Inside a Microswitch

We’ve taken a few microswitches apart, mostly to fix those pesky Logitech mice that develop double-click syndrome, but we’ve never made a video. Luckily, [Julian] did, and it is worth watching if you want to understand the internal mechanism of these components.

[Julian] talks about the way the contacts make and break. He also discusses the mechanical hysteresis inherent in the system because of the metal moving contact having spring-like qualities

We always have trouble holding the little plunger in place, so we liked [Julian’s] idea of holding it in with a spot of putty. If you want to know the reason he was playing with the switches to begin with, look at the second video. His 8-bit breadboard computer uses a switch like this to drive the single-step clock.

We did a detailed look at microswitches a not long ago, so if you want to dig into more details, that’s a good place to start. As for breadboard computers, we like them too.

Filed under: misc hacks, teardown

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