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Control external momentary switch — Parallax Forums

Control external momentary switch

dacustdacust Posts: 2
edited 2007-05-05 00:57 in BASIC Stamp
I am a total noob with Stamps and a noob with electronics. Just got the HomeWork board yesterday.

I just got a circuit to work but wondering if there's a better/simpler way to do it.

Project:
I have some LED light sticks powered by the computer power supply. There is a momentary switch that selects the mode that the lights run in. 1.5v.

Solution:
I used a 2N3904 transistor to trigger them, and with a 50ms delay it works great.

Question:
Is there a way the BS2 can do it directly without the transistor? From what I see the BS2 only does off/on, not open/closed. I need to do this circuit 5 times so if it can do it direct, I can cut out 5 transistors and 5 resistors.

-dan

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2007-05-04 01:38
    Dan,

    You would definitely need some kind of device to do the switching. It could be a transistor, MOSFET or even a relay, but you won’t be able to do it directly. I/O pins aren’t designed to do that kind of thing directly. Take care.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • dacustdacust Posts: 2
    edited 2007-05-05 00:57
    Thanks, Chris. I figured that was the case but asked just in case. I'm loving my new toy!

    -dan
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