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Circuitbenders Forum => Circuitbending discussion => Topic started by: volg4 on August 15, 2012, 06:25:23 PM

Title: DIY midi selector switch?
Post by: volg4 on August 15, 2012, 06:25:23 PM
hey folks, does anyone have any pointers on how i would go about building something like the philip rees 2s midi selector switch?

http://www.philrees.co.uk/products/selector.htm (http://www.philrees.co.uk/products/selector.htm)

i've opened my one up but the board is glued down and i dont want to risk breaking it....

i'd read that midi only uses pins 2,4 and 5 so would a 3pole on/off/on switch be all i need, i did see a resistor inside the phil rees box but i cant see anything of the board layout at all so don't know where that fits in

it's an unpowered box (or powered via midi?) so i suspect it's pretty simple, it's just that i'm even simpler... heh  ::)

cheers
Title: Re: DIY midi selector switch?
Post by: Circuitbenders on August 15, 2012, 07:17:26 PM
Midi only uses pins 4 and 5 for signals, and pin 2 is connected at one end of the cable as a shield, so you can probably just connect pin 2 to a common point for all the sockets.
Normally i don't think you ground pin 2 of an input socket, but you do on an output socket. Having said that, a switcher will be acting as an extension of a midi lead, so unless someone knows better i'd say connect all the pin 2's together inside.

You can probably get by with a 2 pole rotary switch.

Title: Re: DIY midi selector switch?
Post by: volg4 on August 16, 2012, 09:35:46 PM
nice one! have built one today with a DPDT switch and it's worked perfectly....

just did as you said with all pin 2 connections together with 4 & 5 to the switch

thanks paul!  8)

edit: correction