Relay switch not working?

[william]

I tried my first attempt at using relay's the other day and seem to have failed.  I salvaged an Omron G5V-1 relay from a modem we were throwing away at work.  It is the 3V version.  I have a 9V dc adaptor that I will use to power it.  It was my understanding that if I supply 3v of power to the coil, and it should switch over.  This has not happend.  Currently I have a resistor bringing the voltage down to about 3.3v and then connected to the coil.  Across the coil I have a diode to prevent the coil from being damaged.  The switch is attached to three 1/4" jacks.  I planned to use the relay to switch between two amps remotely.

[R.G.]

Your understanding of relays is correct - for simple relays.

It is possible that this particular relay is a latching relay, where it is switched with a pulse in one direction, and then must be switched back with a pulse in the other direction, or a two-coil latching relay, where you pulse one coil to switch one way, the other coil to switch the other way.

I'm assuming that you have already used your ohmmeter to identify the coil terminals and are not experiencing a pinout problem, and also that you have read something like a 3V rating from the relay. The type number "G5v-1" sounds suspicously like a 5V relay to me, but I'm not there.