I’m quite the beginner, so I’m not sure if this is possible… I have an On/Off Switch with White LED Ring (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11970) and I’d like to power the LED inside and use the switch with only two wires. Due to size limitations and connectors for my project, I’m trying to keep the number of wires and connectors down. Using an arduino for this project.
My preliminary research suggest I’ll need three wires, but curious if this is this possible? If so, how would you go about this?
If you look at the youtube product video link on the product page you can see it has a bunch of connector pins at the back. However the datasheet (created by sparkfun) doesn’t explain which does what? Infact in the top-right drawing you can only identity 2 connector pins. The 3d view suggests there are more pins at the back, but does not explain their function.
So I suggest you email Sparkfun product support directly for more information about which pin does what. What are the 5v rated led supply pins and what is the 250VAC, 3A rated pins.
P.s. What voltage and current are you intending to pass through the switch as the signal? Do you intend to use this as an on-off switch to power a device directly. Or is it intended to pass a low voltage and low current to a microcontroller or similar circuit that then turns on/off a power device via other means.
Have you poked around with a multimeter in diode/resistance mode on those pins? Maybe you can identifty between which pins the led is connected, and it’s polarity. The multimeter should give out a constant current which should make the led light up (dimly). At least, this seems to work for most red and yellow leds I have. Maybe not for white and blue leds. Also find out which pins to make the switch function.
