looking for nice blue backlit pushbuttons

[Heywood Jablome]

Went to dickies and jaycar but couldnt find anything I liked. I'll need
about 100 to start with so they need to be at the right price. Backlight
doesnt have to be blue but just something nice. Glass top would be
excellent. A good tactile feel - with good positive click action. Sorry to
be so picky but its for my future house as wall switches mounted on a blank
plate connected to a low voltage controller which I am building. Just simple
momentary action single pole. Any help appreciated in finding a quality
supplier. The stuff at shops these days is so cheap.

I like the look of the round saturn switches that the Cbus2 home automation
lighting system has but I dont want the associated circuitry. Just the
buttons.

 

[Caliban]

Had a look here?

http://www.switchesplus.com.au/

 

[Chris]

Went to dickies and jaycar but couldnt find anything I liked. I'll need
about 100 to start with so they need to be at the right price. Backlight
doesnt have to be blue but just something nice. Glass top would be
excellent. A good tactile feel - with good positive click action. Sorry to
be so picky but its for my future house as wall switches mounted on a blank
plate connected to a low voltage controller which I am building. Just simple
momentary action single pole. Any help appreciated in finding a quality
supplier. The stuff at shops these days is so cheap.

I like the look of the round saturn switches that the Cbus2 home automation
lighting system has but I dont want the associated circuitry. Just the
buttons.

1. Are you looking at 100 of these for just one house?
2. How many switches per plate?
3. Do you wish to use these for dimming or will your controller do that?

Cheers.

 

[Heywood Jablome]

1. Are you looking at 100 of these for just one house?

2. How many switches per plate?

On each plate I am thinking one button for on, one for off and 5 for
presets. Thats 7 switches per plate.

The house will no doubt have 15 to 20 switch plates so ill need around 100
individual switches.

3. Do you wish to use these for dimming or will your controller do that?

The controller will do that. The switches should all be single position
momentary pushbutton with a backlight LED.

 

[Mike Diack]

On each plate I am thinking one button for on, one for off and 5 for
presets. Thats 7 switches per plate.

The house will no doubt have 15 to 20 switch plates so ill need around
100 individual switches.



The controller will do that. The switches should all be single
position momentary pushbutton with a backlight LED.

Since you already have an MCU in the equation, sounds like an ideal
application for a QPROX chip.
www.qprox.com
They work great !
M

 

[Chris]

On each plate I am thinking one button for on, one for off and 5 for
presets. Thats 7 switches per plate.

The house will no doubt have 15 to 20 switch plates so ill need around 100
individual switches.



The controller will do that. The switches should all be single position
momentary pushbutton with a backlight LED.

Short of taking a trip to Akihabara you are possibly best off contacting
Clipsal and asking to see a rep in your area. See if you can purchase the
Cbus plates/buttons without the circuitry. They are in my opinion the best
looking switches available in the world. The other suggestion I was going to
make was the Quantum proximity chips that Mike has already suggested with
etched or coloured glass. Design a PCB to sit behind it with the QT chips
and blue and orange leds for indicators - just like Clipsal's. However, with
so many buttons to a single plate, you may be switching the wrong circuit.
As well, I have found by experience that the more switches per plate the
more confusion for users. Seriously consider labelling. What about a short
touch for on and a longer touch for off - instead of 1 button for each.

I would be interested to see what you end up using and what type of
controllers you are using. Other oz manufacturers are Dynalite (the best and
most flexible system around), HPM (I think they are still into it) and there
is a crowd in your home town (Melb?) that is into home automation with their
own gear but I can't remember their name.

Cheers.

 

[Heywood Jablome]

Since you already have an MCU in the equation, sounds like an ideal

application for a QPROX chip.
www.qprox.com
They work great !
M

Wow, I have seen them on mini Ipods but had not considered them for this
application. This looks really really cool. Especially for this application.
Have you used the development board? The linear one looks like just the
ticket. Hoping its not too pricey.

 

[Mike Diack]

Wow, I have seen them on mini Ipods but had not considered them for
this application. This looks really really cool. Especially for this
application. Have you used the development board? The linear one looks
like just the ticket. Hoping its not too pricey.

I didn't use the dev board, the app notes go into the layout issues very
well so I made a board that fitted my application (in the back of a
Clipsal/PDL flushplate) and it just went, no problems. Braemac sell them
in user friendly MOQs (1 tube) and they aren't too pricey (IIRC around $5
for the single buttons and $10 for the 6 button chips). You gotta be a
wee bit careful with backlight LED switching glitches otherwise you can
get into a tail chasing scenario, but they go into that in the appnotes.
I have a sneaky suspicion that they really are mask PICs.
M

 

[dmm]

I didn't use the dev board, the app notes go into the layout issues very
well so I made a board that fitted my application (in the back of a
Clipsal/PDL flushplate) and it just went, no problems. Braemac sell them
in user friendly MOQs (1 tube) and they aren't too pricey (IIRC around $5
for the single buttons and $10 for the 6 button chips). You gotta be a
wee bit careful with backlight LED switching glitches otherwise you can
get into a tail chasing scenario, but they go into that in the appnotes.
I have a sneaky suspicion that they really are mask PICs.
M

Those chips look cool. Farnell have got a range (QT-150 in SMD and PDIP for $8.27)
in stock.

I think I'll have a play with some of them...

 

[Mike Diack]

Those chips look cool. Farnell have got a range (QT-150 in SMD and
PDIP for $8.27) in stock.

I think I'll have a play with some of them...

They have HUGE play potential !
My last app involved a giant blue rubber jellyfish that screamed "OUCH!!!"
when the (museum) punters touched the tentacles.
M