5PDT Switch - Relay?

[seten]

Hey, I'm in need of a 5pdt switch and i have not found one anywhere online, but I did read that anything more than 4 poles youre better off going with a relay, which I unfortunately know nothing about. Could someone give me a quick lowdown on the simplest way to have an effective 5pdt with relays? Ive tried searching online for 5pdt relay switch but I'm not getting anywhere - maybe I'm not as good of a googler as I thought 😬

[ElectricDruid]

Please explain what exactly the need is for such an unlikely beast as a 5PDT? (relay or switch)

I suspect there's some simpler solution rather than just throwing more poles at it, but we won't be able to help you find it unless you tell us what the original problem is.

[PRR]

Use three 2p or two 4p relays driven with the same control voltage.

(Works like multiple manual switches with the handles connected together, or flicking five light-switches with a stick, but less mechanical contraption.)

Agree that a true need for 4+ pole switching is rare. (However I have seen far more, in old days, in telephone and elevator switching.)

[seten]

I'm building an A/B and FX Loop box and the 5pdt would be for a footswitch to switch the order between a/b --> Loop and loop --> a/b. As you can see i drew the schem with a 4pdt but forgot id need another pole for LED's.
Yes, I could use a toggle switch instead and not need indicator LED's but I already drilled the box and installed everything and have been meaning to learn about relays anyway

http://imgur.com/gallery/kOIZEfr

[ElectricDruid]

http://imgur.com/gallery/kOIZEfr

Cripes! If you can draw a diagram like that and then build it and not make mistakes, you're some kind of superhuman.

I'd have to draw a nice simple diagram of the signal path, and then (and only then!) could I even begin to think about what switch terminals things go to. People's brains work differently I guess.

[ElectricDruid]

I've had a bit of a play with this on a piece of paper now, and I don't see the need for the fifth pole.

You've got two stages ("FX Loop" and "A/B"). Each of these stages has its own bypass switch, and the "A/B" stage has a "A/B select" switch too. But these complexities don't change that fact that what we're looking at is just changing the order of two pedals, basically. That can be done with a 3PDT switch, and with a 4PDT if you want LEDs to indicate which of the two things is first.

There's a ton of threads on here about effects order switching, but here's a couple of useful diagrams:



This shows just the order switching - you'd use Send/Return A for "FX Loop" and Send/Return B for "A/B", or vice versa.



This one includes the bypass switching for the two loops, but doesn't include the LEDs.

HTH,
Tom

[seten]

Ahhhh I see I was definitely over-complicating that - didn't even think to think of the whole A/B channel as a single FX loop. Thanks!! So just for future reference, an 8 pin relay would have 6 pins that corrrelate to the 6 lugs on a mechanical dpdt switch, and then one pin for ground, and the last pin which you connect to the control voltage with a momentary spst in between? Just outta curiosity, what would happen if you left out the spst switch so it was always connected to the control voltage? would it switch once and stay there or just switch back and forth until it burned itself out?