You've for sure got a short somewhere and it sounds as if it's in the charging circuit. Not exactly in the order you asked, but here's some thoughts.
Smoke in the box -- it's definitely a sign of something hot in there, but not necessarily a problem. I've had them do that when they haven't been wired up for some time and it was the heat burning years of crud off of the field resistor. Still, it could also be caused by your short.
The switch -- I doubt it's the problem, but couldn't eliminate it. I'd open it up last. If you do, you'll see why I doubt it as the problem. It's ungodly simple. Basically a brass or bronze disc that turns to make contact in various with the inside of the various contacts you see on the outside. It's held in place by a large simple spring. It's possible that a piece of the spring or the the disc has broken off and is floating loose but, like I say, it's unlikely enough that I'd check it last.
Here's how I'd go at it. Disconnect your battery, pull the face off of your panel, and disconnect every small wire you have on both ends, from the lights, the ammeter, the switch and the generator. Then use an ohmmeter to look for continuity to ground. You shouldn't find any. If you do that wire is a problem, but check all the others, too, in case they've shorted to each other as well as ground.
To my mind the two most suspect, because the problem is occurring whether the lights are on or not, are the wire running from the BAT terminal on the relay to the ammeter, and the wire from the field stud on the generator to the switch. If you have a starter, you should also pay attention to the wire from the ammeter to the hot stud ont he starter. Everything else, other than light wires, is basically short jumpers that should also be checked out.
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