Audio Amateur THE JOURNAL FOR AUDIOPHILE CRAFTS |SWITCHLESS AUDIO SWITCH BY FERNANDO GARCIA VIESCA [= MANY AUDIO AMATEUR readers, jyau very likely hand assembled your sound system. Your amplifier is the system's showease, and you are im mensely proud of its good sound. Still you can cimaltancously im prove the styling and performance of ‘your amplifier with electronic function switching. With the circuit 1 present here, several advantages become im- ‘mediately available: + Commutation is done physically near the amp stage where needed, with ‘out hum-picking wires along the way. * Asingle, unshielded wire switch: es a stereo pair, with the correspond: ingly Jess cluttered wiring. * Contact degradation is avotded. + A ddistinative style i given to the amplifier by the touch switches. «Switching by infrared remote con- trol or other digital means is feasible. * Expensive and/or hard-to-find 10- tary selector switches are not needed, ‘Choosing the Device Bore we choose any particular switch, [etme explain the eiteria I designed in- ‘to chis ett. Since this audio switch may be used in literally hunereds of dit ferent circuit topologies where Teannot Ihave the slightest contro, several con- siderations should be adiressed Will this circuit degrade the sonic piformance! Will ground Joops be a problem? Ate there any potentially hhacardous tansients (to 1Cs) daring fum-on or off Is AC coupling a dave: back? Is the amplifier alfetet by series impedance ofthe switch? In other words, i the switching cir- cuit universal and cy compatiblet (Sce the Appendix for ¢ concise, de tailed deseription of switching devices and considerations. ‘These considerations, narrow the choice to isolated switching devices, rnamely photo field effect transistors (FET) and reed relays. For an actual * solid-state switch," the photo FET is an ideal choice. But the device bas « practical drawback: cost. This factor is eee a trinsic single pole single tl device; to realize « double pole double throw [DPDT) switch we would need four devices. Read switches are not only wer in cost, but their size has been reduced $0 now there are double pole single throw [DPST} switebes housed in a 14pin, ual in-line package [DIP}. $0 I chose reed relays, but if you think other de vices offer better options, please feel free to use them. In this project I de- liberately mounted the switches on a separate board, thus if you decide to use a different switching device, it will be less dificult. ‘All this discussion ig valid only for aio signal switching; other functions, such as power on/off are implemented in a different fashion, as described below: Ciccuit Features ‘The following switching functions are availble in this design: 1. Power on/off: Tae switching function is provided by a pair of inverse pparalle| connected, silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCR). Idid not use a single tine because the asymmetrical voltage drop in some triacs would cause « DC ‘component and saturation in a trans- former. Also SCRs are intrinsically ‘more ragged than cris. This function is in the form of a “toggle” switch, ‘which means it changes states every time you touch the plate, Items two, through six are all toggle switches. 2. Speaker on/off: Since many amplifiers already have a protection relay, and this relay is usually a DC coil, type, a phototransistor is provided to switch the coi. The uansistor, with its ‘completely isolated drive, may be wired Jn any fashion which makes it easy t0 imrlace to existing protection circuits. ‘The 4N33 phototransistor coupler is good for 24V DC relays; for higher volt- ages use an HLIGL. Ifthe eurrent c2- pacity of the photocoupler is not ‘enough, youmy employ 2 Darlingson- connected, extemal transistor. If your relay has an AC coil, tie MOC3011 photo triac is the solution. ‘3. Spare: Some people like to switch «a second pair of peakers. Others would like to switeh the display meter's ‘ange. The spare touch plate is provided so you may tailor any switching fanc- tion. An optocoualer output is pro- vided, such that you can use phototran- sistors, phowo tas, photo FETs or whatever. A nice feature of 6-pin DIP couplers is that pin 1is always the LED anode and pin 2 the cathode, so you ‘may interchange different devices to suit your needs ‘4 Loudness: I've labeled this the way Tuse it, but itis en uncommitted DPDT relay switch that you may use for tone defeat, equalizer in/out, asec ‘ond tape monitor, and so on. 5. Tape monitor: Another DPDT re- lay switch that allows you to imple- ‘ment a tape monitor loop. ‘6. Mate: When you have just proper- ly adjusted the sound level to the mus- cal material, the telephone rings. Rather than tuming the volume down, this switch disables all signal sources, effectively muting the aud. 7, Aux, CD, phono, radio: These four touch plates emulate a two-pole, four-throw rotary input selector. These ‘The Audio Amateur 3/88 7wn © alieieae cary, Wetonn mane Cm, Ty rious oe rao @—! =| nor @— 9 renner ‘ee ae ' {OL a ieee vee I ie ifeeet FIGURE 1; Switch location in a typical preamp, cre not toggle types, but touching one plate selects one inpat and deseleets che Fegure 1 shows a typical eudio pre- ‘amp and where the switches woald be Jocated. Note an auxiliary transformer for the circuit is required) this trans- former is always on, allowing the cir- cuit’s “memories to remember the last settings. T know that a battery- ow oe on vm x NK Roo POND Pu ne a nas wal ns He ne a rao hal Re B40 mn Power on/ctt touch pate Soars teucn piste touones tcuch pate ‘ape Monitor touct alte hatsng touch plate ‘Speaker touch late ‘Abailarytouch plate ‘Comooc: bie touer pace faato touen plate Proro toven pute “tv AC 200mA put power Haheurrent ac switch a reay drive ‘seen Vs uss ‘bare optocoupler arve ‘Spare status LED Mute stats LED ‘Speacer optocoupler rive ‘Spear status (=D Wonior status LED is ray are a reavarne buds: status LED ii reay are Pace statu cd KS reay arne WW raay orne 8 ray arive ‘Ax satus LED Prono statue cD 6 reayarne 38 The Audio Amateur 3/88 backed circuitry could also achieve signal flow is very straightforward. I this, but Iwould have to include three. divided the circuit into two boards, one state buffers in the circuit design, that is the control board, where all the cor: 4s you'll see, is already very stufied. mands art entered and decoded; and the Only the amp’s main transforme: is second is the audio switching board, switched. Before you frown at the use where al the audio signals are switched ‘of another power transformer, remem i situ. This approach reduces the in- ber itis a very low capacity unit, and duced noise of long wiring leads and ‘may be used for other circuitry, such eliminates most of the shielded cable 48 4 bar graph display. ‘eguements Thema ood inchs the power supply and also manages ‘The Circuit power on/off. a ‘The circuit, shown in Pig. 2, may ap-Tomlt mechanleal switches froma this pear cluttered a frst glance, but the design, and instead use a touch plate ‘TABLE Mt PARTS LIST Semiconductors rt) “INeAGE sirall signal lode 10 20,21 1NOO« 200V 78 rectifier lose san 7225 N00" SOV 1A rectifier aK siode ‘204 wre Imiriatere LEO 1k a -2NG4O8 generat purpose NPN 20, 4W trans thaw on 52008 200V 8A folate tab 20W sce AL resistors 4 or 4W, 5% unless otherwise ATE Hex Senmet trigger foe - IW aes ual o ripen a ‘uaa S@ fost capacitors 8 ‘Quad NAND gate 3,9,7,8,1, A310 —_ULNzooA Nh current Durer 348 2208 an 'Moc30"1 phototrae eriver 24, 6,8, 10,12, ‘12-13 @NES photo Danington trans nas our om aia um7eta “av posttwe a new regulator ae 2.0584 00 as a7OF @ 2BFM miscetioneous 1: Die, S00 ae ‘12 col, form 2A reed reay IM: Metazed fim, SOV na 100 mil inine PC boara Jacks 4: Aluminum eectronic, 16 'e sockets, wire, etc 1: Tentalum elestronvte, 109 “A sultable device is distributed by Dighkey eMetallzed fim, 250V foracrosstnetineuse Corp. 8) 6876674, dart umDeF 2544ND