LEDs are remarkable components. They are small, comes in different packages, draws less than 100 mili-Watts and yet they produce enough light for a man to see in dark. Not to mention the colors that they come. In this project, i will give you an idea of another use that an LED can have...
First of all we need an LED!
Whenever i have time and i feel like spending it, i rip off components from other PCBs. It is something like a hobby. And usually, i choose components that are difficult to find, or cannot be fount at all. For this project, i will use an LED from (i think) an old VCR.
This is the LED that i will use
I soldered two long wires to extend its leads
And then i bended its leads as close to the package as possible
I will need a smooth flat surface at the bottom of the LED...
I put a drop of hotmelt glue at the bottom of the LED
And then i placed it on a clean - a little bit wet - glass
And i let it there as long as the glue needed to cool down
With the extractor i cut the excess of glue...
...and removed the LED from the glass
Now i have a smooth flat surface!
And the main part: The pushbutton...
From another PCB i ripped of this micro-switch, perfect for the occasion
A drop of super-glue will do
Steady hand is what you need now, which i lack of... But its ok...
This is the basic idea. The LED Pushbutton.
Every pushbutton has a housing
I believe that this pushbutton is complete, and needs of no other package. Nevertheless, i will show you an idea of how you can make a simple housing for this. After all, i will need one for the demonstration :)
With the 5mm drill, i drilled a hole on a 6mm thick acrylic glass
And then, with the 10mm drill, i widened the 5mm hole, about 1mm from the bottom.
With the dremel, i made a pocket for the wires, and i flattened the bottom side that was shaped as V from the 10mm drill
I cut the piece from the strip
I put and secured the LED pushbutton with hotmelt glue
And here it is! Make 2 holes and the pushbutton can be mounted directly on your project-box.
At 8 January 2013, 19:06:04 user Allan wrote: [reply @ Allan]
This is an interesting idea, Giorgos. Thank you for sharing it. This might be a good idea for the switch on my bike lights. On the other hand, I might want to invert the operation of the LED-pushbutton light. I might want to make the LED illuminate when the switch is opened (and the bike light turned off)and make it extinguish when the switch is closed (and the bike light turned on). This would make the light swich easier to find in the dark. I will have to think about how to do this.
Allen Bradley makes button/LED assemblies similar to this. You have the button itself and then "snap ins"...one for the LED with screw terminals and another that snaps in next to the LED for responding to the button being pressed.
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