[kyndig2]

I'm looking at helping a good friend build a Pimeta so he will stop borrowing mine.

I'll be doing most of the soldering but he has to plan out how its all going together and all of the panel components. He desperately wants a blue ring lighted push button power switch on the front! After looking all over we found one that looks like it might would work... Unfortunately it doesn't specify whether its momentary or not! Here's the data sheet (pdf). He wants either the 19mm or 22mm one in blue ring configuration. Can anyone tell me if this switch will work as the power switch by itself or if it would need a soft on circuit? If it needs a soft on circuit then I either need to find an alternate switch that is similar or I have to get a working soft on circuit!

I saw that AMBs epsilon12 uses a relay and such similar to what appears to be needed for soft power on, but I got the impression that there's not an easy way to mod it for soft power on. The information that I got on how to do the soft power on was kind of brief and I wasn't completely sure how the heck to do it. If there's not a switch that doesn't need it, I would greatly appreciate help in figuring out a minimal cost circuit for this! TIA

 

[n_maher]

Every ring illuminated switch that I've ever come across is a momentary switch, including this one. I actually complained to Mouser about this specific switch because neither their site nor the data sheet id'd the switch as momentary, but it is. Here's a quote from the Schurter press release, which is one of the few places I found that plainly said it was a momentary switch:

Quote:

Switching action is single-pole, momentary with N.O. and N.C. contacts available.

Sorry to burst your friends bubble but he should start looking for a different switch and stay away from ring illumination. It seems like an awful lot of effort to go through for just a switch.

 

[vixr]

I think THIS is as close as you can get... its out of stock, but its just for example anyway...

 

[heatmizer]

You could do this:

 

[thunder]

Here is a link to a simple circuit to use with a momentary sw to make it latching ect... http://www.electronic2002.8k.com/alt1.htm

 

[MisterX]

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Stainless-SPDT...QQcmdZViewItem

 

[threEchelon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterX /img/forum/go_quote.gif http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Stainless-SPDT...QQcmdZViewItem

You beat me to it.

 

[kyndig2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by MisterX /img/forum/go_quote.gif http://cgi.ebay.com/3-Stainless-SPDT...QQcmdZViewItem

This Pimeta is intended to run at 24VDC... that switch is only rated for 12VDC. I'm assuming that this will make it a bad choice for the main power switch? Granted I was planning on using it for the actual switch on the Pimeta board... That's before the virtual ground though so I would think that it would exceed 12 VDC. Lemme know if I'm being dumb though! I'm actually tempted to order them regardless just so that I actually have some latching LED push buttons switches!

If the mentioned switches can't work, then I might give the soft-on circuits a try. I'm still pretty new at electronics so some of the diagram is mildly confusing to me but I'll just do a bunch more reading in "The Art of Electronics" and hopefully fill in the gaps in my knowledge! Fantastic book... just kind of slow going for me right now. Still too used to writing software, physical circuits feel a bit weird!