I'm an Electronics Technician, and I really think these videos Collin makes should be used to explain electronics to anyone that wants to trully understand it, without burning many braincells in the process...
So if there is anyone out there.....I took apart two keyboards. I'm a noob here. I mean that's why I'm here. To me the future is stay at home electrical engineers. So the keyboard. Hacking it......I want to do something but don't know what. I look at the guts and think.....something can be done. But what? Maybe something automated. Something cylindrical in nature and hollow, with valves that produce something. The exterior could be some kind of barreling system that has little fingers that ultimately could be coded to be programmed to fire each contact at a specific time. This obviously is not very practical but it could be used to create some kind of vortex. It function like a rotary device. Anyways I like the videos. As a novice electrical engineer and hard pressed to get a loan to get books your channel has indeed helped me along.
Dip switches are fun... wire them to each other in a random order, and made a code to turn the device on. I recently replaced the back-light of an LCD screen with one that needs externally powered. I jumped it off my computer's power connection, but I may use my coffee maker switch on it. I've been waiting for a worthy project for the rocker switch that is labeled "warm" on one position and "brew" on the other. It needs a good home.
Collin is absolutely awesome!!!! Make Magazine has gone a long way since I first subscribed, in fact, his video was the first one I saw from Make Magazine and the reason I decided to subscribe! If Collin made his own channel, I would subscribe without question.
@JacobLukeWood The tactile momentary switches would work with 2 terminals, but they usually have 4. The two left terminals are always connected and the two right are always connected. Pushing the switch connects the right pair to the left pair. The advantage of the four terminals is that 4 terminals provide better support when mounted to a printed circuit board. If they only had two terminals, they would be more likely to twist, slide, or hinge when you pressed them.
I wish Collin was my electricity course professor, the way he explains things is so easy to understand, listening to my professor trying to explain things just gives me a headache -____-
@JacobLukeWood Although some 4 terminal tactile switches are DPST (double pole single throw) which would allow you to control two circuits, most are SPST (single pole single throw). For the SPST they still have 4 terminals, but you only need to use two of them. The other two are really just to help with mounting. Consider digikey part 450-1649-ND. Pin 1 is ALWAYS connected to pin 2 and pin 3 is ALWAYS connected to pin 4. When you press the switch the 1-2 pair is connected to the 3-4 pair.
Colin... you're bloody Brilliant !! Thankyou so much for this vid, I'll make good use of this knowledge. I have a question. I recently converted an old Ekco Radio I bought at a bootfair for £3 into a guitar amp which sounds wonderful. It does however seem to have a dodgy Vol pot that keeps cutting the sound til you either turn it off and on again or give it a flick. Is this something that can be repaired or do I need a new switch please? if it was a crackle then spray? but not sure that'd do it
One thing I need to hack is the wireless remote for my car. It uses the membrane switch but I would rather have standard momentary switches because they're more reliable and harder to press in my pocket.
DiP = Dual Inline Package (not pin). That's one weird paddle toggle with the OFF position on top. (Google images "switch on off" to see how most switches are labeled.) It must be from Australia, where everything is upside down. :-)
If the electricity is to complex and you want an easy solution, make a timer switch that quickly turns of for like 0.1 sec. and stays on for 2 min, that way it automaticly restarts the clock seamlessly so it. Or A timer switch that will every 2 min, rotate a moter to flick it, but solution 1 is easyer. :)
"Thank You", thank you very much. I am looking for a sliding switch. Slide the switch pole left or right to engage or transfer power. When sliding switch pole is in the middle (center), switch is off. Do you have or know of ANY sliding switch for breadboards part number? Let me know. I look forward to hearing from you 😎😃😀😎
I was hoping to see electrical switches like in our homes where you can turn on the light with a switch and turn it off with another one. never figured out how they worked
I love it! I just wish someone would make a *tiny* keyboard out of the tiny momentary contact switches- if you don't use your keyboard all that much except passwords etc. it would be great to have a one-handed keyboard that takes up essentially no space. Hey, get this and a pico motherboard and put a computer in a file card box! I wouldn't want qwerty-- if it is going to be small as all that a 13 or 14 wide by 8 deep programmable array would be nice. Etched keycaps?
