Comments on: This piece of plastic has ruined Christmas

By: Nick H

Nick H — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:15:51 +0000

Yeah, we had gathered how it worked. They’re not actual microswitches, just metal contacts. Looks like they’re better known as leaf switches. Good detective work though.

By: Mat

Mat — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:23:39 +0000

And one more…

http://www.marcospecialties.com/psearchresult.asp?Cc=PFLD-SWITCH&PageNo=1

My comment is awaiting moderation, apparantly. This one probably will be too.. curse you links.

By: Mat

Mat — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:18:00 +0000

Looks like a microswitch - just seen a photo of the innards of the controller:

http://www.odditorium.net/strummer.jpg

From the looks of it, it’s pretty basic - when you move the strummer, the big meaty bit of plastic moves upwards and pushes the two contacts together, of which the microswitch is one of them. Any bit of metal should do the job there, really… as long as when you downstrum you make the circuit you’re fine.

I’d be surprised if it’s proprietry though, you may have luck here:

http://www.rapidonline.com/searchresults.aspx?style=0&kw=microswitch

You may be able to bastardise this one:

http://www.rapidonline.com/productinfo.aspx?kw=microswitch&tier1=Electronic+Components&tier2=Switches&tier3=Microswitches&tier4=Z+series+microswitches&moduleno=73549

By: Mat

Mat — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 22:08:27 +0000

I was talking to Jeff about this the other day, and you should be able to get a catalogue. Rapid Electronics will probably send you a free catalogue, it’s where I used to get all my electronics stuff in school