Hi everybody. I want to know if connecting one foot swicht to multiple keyboards by splitting the cable into three jacks can damage the instruments. I need to do this to change the registrations simultaneusly in the three keyboards (PSR, Pa500, TR) with a single operation. When I press the switch I understand the connectors will be joined, for a second, among them and I'm afraid this could be harmful. Otherwise I should build a mechanism that triggers three switches independently for each instrument.
Thanks in advance.

Victor

I think what you need is a midi patch bay, that way you can map what bank/patch/registration goes, since you have very different boards, like the TR has combis and Programs aka combinations and sounds, the PSR has registrations and that may just change the sound not the registration, and in the PA500 you have Performances=Registrations, and the voice or sounds....
I know this can be done with a midi patch bay, and that may involve some midi mapping for each of the boards.

------------------
mdorantes

Thanks Manuel but my setup is already too complex and all the Midi connectors and USB's ins/outs are busy in most of my keyboards. I thought the easiest way was to program each instrument, for example the registrations in the PSR, the STS or Performances in the PA and the Programs and combinations in the TR in a the desired sequence so by pressing the foot switch it would change to the next sounds and/or style variation in them all simultaneously.
However I will read more about a Midi Patch bay but I guess adding it would force me to rethink the whole configuration of the connections I already have.

You could actually do this, but you would need to do some creative wiring and use a series of blocking diodes to prevent connection between keyboards.

Another option would be to use three, separate momentary switches and a single pedal to trigger all three. This would eliminate any possibility of interconnection between keyboard circuits.

Good Luck,

Gary

[This message has been edited by travlin'easy (edited 10-31-2009).]

Gary gives good advice on this, pay heed as it could conceivably be damaging to connect all three to one set of switch contacts.

Even if it appears to work, it could be leading to a fault later down the line, or worse yet, if there was a circuit fault of a cerain type in one unit, you don't want it getting into the other two via that switch.

There is also a slight chance that one keyboard is "pull up" while another may be "pull down" -- which has nothing to do with whether or not the switch contact must be Normally Open for all of them. This could be easily ascertained from outside the units with a multimeter, though.

Personall I wouldn't trust using the blocking diodes so much, either, I'd prefer separae contacts activated by one action for this. Three pole switch or three separate switches activated by the one pedal mechanically, or a single pole switch that closes a three pole relay with separated contacts.


--Mac

Thank you guys. When I decide to do this work I will use three separate contacts activated by one pedal, just as I suspected would be the safest way.

I'd worry about the possibility that the wiring would cause unforseen interactions.

You can get multi-pole switches, but these tend to be for use in audio circuits and would probably not be robust enough for foot use.

If you are handy with a soldering iron you could build a box using CMOS switch chips such as http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/CD%2FCD4066BC.pdf to do the open / close operations for multiple electronically disconnected switches, using your "ordinary" foot switch as the control signal. You'd need to use a battery or psu to run the thing.