(originally posted on freestompboxes.org)
I thought I’d share this little project with everyone as I’m sure a few other people would be interested in it. Just to paint the picture I really hate two things about building effects, firstly the clunky and sometimes unreliable 3PDT switches, and secondly (and most annoyingly) the offboard wiring. I reckon I’d have built considerably more if the thought of offboard wiring hadn’t put me off doing something so many times. So here in the UK we have an online electronics supplier called Rapid Electronics and they sell some DPDT switches which have a much nicer action than the usual 3PDT, you literally only need to step on it lightly to switch over and there is no clunk, and as an added bonus they’re really cheap and readily available:
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Foot-switches-79208/
They’re currently £1.69 each if you buy 10 or more, but the price has gone up and I only paid about £1.12 each when I bought a stash a while ago.
I’d seen some of the daughter board layouts on here for the 3PDT which looked excellent, so I asked Eric (Mr G on FSB) if he’d mind doing one for a DPDT switch and with onboard millenium bypass components and the good man that he is, he happily obliged.
Here’s the boards, and the first build I’m using them for:
The first thing that struck me was how much neater the thing ends up compared to my usual builds! 🙂 The second thing that struck me is that offboard wiring really isn’t an issue now, I actually enjoyed it for the first time ever. All the connections are there including separate ground connections for the input and output sockets which just makes it a breeze.
Anyway thanks Eric for the excellent layout and here’s the PDF containing the PCB artwork for printing: