Thursday, December 17, 2015

New LED Foot Switch


What's this got to do with rocketry? Read on . . .

You probably know I entertain doing shows. I play strange instruments, sing and talk way too much between songs.
Last year a bought a new Yamaha mixer on on-board effects. While the board has too many effects, I'm only concerned with reverb.
Too many musicians don't know that reverb is used on recording to simulate the echos in a performance hall. Some use way too much in a live performance.

If a room is "dry" I'll add a slight amount of reverb to my vocals and live instruments. I use it so subtly that from stage I couldn't tell if the reverb is on or off between songs. I didn't want to turn my back to the audience and punch a button on the mixer, so a bought a on/off foot switch.

Very few companies make an on/off foot switch with a light. It's simple, the light is on when the reverb is on.
You've heard the name Marshall, they make guitar amps. After some searching, Marshall seemed to be the only company that makes one of these lighted foot switches. I figured if anybody knew how to make a good foot switch, they would.

I bought the foot switch and it was unusable! The small red LED was so dim that onstage you couldn't tell if it was on or off.

Enter rockets:
At the last Orlando R.O.C.K. launch, Tom Dennon mentioned he was going to Sky Craft, a local "old school" electronics surplus store. I said I have to stop by and pick up some LEDs, but I didn't know how to wire them up.
Tom volunteered to pick up a bright LED and install it in the foot switch!
Now the foot switch works! It's plenty bright for live show use.

That's one reason I like the rocketry community.
It seems they are there to help out, sometimes beyond rocket advice.
While he didn't expect anything in return but for his help, Tom got some Odd'l Rockets parachutes. He liked the gore pattern and thought they would look better in his scale models.

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