Can this item be used?

[PacManess]

Hiya,
I wanted to add a couple of buttons to my CP that didn't so much "look" like arcadey buttons, you know, just BUTTONS...and I was wondering...could I use something like this?

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F011%5F002%5F015%5F002&product%5Fid=275%2D1548

That's the link-a-roonie. I don't know if it'll automatically be a link or what.

But let's say that I wanted to get two of these and make them Insert Coin Buttons. It should BASICALLY be about the same as wiring the other buttons right? I mean, you know, BASICALLY?

[Witchboard]

I don't see why not, but I'm not an electrician.  I think you want a momentary switch though.  Not a momentary that's normally closed.  Kinda like this one.  But like I said, I don't know much about these things.

[Brad Lee]

That wouldnt be good for you.

When a button is labeled as "normally closed", what it means is that when its hooked up, it acts as if it is always pushed. When the physical button is pushed, it opens the circuit and it acts like you stopped pushing it, until you let go of the button and the circuit closes again.

This is the opposite of what you want!

You want something marked as "normally open" or a button that has 3 terminals(NO,NC,GND) so you can wire it using the NO terminal

(if you were to hook this up as a fire button- it would fire repeatedly without being pushed. When you pushed the button, it would stop firing)

[PacManess]

That makes sense...I don't know what I was thinking. So, we (and by we I mean me) want the normally open button. So, I could buy a set of these normally open buttons and bickety bam! They could be set up as coin buttons or firebuttons or Pause and them...and stuff like that.
Big happy fun times.
Thanks!

[NoOne=NBA=]

They'd be OK for coin buttons, or admin buttons; but most of the ones I've used in the past from them have had a little too heavy of a throw to be used for things like fire buttons.

The one exception to that is the one like this.
They used to be labelled as a "soft-feel" momentary switches, but the only ones I found on their site labelled as "soft-feel" are the on/off ones.

At the price for them, I would probably just order from The Real Bob Roberts, unless space is an issue.

I used those to create alot of my early projects.
FYI, my first project was an Asteroids controller for the Atari 2600 back in '81.
They are still pretty stiff compared to Happ's buttons, or Leaf Switches, though.

[PacManess]

Yeah, I'm going to use them for Insert Coin buttons most likely...I mean, the pricing is the same as arcadey buttons, plus it'll give some variation to the look and feel of it, plus, I dunno, they are right at Radio Shack. No waiting for shipping. I should have ordered some more buttons when I got the KeyWiz, but like a remo I didn't. Oh well...what can you do?