Apollo Tremolo sw1 speed switch LED question

[Anonymous]

Hello! This is my first time on the forum, but I’ve built a few GPCB pedals over the past couple years. My success rate has gotten a lot better, but I’ll be following up on a few bigger issues on other builds presently.

I just finished an Apollo trem build, and I have a pretty simple (I think) question: I wired everything stock to the build guide page, with a toggle + LED on the SW2 buffer kill switch, and a stomp switch + LED on the SW1 speed switch. Everything works fine, but the SW1 speed switch LED illuminates in the opposite switch phase than I had expected- basically, I hoped that the slower speed setting would be the “off” where the LED was dark, and the faster setting would be the “on” when the LED engaged, BUT the opposite is the case. This isn’t a big deal, but I’d prefer the LED to indicate a doubletime setting rather than a halftime setting, if that makes sense. This is super basic and I should probably be able to work this out on my own, but my brain is a little mushy today so I figured I’d consult the oracle…

Is this an easy fix, where I could just swap a couple wires, or is it more complicated than that?

Thanks! -ethan

[Billy]

Welcome to the forum Ethan

Just swap the LED ground to the other outer switch lug

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you, thank you. I figured it was something like that, but I’d been staring at it so long nothing was making sense anymore.

My wiring turned into a bit of a rat’s nest but I think I can manage to swap the necessary wire without too much complication. I used a bit of veroboard on the bottom of the speed switch to hold the CLR and LED wiring, soldered to the open lugs on the switch for stability- I think there’s an open terminal on the strip next to that lug. I can’t easily remove all the guts cuz the LEDs are clipped into particularly tight holders, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to reach it all from above.

 

I’m still incredibly hit or miss at arranging everything in the enclosure in ways that make sense and everything fits and the final hookups are easily accessible…

[Anonymous]

Thanks again Billy!

The one caveat I would add in case anyone else has this issue is that the ground wire goes to the center terminal of SW1, so I actually had to swap the 9v line wire to the opposite outer terminal. If I’d wanted to switch the LED cycle on SW2 it would have been the ground wire.

[Billy]

The easiest way to remember switching is the centre terminals are the common terminals and you either connect the middle common row to the top or bottom row

If you look at GPCB pedal 3PDT wiring as an example  the centre lug is ground the LED will light when it’s connected to ground in this case it’s cathode ground side is connected to lug 4 so when the centre common and top lugs are connected it lights (purple lines) if you wanted it to light switched the other way you’d simply wire the LED cathode ground to lug 6 which again would connect with lug 5 ground when switched the other way (red lines) lighting the LED

 

[Anonymous]

Sometimes even the simple stuff gets confusing and all it takes is a little outside bump to reset everything and help it make sense.

Here’s a quick diagram of the veroboard layout I used for SW1 and SW2, in case anyone may find it useful…

 

[Author]

Posts