buying (or designing and building) a true "non-clicking" Double-Throw switch?

[Jay Chalmers]

Hello Hammond Organ Leslie fans:  I own a NEO Electronic Ventilator II Leslie simulator stomp box.  It is fantastic.  The  engineers who build the Vent offer a NEO brand remote foot switch for speed control.  The actual fast/slow speed switch is a simple NON-CLICKING single-pole single-throw high quality switch.  This is perfect since I like to have the Leslie speed controllable in "true" momentary fashion.  In other words, I only want the Leslie to speed up while my foot is depressing and HOLDING the foot switch down.  The Vent II can be easily programmed to operate this way.  MY QUESTION:  Hammond Organ Co. offers a real model 3300 Leslie speaker.  The remote speed control is accomplished by using any simple tip/ring momentary switch.  However, I am quite certain that the organ player will have to manually press this foot switch twice to speed up and slow down the Leslie.  Tap once, the Leslie goes to fast speed.  Tap again, the Leslie returns to slow speed.  I play full-time and I use a lot of Hammond organ sounds and I do NOT want this type of speed control.  I've built DOUBLE-THROW foot switches to accomplish the speed change in true momentary (i.e. "tap and hold" fashion), BUT THE PROBLEM IS not only do  double-throw switches have an unwanted "click" feel in the middle of the switch travel, worse they can have a small "dead spot" during the click where, for example, the NEO Vent goes into "brake" mode.  So, to summarize I am looking for 1) a smooth-feeling DOUBLE-THROW switch that does not click and feels like a smooth single-throw switch with no "dead spot" problems, and/or 2) I need to build an electronic DC-powered "conversion box" of some sort that will allow me to use a smooth true momentary very quality single-throw switch (Honeywell makes the best ones in my opinion) that will act like a snap-type DOUBLE-THROW switch to tell the Leslie 3300 to speed-up only when my foot is holding the speed switch down.  Any comments, switch sources, and/or circuit design suggestions are appreciated.       

[smarkalet1]

To avoid the dead spot issue you can look for switches that are make before break, as opposed to the break before make kind.

Sent from my LGMS330 using Tapatalk

[Jdansti]

I probably don't fully understand the problem you face, but I thought I'd throw this out there. Could you use a SPST momentary switch to activate a relay?  The relay could have any number of poles. You'd have to provide power for the relay coil.

[PRR]

"FOOT SW Jack
"This jack is used in conjunction with the optional FS-9H Foot Switch, to control various modes of this unit. If you momentarily touch the pedal, it stiches from Slow to Fast speeds. if you hold the pedal down for 1.5 seconds or more, the rotors will stop rotating (stop)."

What you need is a circuit which "blips" on both the down and the up stroke.

Leslie could have provided an option to do it directly the way you want it; it is annoying they didn't.

[merlinb]

You should be able to buy a momentary (i.e. non-latching) double throw switch. Wire the two throws together and, as long as it is a break before make switch, it may give you the results you need.  In other words, this should give a 'blip' every time the switch is transitioning from one position to the other, during the brief moment when it has broken the connection.

[PRR]

> Wire the two throws together and, as long as it is a break before make

Brilliant.

I had it figured out with strips of brass, or a linear cam and a doorbell button. But a slow DP switch is much less hackery.

[Jay Chalmers]

Thanks everybody for all the replies and suggestions.  They are greatly appreciated.  I talked to two different people at Hammond today, and they had no solutions.  The relay concept I think is the most promising.  If anybody has any more specific suggestions on building and powering a simple relay-type box to make my Honeywell momentary switch "act" like a double throw switch to tell the Leslie to speed up and slow down, that would be great.

Thanks again.