Hey guys, long time no post. I know this has nothing to do with building robots per say, but it's about quality of material.
I was doing a project recently that involved a three way (or is it two way?) toggle switch. On - Off - On. So move it to one side and it connects one outside pin with the middle, and move it to the other and if connects the other outside pin with the middle, with OFF in the middle. Yes, it says on the packaging that OFF is in the middle.
Well I finished the project, and noticed some things wrong. For some reason the switches were always on. No matter where or how carefully I moved them either one side or the other was always connected. There was no OFF. I did test the switches before I used them, and while I noted it was a pain to get it to be off, it wasn't THAT bad. I guess after they're moved back and forth a bunch they lose the OFF ability.
It's just stupid and I've learned an important lesson about buying crappy (notice I didn't say cheap) stuff from radio shack. Besides, they're way more expensive than online sites anyway...
Now I have to figure out a way to make it work without starting completely over...
So, lesson of the day, buy good hardware. Hm, I guess this could have gone in the hardware section.... whatever.
