shorting switch vs break before make

GroupDIY Audio Forum

Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bradzatitagain

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 7, 2004
Messages
295
Okay, I get 522 bonus dunce points for not being able to answer this myself, so let's make it count: what's the difference, should there be one, between a typical break-before-make switch and a shorting switch? Shorting type shorts to ground before making the next contact? b-b-m floats before it makes the next contact, yeah? And make-before-break pics up both contacts before it clicks to the next contact detent, si?

It's a good thing I've never been afraid to make a fool of myself...
 
Hey Brad,

Shorting and make-before-break are different names for the same thing: a switch that shorts two adjacent contacts when switching.

In contrast, a non-shorting, a.k.a break-before-make switch, breaks the connection between the wiper and the contact a split second before it reaches the next contact.

Peace,
Al.
 
Ah, the dyslexicon... I'm so relieved the answer was the simple one I had suspected. Snag the gigundus Tascam board, Al?
 
Nah... I sniped it with $450, which was the absolute maximum I could afford. But somebody obviously had more cash in his back pocket than me, and the thing went for $455. :sad:

Peace,
Al.
 
Oh. Well that truly sucks.

Allow me, by way of cheering you up, to offer my insight of the day, returning to the subject of switches: if you've wired up a big complicated open wafer type switch (or say, maybe 8 of them, ahem) that was supposed to be a shorting type I can guarantee the last thing you'll want to do is to try to convert it (them) to a shorting type by soldering on a little extra super tiny piece of contact material to make the original rotating contact wider. Can you say lorazepam, boys and girls? Say it with me...
 
[quote author="bradzatitagain"]Oh. Well that truly sucks.

Allow me, by way of cheering you up, to offer my insight of the day, returning to the subject of switches: if you've wired up a big complicated open wafer type switch (or say, maybe 8 of them, ahem) that was supposed to be a shorting type I can guarantee the last thing you'll want to do is to try to convert it (them) to a shorting type by soldering on a little extra super tiny piece of contact material to make the original rotating contact wider. Can you say lorazepam, boys and girls? Say it with me...[/quote]

LOL. :razz: That sounds like something I would try... wanting to save a whopping $4 or something.

You can use a shunt resistor though on bbm switches to show a load while the signal is in the pattern buffer. I was thinking I'd do that with NYDaves EQ since I have a bunch of military surplus rotary switches (all part of my program to convert the former soviet military war machine into dance party gear). Problem is the shunt trick won't work in that application because it would mess up the way the EQ works. Maybe if you factored in the shunt resistance into the calculations or something :? but alas that would require a knowlege of maths.

Kiira
 
[quote author="kiira"]

...since I have a bunch of military surplus rotary switches (all part of my program to convert the former soviet military war machine into dance party gear).

Kiira[/quote]

mm-hmm, Russian, yes. But I haven't started dancing yet. Can't do the shunt trick, attenuators; mbb prevents big Hiroshima style bangs while adjusting gain. After the 4th one it got easy.
 
[quote author="kiira"] but alas that would require a knowlege of maths.

Kiira[/quote]

PSPICE baby PSPICE
http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp

Try it it's free and it works, I don't know what I haven't designed with this thing. I even tweaked up NYD's EQ with it to adding a few extra freq into the EQP1A I'm currently putting together. Working without it is like building in the dark.
 
[quote author="analag"][quote author="kiira"] but alas that would require a knowlege of maths.

Kiira[/quote]

PSPICE baby PSPICE
http://www.linear.com/company/software.jsp

Try it it's free and it works, I don't know what I haven't designed with this thing. I even tweaked up NYD's EQ with it to adding a few extra freq into the EQP1A I'm currently putting together. Working without it is like building in the dark.[/quote]

thanks analag that is the easiest schematic program I've used yet. It has pentodes, triodes and terodes, resistors and caps, plus it lets me change the colors! I have absolutely noooo idea how to design anything with it but who knows maybe I'll get around to learning that whilst using it to draw schematics. Do you know where the transformer symbol is? I'll have to read the manual and find out how to draw my own parts and hopefully group them into my own libraries. The scale is weird by default.. a tube takes up almost a whole page.

kiitos!

Kiira
 
I also have to thank Analag for pointing me to LTSpice when he first joined the forum. Thanks, brother! :thumb:

I designed my "alk509 EQ" with it, and so far, testing seems to follow the sim pretty closely!

Peace,
Al.
 
Use the inductor symbol to create a transformer, After you place two coils back to back. Type S on your keypad and in the box that appears, you type K1 L1 L2 0.9998
What I just demonstrated is a model of a single primary, single secondary transfo. It might sound complicated but it's really very simple.
icon_wink.gif
 

Latest posts

Back
Top