Guitar Center monitor selector?

[therecordingart]

At Guitar Center they have a monitor selector hooked up to their demo speakers that is just a bunch of on/off switches.

It has a single input and like 12 on/off switches. That is all I need so I don't want to spend $300 on a Central Station or Big Knob. I don't need a volume knob or anything else.

I just want to be able to turn off one pair and turn on another.

Do you guys know how I can wire up something like this? I've googled and searched through here.

Your help is always appreciated.

EDIT: They don't sell these and won't let me open it.

 

[NewYorkDave]

Is it old-fashioned "crunch-button" interlocking pushbuttons, or a more slick kind of soft-touch thing with momentary switches and indicators that light up?

 

[therecordingart]

Looks like a regular on/off switch...

http://secure.llamma.com/catalog/images/0415%20024.jpg

You only have to throw one switch to mute a pair of speakers. I can't wrap my head around it, but then again I am a newbie.

 

[NewYorkDave]

Well, how many pairs of speakers do you want to control?

There's no need to make this more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[Mbira]

I've tried to get those guys to sell me one of those before too! They have some cool preamp switcher ones too...
I think they're fully passive, right?

 

[therecordingart]

I want to be able to switch between 3 pairs total. 2 different pairs of monitors and a sub.

It is completely passive.

 

[therecordingart]

http://mercenaryaudio.com/colaudls3lin.html

This box seems like the perfect solution, but I need to be up n running this weekend. I'm hoping Rat Shack has everything needed.

 

[therecordingart]

I was thinking DPDT switch per speaker or 4PDT switch per pair?

I don't know the anatomy of multi-pole swiitches and that is why I'm lost.

 

[Ptownkid]

Multi pole switches work as follows

each pole is seperate and the middle contact of each row is connected to one or the other of the two remaining contacts in that row.

123
456
789


so, for arguments sake, 147 is pole one, 258 is pole two, and 369 is pole three

with the switch in position A, 4 and 1 are connected, 5 and 2 are connected, and 6 and 3 are connected

with the switch is position B, 4 and 7 are connected, 5 and 8 are connected, and 6 and 9 are connected.

Hopefully that made sense, best thing to do is grab a switch and use your continuity tester on your DMM to prove it to yourself.

Cheers

 

[therecordingart]

Alright. I made a box with a whole bunch of DPDT switches (one for each monitor).

I'll try it out to see if anything blows up and let you know.

 

[therecordingart]

Ok...it works, and it works awesome!


I wired up 6 dpdt on-on switches....one per speaker.

$40 total

 

[Ptownkid]

The way you have it set up, you can have any combination from 0 to 6 speakers right?

ps, why on-on, you are using them as on-off switches yes/no?

 

[therecordingart]

Yes...I have it wired to use 0 to 6 speakers. I'll take pics and upload.

 

[ulysses]

The Guitar Center switcher, and yours if you're clever, probably have a mechanism to allow only one pair of speakers to be turned on at a time. Your amp will not like having too many speakers hanging off it at once. Interlocking switches are a good way to do this, but since you only have 2 pair of speakers you could use the other side of a single switch (the other "on" position) to feed the alternate speaker. For example, with a pair of DPDT switches you could feed the two wires from the Left amp output to the two switched positions (center pins) on a DPDT switch. Then you'd connect the top pair of pins to one Left speaker and the bottom pair of pins to the other Left speaker. Do the same thing with another DPDT switch for the Right side. Or better yet, what I would do is use a 4PDT switch to control both sides with a single throw. Turn the subwoofer on and off on its own with a separate switch.