You All Wire your 3PDTs Wrong

[armdnrdy]

The most common for a failure in my experience is soldering technique - too much heat for too long. If the lug is easily moved it is a safe bet it has been cooked.

Word of advice....perfect your soldering technique...save a switch.

I "cooked" a few footswitches and toggles early on because I didn't realize just how heat sensitive they are. Proper iron temperature, (solder station) tinning wires, and even "roughing" up the switch lugs with emery cloth can go a long way in reducing time that heat is applied to the switch lugs.  

I have never had a footswitch fail.

[Arcane Analog]

The most common for a failure in my experience is soldering technique - too much heat for too long. If the lug is easily moved it is a safe bet it has been cooked.

I have never had a footswitch fail.

I have never overheated nor had a switch fail either. I was referring to the switches I have fixed in the past from other builders.

[Bill Mountain]

I've melted my share of toggle switches.  I did have a 3PDT where a pin came out but I still used it as an DPDT.

I think the real solution is to use a DPDT Carling for maximum reliability.  True Bypass is overrated.

[armdnrdy]

Well then..

Maybe the proper title for this thread should have been:

"People that don't know how to solder wire their 3PDTs wrong." 

[slacker]

Probably worth mentioning that the claimed benefit of this method ignores the fact that a single point of failure can break the input grounding in bypass, which could render the pedal basically unusable.

[midwayfair]

Long day? 

Man, I hate 3PDTs more and more every time I use them. The last time I tried to use them, solder literally wouldn't stick to the poles of the blue ones I had even after I sanded them.

sneaky linky for MII bypass PCB shared on OSH.

[seedlings]

I fix bad 3pdt switches.  I have seen failures where one pin or another no longer makes contact with the 'metal wafers' inside.  I presume this is due to heat softening up the plastic and allowing the metal pin to be 'pulled away' from the 'metal wafer'.  So, heat up the pin and push it back in or bend the wafer just a bit.  Easy to fix.

What I haven't fixed is when the threaded shaft breaks from the housing.  That's a genuine failure.  But, bonus, you now have extra parts for another failed switch.

CHAD

[karbomusic]

Long day?  

Man, I hate 3PDTs more and more every time I use them. The last time I tried to use them, solder literally wouldn't stick to the poles of the blue ones I had even after I sanded them.

sneaky linky for MII bypass PCB shared on OSH.

Where do you guys get these things from? I get my from small bear and...


1. I have never had one melt nor have needed to heat one long enough to do so if it can.
2. Due to #1 I've never had one that moved, always rock solid post solder.
3. I don't have to use flux as they are clean enough.
4. I have never had one go bad or break when tightening the nut and I do them pretty darn tight.

I actually like the black alpha ones better and I'm sure the blue ones will fail in due time because they are mechanical and mechanical things fail but I'm at a bit of a loss as to some of the horror stories I read about but never experience.

Otherwise, there are multiple single points of failure in a pedal, some are going to fail, do the best you can to prevent it, move on with life.

[seedlings]

I'm at a bit of a loss as to some of the horror stories I read about but never experience.

Oh, but do you wire all your 3PDTs wrong?  Hmmm?


CHAD

[deafbutpicky]

I took a non latching 1pdt switch apart lately out of curiosity to  see if I can convert it into a latching one. Easy enough and my respect for ordinary switches has been degraded since then quite a lot. They work easier then you might think...
For 3pdt switch wiring, the only one way for me is input left- output right lane and led in the middle (keep 'em apart as much as you can...), and ground the FX input always!!! No discussion.

[mykaitch]

HA HA HA HA!
Us relay users do it with one Pole, or sometimes a Russian

[bean]

HA HA HA HA!
Us relay users do it with one Pole, or sometimes a Russian

In Russia, pole grounds you!

[CodeMonk]

I took a non latching 1pdt switch apart lately out of curiosity to  see if I can convert it into a latching one. Easy enough and my respect for ordinary switches has been degraded since then quite a lot. They work easier then you might think...
For 3pdt switch wiring, the only one way for me is input left- output right lane and led in the middle (keep 'em apart as much as you can...), and ground the FX input always!!! No discussion.

I've been doing mine that way for years and never had a problem.
Like so:
http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Small+Bear+Electronics/

And grounding the PCB input on bypass.
(In actual practice, the wire for that goes over the side of the switch and not between the poles).

[Arcane Analog]

For 3pdt switch wiring, the only one way for me is input left- output right lane and led in the middle (keep 'em apart as much as you can...), and ground the FX input always!!! No discussion.

This is exactly how I do it but an expert has told me this is all wrong. Aparently both of you are wrong too.

[Dave W]

guess i have been doing it all wrong for 30+ years too. so wrong that the stuff i built in the '80s still works perfectly and pop free. 

[Arcane Analog]

guess i have been doing it all wrong for 30+ years too. so wrong that the stuff i built in the '80s still works perfectly and pop free. 

I have hundreds of pedals out there and have no complaints to date but we certainly need to learn how to do it right one of these days.

[Govmnt_Lacky]

Does no one have an issue with the (2) parallel signals when the switch is in bypass?

When in bypass, the right most poles are grounding the PCB input. The center poles are routing the Input to the Output. The left poles are identical to the center 

[karbomusic]

Does no one have an issue with the (2) parallel signals when the switch is in bypass?

I might, it's about the only thing I haven't formally tested.

http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=108879.20

I finally decided to ground the floating input when bypassed even if I had solved the squeal (seemed like the safer option long term) and the switch is the only thing I didn't test when trying to find how it found it's way into the output. I may test it over the weekend because before this thread that exact thing was on my mind because I haven't checked it.

[Arcane Analog]

Does no one have an issue with the (2) parallel signals when the switch is in bypass?

When in bypass, the right most poles are grounding the PCB input. The center poles are routing the Input to the Output. The left poles are identical to the center 

The theory behind the "X" is that it makes two identical connections for the bypass signal. As it is explained to me, this allows you to maintain a bypassed signal if any one (or potentially 2) of those 4 contacts fail. It is supposed to add one more level of switch failure prevention.

The main problem for me is routing. I would never run in/out signals in proximity. I much prefer "in" on one side and "out" on the other and you can still ground the input.

As I work with a lot of germanium and lots of fuzzy and high gain circuits I would not trade the potential for added noise and oscillation that layout would add for that little bit of added protection. The added protection may help one day but the better routing will always be a factor the player will benefit from.

[deadastronaut]

the stuff i built in the '80s still works perfectly and pop free. 

there's your problem...you need the big POP so you know its working properly..

it also helps to loosen the jacks too...just for extra cracklyness....of course this can also be acheived by bad leads too....top tips!