Hello, I’m working on a very simple XBee project, I already have the two talking and all I want to do is read the position of a 3 way switch. I’m going to hook up the switch to the DIO pins 0, 1, and 2. There’s no other electronics in the setup. Technically the switch doesn’t do anything, I just want to read the position. Can i re-use the 3.3V or even the 5V from the explorer USB board to run through the switch and to the DIO pins? That way I don’t need a separate power source for the switch.
The 3.3v then, the 5v is going to damage the Xbee. Maybe not now, but in the long run it could. For safety sake add a resistor in series with the pins to limit the current to a few ma. If by any unforeseen circumstance the pins are configurated as output then they might burn out without resistance. Also, switches tend to bounce, so a capacitor to ground would also help: