I’ve been searching for a couple months now for a pushbutton switch aka flashlight switch. I found one that works for one design but cannot find a similar for another design. The switch must latch it’s state (not a momentary switch). The first switch I found was simple enough it’s on or it’s off and has two pins. ON - OFF
The next switch which I cannot find needs to bounce between two states ON and OFF but have three pins. At any given time two pins will be ON while the 3rd is OFF and it cycles between which two pins are ON. I cannot for the life of me figure out what this switch is called to order one. I’ve been placing random switch orders and testing them with no success.
Single pole, double throw, latching pushbutton switch are the keywords to search with. If the selection at Sparkfun doesn’t meet your needs, you might try Digikey. Go to Pushbutton Switches, under Circuit select SPDT, under Switch Function select On-On. Select any other parameters you need. I also recommend selecting In Stock under Stocking Options.
Very helpful thank you! I’d ordered some circuit board switches that are in the PERFECT packaging for my project. They are CW Industries GPTS203211B. However, I don’t see them in ON ON. I’ll have to dig deeper.
Do you know a good breakdown somewhere that explains this switch stuff in detail?
GPTS202312B is a SPDT in the same series. You’d have to bend the pins 90 degrees if you want the button facing up. I can’t tell if it’s latching, but it is On-On.
I ordered some and they turned out to be ON-OFF-ON unfortunately. They have to be double clicked to toggle between the ON states so it cycles through the OFF state. Maybe they put the wrong thing in my order…? However, when I loaded the datasheet it showed ON-OFF-ON.
Thanks for the link to the tutorial! I’ll take that. Greatly appreciated.