Monday, 3 July 2017

Is there such a thing as a switch that can be actuated automatically?


I'm interested in a toggle switch that can be toggled without user input. That is, the physical state can be toggled electrically. It would need to incorporate some sort of motor or magnetic actuator. My google-fu is weak in this area, and I haven't been able to come up with the correct combination of search terms.


Note that I'm not talking about a relay; I'm talking about a normal toggle switch:



toggle switch


Except that it can be toggled without user input. As in, the lever physically moves. Like a "useless machine" except that the mechanism is internal to the switch.



Answer



What you are looking for is a rare beast. Honeywell produce a toggle switch (2 position and 3 position) that can be remotely reset by removing the holding current - this releases the magnetic force exerted by a small solenoid and the switch returns to off or centre. This may do what you want but, I suspect that you would want to be able to toggle it at will remotely: -


enter image description here


Why can't you easily find one that can toggle in both directions? Complexity and performance expectations leading to unfeasible cost and therefore NO foreseeable market is the main reason. Hey it was hard enough to find this one let alone one that can be operated at will in both directions remotely.


No comments:

Post a Comment

arduino - Can I use TI's cc2541 BLE as micro controller to perform operations/ processing instead of ATmega328P AU to save cost?

I am using arduino pro mini (which contains Atmega328p AU ) along with cc2541(HM-10) to process and transfer data over BLE to smartphone. I...