COMMANDCENTER extension of OctaSwitch (Killswitches, Amp selecter, tap tempo)

[BrechtVDW]

Hi there,

I'd like to share a little project I've been working on with you guys. Maybe some of you can help me with some questions I have about the wiring, maybe some of you who are trying to make something similar will find this useful...

For the last group, I'd like to say that I haven't verified the wiring, so if you simply copy this design, you might run into some problems.

Anyway, I've been trying to make 'Command center' for my pedalboard which will operate next to the functionality of my OctaSwitch mkII. The OS offers some great features but with this pedal I'd like to extend its functionality. I've been trying to get this command center into a DD enclosure. I've made some CAD files to make sure everything fits.

I know these functionality usually exist in different pedals, but my goal is to get some different useful features into one enclosure in order to save some space.

This layout should make clear what I'm trying to accomplish.

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/Layout.png.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

1. Vocal KillSwitch: Next to my guitar effects, a part of my pedalboard is dedicated to vocal effects (Distortion, Octaver, Delay). I'd like to have a latching KillSwitch between the Octaver and Delay. (Note that this doesn't have anything to do with the OctaSwitch)

2. Guitar KillSwitch + extra fx loop: In the 4th loop of my OctaSwitch, I have a volume pedal. In this loop, I'd like to have a latching kill switch for my guitar. As I'm a pedal builder, I often want to try some new pedals (I've also made a breadboard test pedal, to test new circuits), so an external FX loop (to connect pedals, outside of the pedalboard) would be useful. So what I'd like to do is: In the 4th loop of my Octaswitch i go to the volume pedal  kill switch  external fx loop  back to OS.

3. External Tap tempo: I have 2 delays on my pedalboard, and the other guitar player in our band also has delays. Needless to say: if our delays don't get synced, things get messy. Now what I'd like to do is: I have one momentary switch in this command center which will serve as a tap tempo. This pulse will be divided over 4 jack plugs, which i can connect to jack plugs on our delays. From the jack plugs in the delays, I'll make a connection to the momentary switch in the delay.

4. Amp Selector: Not a conventional ABY selector. As the OctaSwitch offers 2 amp outputs, I won't need any sort of buffer. Actually what I'm gonna do here, is the same as in 1 and 2. I simply create a kill switch for both outputs so I can turn my amps on and off.

I've got a DC jack and resistors for the LEDs (4 resistors on the right hand side, 10K).
The 4 resistors on the left are 1M and I used them in order to reduce the popping sounds when pressing the footswitches.


Brace yourselves, here comes the wiring:

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/full_spaghetti.png.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

I'm aware of the fact that this is very messy, so I'm going to run through it step by step.

First, let's take a look at the vocal killswitch

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/ks_vocal.png.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

This one's pretty straight forward, a simple kill switch. Questions for this one: is the 1M resistor placed correctly to reduce popping sound? I connected GND of vocal in to GND of vocal out. Does this cause ground loops? Should there be some sort of ground lifting?

Next, let's take a look at the Guitar Killswitch

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/ks_guit.png.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

You can see that this is the same as the vocal killswitch apart from the fx loop. I explained what this is supposed to before, so I think this is also pretty straight forward. Same questions here, ofcourse...

External tap tempo

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/tap.png.html

Pretty obvious what this is supposed to be doing. Now, my question here is: will this work, as the output jacks are all connected to one another? Should I try to get a 4PST footswitch (does this even exist?) instead so they aren't connected to one another?

Now, on to the amp selector

http://www.aronnelson.com/gallery/main.php/v/Schematics-etc/amp_selector.png.html

This is basically the same as the two killswitches. Except that the LEDs will now turn on when the signal passes. (The other killswitches will light the LED when the signal is stopped)

Same questions here ofcourse for the ground loops, 1M resistor.

Extra question: which female audio jacks should I buy? The ones that insulate the ring from the enclosure? Or the regular ones?

I hope this overview will be useful to someone and I also hope someone will be able to help me with my grounding and tap tempo questions. Thanks in advance!