Need help with footswitch for JC-120 please!

liveloveshare · October 21, 2009, 08:14:05 PM

My bandmate has a JC-120 and we want to build for him some footswitches. On the back of his amp he has distortion, reverb, and chorus/vibrato. It's his birthday soon and I wanted to make him a box that had all three of these switches in one thing. My thought was I use one enclosure and then braid the cables together until it got time to split them up to be inserted into their appropriate jacks..

The problem is (like always) I don't know where to start. This seems like it would be easy but I don't know where to look and the search function didn't yield too much in the way of results.

Any help would be as always, greatly appreciated. :]

liveloveshare · October 21, 2009, 08:21:18 PM

After doing a little research it seems like the FS-1 is what would be compatible with this--is that correct?

pazuzu · October 21, 2009, 08:22:31 PM

beat me to it.

Processaurus · October 21, 2009, 08:40:48 PM

JC-120 footswitches are just SPST latching stompswitches that connect the tip to the sleeve, on a mono cable going into each plug. Simple as can be

liveloveshare · October 21, 2009, 09:08:56 PM

like so?

pazuzu · October 21, 2009, 09:54:16 PM

spst has 2 poles. that is a dpst. i mean. i'm drunk.

Processaurus · October 21, 2009, 09:58:26 PM

Actually using a 3PDT id great idea, you could use one of the other poles to turn an LED on, put a battery inside to power them, the battery would last a long time if you used superbrite LED's, and you'd just switch them off when you were done playing...

I'm not sure about the polarity of the switches (to match the LED on up with the effect being on) on anything other than the reverb, on that, the footswitch is used to short out the reverb signal, so when the tip is connected to the sleeve, reverb is off.

pazuzu · October 21, 2009, 09:59:55 PM

man. i'm half in the bag.

Processaurus · October 22, 2009, 01:20:27 AM

I'm blasted drunk too, but here's the schematic, looking at it, it looks universally when the footswitches are on (connecting tip and sleeve together), the effects are off.

wavley · October 22, 2009, 08:53:35 AM

I recently made a switch box for my 501 Space Echo because five FS-5L switches just took up too much space so I braided five wires with a copper braid shield for a common ground and used five of these switches http://www.effectsconnection.com/oscommerce/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=29

It's hard to see but I attached all of the jacks together so that they all plug in as one unit. I've neatened them up since I took that picture

liveloveshare · October 22, 2009, 12:56:38 PM

For the responses, thank you all.
I was oddly enough drunk when I wrote this post so I'm surprised that the question even came out flat.

Okay, so I like the idea of having an LED..

But I've heard a few different things.. Can some one point me in the direction of a very basic diagram that shows how this would work?
For instance, could I look up the schematic for a fender footswitch.. ?

Sorry for being so dense. >,<

liveloveshare · October 22, 2009, 12:57:42 PM

p.s.

wavley · October 22, 2009, 01:33:41 PM

From this thread http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=73460.0

You can use a common ground for all three switches

QuoteSOLUTION: I installed a dpdt switch in place of the provided switch in the FS22.

1 4
2 5
3 6

1: nothing
2: Red wire from 9v
3: + to LED
4: Tie to solid ground wire
5: Black wire to cable
6: nothing

I use a Carvin Vintage 33 amp. I chose to wire it this way which with illuminate the LED on channel one (clean). I did so because I use the clean channel much less often and decided this would be a good way to save battery life. If the opposite is desired, simply invert the wiring. I also tied the negative lead from the LED and the negative black wire from the battery clip to the solid ground wire.

Processaurus · October 22, 2009, 07:11:12 PM

JC-120 footswitch with LED:

O O O-------------------------------------------------------------------------Tip

O O O-------------------------------------------------┐---------------------Sleeve
l
O O O------------VVVV------l◄-------------l  l -----┘
15K LED (+) (-)
resistor (superbrite) 9v Battery

3PDT stompswitch viewed with the lugs going horizontally. Only 1 battery, of course, just hook each footswitch up to the battery as shown. You can use a SPDT if they are handy, as this only uses 1 pole, but the 3pdt's are reliable and available.

pazuzu · October 23, 2009, 09:15:14 AM

the thing is, if you use leds you have to have a power supply....doesn't that defeat the purpose? i mean, why power something when you can go passive for the application?

and by the way i ended up in jail that night.

cops tend to get a little pissy when you call them "degenerate pieces of shit". no harm though, just a "sleep it off in the drunk tank". small towns are great.

i am going to quit drinking for a while.

liveloveshare · October 23, 2009, 12:52:02 PM

Quote from: pazuzu on October 23, 2009, 09:15:14 AM
the thing is, if you use leds you have to have a power supply....doesn't that defeat the purpose? i mean, why power something when you can go passive for the application?

and by the way i ended up in jail that night. cops tend to get a little pissy when you call them "degenerate pieces of sh*t". no harm though, just a "sleep it off in the drunk tank". small towns are great.

i am going to quit drinking for a while.

now i've lived in a small town.. and there ain't not much to do but drink. so i don't know who you think you're foolin...

as for the passive/active thing--can i get LED's to go on without the use of a battery?

i need to take an electrical engineering class...

pazuzu · October 23, 2009, 01:23:08 PM

yea, you're right, my bad. there should be a diagram around here. i'm kinda green on this stuff myself.

Processaurus · October 23, 2009, 04:53:31 PM

You can get the LED's to go on without a battery, but not without electricity! I've had a switcher with superbrite LED (and big 47K series resistor) powered by just a battery since 2004 and haven't needed to change it.

pazuzu · October 23, 2009, 05:03:29 PM

yea power goes through the line from the amp. my madison switch box has an led and so does my crate and neither of them take batteries or plug into the wall. i believe that is a "side effect" of the design, since as stated before, these are all just latch type spst so a current has to go through them to tell the amp whether they are engaged or not.

liveloveshare · October 23, 2009, 06:49:04 PM

Quote from: pazuzu on October 23, 2009, 05:03:29 PM
yea power goes through the line from the amp. my madison switch box has an led and so does my crate and neither of them take batteries or plug into the wall. i believe that is a "side effect" of the design, since as stated before, these are all just latch type spst so a current has to go through them to tell the amp whether they are engaged or not.

that's logical... okay so let me see if i understand all this...
thank you all for your help guys, i'm going to make a diagram at some point and post it on here to make sure i have the right idea.

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Need help with footswitch for JC-120 please!