that's all about. Plus, NASA was mentioned and I grew up in Houston idolizing that organization. So, if it's good for them, then I'm sure I've got something to learn from it.

-Mike

[matmosphere]

I use the inexpensive ones from love my switches. They seem to be better than the tayda ones and on par with if not better than the standard ones at mammoth.

I think the tayda ones are okay too. They will all fail at some point or another but I haven't had any go bad for the past five years I've been building.

[alanp]

I mean, it's so obvious.  Why would you need to solder in the CMOS battery on a motherboard?  It just snaps in.

Ignoring the elephant in the room (yes, he's soldering wrong), old motherboards did indeed have their batteries SOLDERED onto the board, not in a battery clip.

It can be a bastard when you open up an old 'pooter and the battery has leaked corrosive shit over everything around it.

[reddesert]

I'm guessing somnif means the style of passing the wire through the lug in the attached picture, as opposed to bending the wire around the lug (both are acceptable by NASA standards if done right).

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.

[jimilee]

It was a bad and ironic rocket scientist joke.


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[Ekimneets]

 Well let me put around the other way. If you were going to buy a pedal,  would you care what foot switch it had in it ?

-Mike

[somnif]

This is what I meant about my solder style on the soft touch switches:



Just wire sitting next to the switch terminal, soldered in parallel. No twisting/hooking/anything. Wouldn't trust it on any part that experienced much in the way of physical movement, but in an enclosed box on my bedroom floor that I may want to re-work in the future, it seemed my best option.

[somnif]

Well let me put around the other way. If you were going to buy a pedal,  would you care what foot switch it had in it ?

-Mike

I've had 2 pedals with switches die on me. One a pedal I built using a 3PDT I spent a ridiculous amount of money on from an electronic parts store here in town, and the other a commercial pedal (DOD with SPDT). The 3PDT pissed me off since it was like the 2nd pedal I built using a 3PDT (my prior experience had used DPDTs and millenium bypass style setups) and I'd spent something like 12$ on the switch, And it was a nightmare to rework.

The DOD pedal was easy to repair since they were generous with the wire length in the box, so I could just clip them, strip them, and wire in a new switch. That was... 6 years ago I think? And its still working fine with occasional stompage.