Schems for a Mute Switch?

[gonzo]

Hey all, I was wondering if any of you fine gods and goddesses of the tone world could direct me to a simple and easy mute switch schematic.

Also, I recently aquired some 1/4 instrument to 1/8th inch cables, do you think I could just tear these apart and use them as input jacks?

Thanks for your input.

[Claus H]

I'll probably take a lot of heat for this but here you go.. It's a completely click free mute switch..

With the footswitch(S1) in mute position the two H11F1 FET optocouplers (IC1-2) are OFF and thereby they cut the signal path from input to output. IC3 is ON and short circuits the output and the MUTE! Led is on..

With the footswitch(S1) in the Non Mute position IC3 and MUTE! LED are OFF and IC1-IC2 are ON this allows the signal to travel from the Input to the Output.

The reason why I use two H11F1 FET optocouplers connected in parallel is to get a little impedance as possible(Under 100Ohms) between the Input and Output in the Non Mute state.

The two 22µF caps is a simple way to get a gradual ramp from the OFF and ON state of the optocouplers this if why is does not click when you hit the MUTE..

[mr_doyle]

wondering: would it be possible to use just one H11F1 to shunt signal to ground?
any impedance/loading problem?

D.

[darron]

a spdt connecting ground to the signal works. even better if you had a dpdt that also broke the signal and earthed the output. it's simple and good. but you couldn't stomp on it repetitively really fast because you'll notice a TINY bit of noise.

i made a square wave tremolo that just use an optocoupler (home made) to ground, but there was a tiny bit of noise. the cure was to put a cap of about 100uf to make the led in the optocoupler fade in and out slightly.

read this if you are going to use an optocoupler http://www.muzique.com/lab/led.htm

if you just need to it shut your amp up while you're off stage, then a switch to ground is plenty.

[mr_doyle]

thanks darron,

my prob is that i need two remote switches/LEDs, i was thinking at a PIC controller driving an optocoupler thru a transistor, that way i'd have plenty of control.
if this turns out to work i could also use it for silent relay switching.

my doubt is about possible loading of signal due to impedance of the LDR, i think it should be safe, but not 100% sure about that

D.

[mr_doyle]

Geofex as usual has some literature on it: http://www.geofex.com/article_folders/bypass/bypass.htm.
Guess i should take a better look at the Clinton bypass and try to understand how it works.

D.

[Gus]

Search, links at the top, google, ask ........

Look for Automatic Mike Muter at geofex. 

[soulsonic]

I just used a momentary Carling footswitch between signal and ground. It worked fine for me. I guess it maybe popped a little sometimes, but not anything that I really noticed or cared about. "Good enough for government work", as the old saying goes...

[Nasse]

I once had to make an electronic mute switch for line level audio signal, and I used cheap ldr s and controlled it with red led (it was not superbright but high efficiency or something). I have seen all kind of talk like "it can´t be done", "it is too noisy", "ldrs add too much distortion so it will be useless" and so on. Worked for me then, don´t know more, 

[mr_doyle]

Well, the automike shunt is exactly what i had in mind, time for electroshopping 

D.