Hello shiny nice helpful bit-tech people. I'm planning on building a server PC for future use and as this is my first ever mod of any shape or form i want to get all the details confirmed and "near perfect" before i even pick up/purchase any tools and start the construction. (as i got screwdriver and drill happy the other day and completely disassembled the donor case, did take pics first tho ) Ok so the question is how exactly do power and reset buttons work? Do they make a circuit constantly or do they do so only when pressed? If they only make a circuit when pressed could i replace the cheap nasty plastic buttons with these? Third and final would attaching said buttons be as easy as removing the wires (as shown below) and just hooking them up or would they have to go on some special way? ie, black wire black terminal. Thanks again will hopefully have another thread up soon when i've finished the ProD designs which will undoubtedly contain yet more questions.
the switches that your lookin at are fine. the power switch works on a momentary circuit just google it. it really is as simple as attaching the wires.
and there are lots of shiny ones aswell. What would happen if you made a button to a constant voltage switch would it just not turn on
it would be quite cool to just have a row of those airforce trigger switches and rout everything through it like turning on the pc and your dual monitors and your speakers just by flicking up the caps and switching them all on at once. I am easily entertained
The trick with that is making the rest of the computer look military grade... Having a row of protected toggles on the front of a Dell just looks silly. As for using them in a case, well... stay tuned. I'm not starting my project log until I start cutting stuff, but that's not too far off.
And thus ruin a perfectly good table? Dont think i'd ever go as far as to mod another piece of furniture for a PC.
Yeah, cos that plate will always be there. Unless its a cheap table you're gonna throw away in a few years i wouldn't mount anything into it.
but the switches will always be there aswell and you can use them for different functions if the computer is taken away from the table e.g. lamp, lights, stereo, printer, ipod charger, alarm clock lol anything electrical how about we agree to disagree??
the problem with the switches in the desk is that they can't be used to turn any thing else on cos they are momentary and things like lamps use normal switches but as long as the desk remains a computer desk you could always use the switches for another pc and if the switches are dont right it might look good i would put a plug and the switches so they and easily be plugged and unplugged from the pc
Protected toggle switches tend to be SPST or SPDT... That makes them great for turning stuff on and off, but not so hot for PC power switches. Of course, the real trick will be finding ones tough enough to take the kinds of power to run monitors and the like. The biggest I've found are only 20 amps @ 12v.
Techno-Dan who is that at? As the switches i'm looking at are slow SPNO, which is a phrase i vaguely understand.
no you misread my plan was to put normal switches in the desk not momentary ones a line of "trigger" switches
iwog, I'm looking at switches like this one, which are what I assume are what saltynay means by "airforce trigger switches". The description he gives from there seems to fit. Those switches (I have two here on my desk) are SPST, not momentary.
yes those were what I was talking about and routing power through them to turn on and off the monitor/lamp/pc/tv/stereo have everything controlled in one little control panel perhaps with 3 of those airfoce triggers in line and then 3 momentary switches below
ok, try this. Mount your switches on the table as you wish. You can find the protected covers by themselves or pull them off other switches which you can get but do not meet your power / load requirements. Behind the switches however you will have to build some electronics to preform the actual action you want the switch to do. for instance to turn on a PC with a SPST (Single Position Single Throw - On/Off) switch you would need a circuit which takes a + in and triggers a momentary pulse to a relay or transistor which in turn connects your PC power pins. This circuit could be researched @ (googled) http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/LM555.html With this setup if you decided to re-task your switches you only have to change the circuits behind them preserving your "Look" Keep in mind however that most actual military systems having any resemblance to the system you describe has an arming switch (on/off) and a ... "Big red button" (a momentary push button) which is usually not red and only about the size of the average thumb print.
I was just thinking out loud not planning on doing this my pc moves around to much for me to build it into a desk
ok can some one explain to me what the different letters in switches mean. I know SPNO means single pole normally open. but what are the other variations?
