Pancake jack + switch, practical advice requested

[nocentelli]

I had initially planned to make a remote switch box for an effect pedal, it is required to actuate the "down" switch of the digitech FSX-3 footswitch (i.e. ground the ring connection):


Since i don't really need foot control (rather this switch allows a function that is not directly available with the panel mounted controls of the pedal) i am considering how I could best add a small SPST to the barrel/outer housing of a jack plug for an easily reversible, literal "plug-in" mod. I don't like the idea of a toggle switch, since it would probably have to be poking out of a freely rotating right-angle jack plug and seems like it might be fiddly to actuate.

It occurs to me that i have a few pancake jacks in a bag somewhere, and i might be able to find a momentary push-button (arcade style?) switch and somehow attach it to the back of the plug half of a pancake jack. Does this sound feasible/has anyone done it/is there a far more obvious and easy method? One drawback seems to be that buying stereo 1/4" pancake jacks seem the be the preserve of hifi idiots and therefore cost up to a tenner each rather than the quid I'm sure the mono ones cost me...

[anotherjim]

These plugs?
https://www.rapidonline.com/bkl-angled-jack-plug-6-35mm-stereo-metal-50-1489

[GGBB]

Psych - I literally just finished wiring up an FSX-3 for a friend (re-wiring actually - his attempt was a fail).

Yeah - those jacks can be had much cheaper if you get the imports. I think the actual Switchcraft ones are pricey.

[thermionix]

What is a pancake jack?

[nocentelli]

What is a pancake jack?

[EBK]

Isn't that a "plug"?

[Ice-9]

Exactly what anotherjim linked too, TRS right angles or pancake jacks are cheap as chips when you know where to find them so just use one of those. 

Isn't that a "plug"?

Well technically you could argue 'Jack PLUG' and 'Jack SOCKET' so hey ho pip and dandy.

[FiveseveN]

*Male conector*. Less ambiguous.
I would use one of these: http://www.tme.eu/en/details/jc-018/jack-connectors/
and some small pushbuttons (you need three, right?).

[EBK]

Interesting.  Must be a regional difference.  In the US, plugs always go into sockets/jacks and not the other way around, as far as I know.  I really enjoy seeing these differences in an otherwise common language, like when I temporarily became alarmed recently by deadastronaut's kitchen experiment involving him holding a "torch" against a paper plate.   

[GGBB]

In the US, plugs always go into sockets/jacks and not the other way around, as far as I know.

Ditto for Canada AFAIK. Toronto at least - there are a lot of regional differences within Canada.

[GGBB]

What is a pancake jack?

Not to be confused with this dude:

[EBK]

Or his cousin:

Sadly, no anthropomorphic pancake with this one.

[anotherjim]

The female sockets are the "Jacks". Hence "Jack Bay" or "Jack Field" for a panel of sockets. I have seen somewhere that "Jack" actually refers to the panel mounted part, but I've never seen panel mounted 1/4" plugs. The normally male usage of "Jack" was maybe lost on the telephone pioneers who created it.

Elsewhere, there are "Fixed" (panel mount) "Free" (cable mount) Male or Female "Connectors".

Or, "Jack" in English isn't necessarily male. In the game of Bowls, the "Jack" is the smaller ball that the players aim to knock out of play, or at least stop closest to it, with their larger "Woods".

[nocentelli]

I would use one of these: http://www.tme.eu/en/details/jc-018/jack-connectors/
and some small pushbuttons (you need three, right?).

That looks great - I only need one of the three options available on the FSX3, so a single tiny pushbutton n.o. Momentary switch might sit nicely on top.

Regarding the use of the word "jack" for male/plug element, it is interesting that you type "audio jack" into google, you get pictures of the plugs and not the sockets: If you search for "guitar jack", there are a few sockets but mainly plugs.

[GGBB]

The female sockets are the "Jacks". Hence "Jack Bay" or "Jack Field" for a panel of sockets. I have seen somewhere that "Jack" actually refers to the panel mounted part, but I've never seen panel mounted 1/4" plugs. The normally male usage of "Jack" was maybe lost on the telephone pioneers who created it.

Elsewhere, there are "Fixed" (panel mount) "Free" (cable mount) Male or Female "Connectors".

Or, "Jack" in English isn't necessarily male. In the game of Bowls, the "Jack" is the smaller ball that the players aim to knock out of play, or at least stop closest to it, with their larger "Woods".

There are standards around the terminology as well as history around the term "jack," plus of course regional abuses. "Jack" usually (but not always) means male - as in jacka$$ is a male donkey. But in the world of electrical connectors, jack means the stationary portion, whereas plug is the movable portion (see section 5.3: https://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~spilab/Tips/ansii_graphic_symbols_for_electrical_and_electronics_daigrams_1993.pdf). Therefore, since stationary connectors are usually female sockets, "jack" is the female connector. But it's not that cut and dried since not all stationary portions are female - an example would be an XLR connector. Of course, some might argue that the stationary portion of the XLR connector which has the exposed male pins as a whole is female because the movable portion fits into the stationary portion's outer housing. Maybe those are where the Brits got the term jack-plug, otherwise known as bi-sexual connectors.