go away spammer

Author Topic: looking for a type of switch  (Read 1679 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline srodden1Topic starter

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 2
  • Helpful? 0
looking for a type of switch
« on: October 07, 2010, 08:01:40 PM »
I need to build or buy a switch that reacts with pressure. As in the harder its pressed (not sure of the actual toggle so thats non-important) the more power it lets through.
any ideas?
thanks.

Offline rbtying

  • Supreme Robot
  • *****
  • Posts: 452
  • Helpful? 31
Re: looking for a type of switch
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2010, 12:31:33 AM »
If you've got a microcontroller, a force sensor may be what you're looking for:
     http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9375

Otherwise, you can set up a comparator with a similar resistor, but it's more work to handle.

What's the purpose of this exercise?

Offline srodden1Topic starter

  • Beginner
  • *
  • Posts: 2
  • Helpful? 0
Re: looking for a type of switch
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2010, 09:38:39 AM »
Im looking to build a hand at first, and to control that hand i will build a controller that would wrap around my hand and thats where the pressure switches come in. 

Offline rbtying

  • Supreme Robot
  • *****
  • Posts: 452
  • Helpful? 31

Offline Soeren

  • Supreme Robot
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,672
  • Helpful? 227
  • Mind Reading: 0.0
Re: looking for a type of switch
« Reply #4 on: October 08, 2010, 10:10:11 PM »
Hi,

A cheap method is to get some conductive foam of the type used for some ESD sensitive components.
Sandwich a piece of this between to pieces of PCB-material or thin copper (or brass) plate and solder a wire to each. The resistance of the combo will decrease when the two plates are squeezed together.
It might not be as accurately repetitive as force sensors, but you can't beat the price and for initial experiments, it should do fine.
Regards,
Søren

A rather fast and fairly heavy robot with quite large wheels needs what? A lot of power?
Please remember...
Engineering is based on numbers - not adjectives

 


Get Your Ad Here

data_list