How do I wire the led in atari/cherry volcano buttons?

[Sizzler]

I just got a couple old cherry switches for my volcanos and wanted to ask about wiring them before I tried anything.

I can tell which terminals are for the light, but I.m not sure about the power and polarity and don't want to burn the led out while testing it.   The button looks like it has 12v printed on it, but the printing is a little tough to read and it actually looks like 1.2v

I looked in the wiki and didn't find any wiring information but here's a photo of the kind of switch I have:



Should I feed this 12 volts DC and which terminal should be positive and which should be negative?

[cw]

I can double check later... but I am thinking that the two side post are the led power and ground  (left side showing is ground) the three other post are the no, nc , and ground

[arzoo]

cw is correct, the two side posts are for the LED. I used a 220 ohm resister and wired into an LEDWiz. The resister can go on the + or - terminal.

[Rocky]

Don't power them with +12v

The rating on the side is 125v  and that is the amount of current the switch can take, not the LED. (Ask me how I know)

Anyway, power the LED with +5v with a 220 ohm resistor inline.  Polarity on the resistor doesn't matter.  If you hook up the leads to the LED backwards, it won't hurt it, just reverse it.


The resistor basically lowers the voltage to about 2.2v

Good luck,
Rocky

[Sizzler]

Don't power them with +12v

The rating on the side is 125v  and that is the amount of current the switch can take, not the LED. (Ask me how I know)

Yikes!  Did you see smoke?     Yeah.  I knew the "125VAC" printing wasn't the rating of the LED but, at the top right my switch is stamped 1.2v or 12v, just like the one in that pic so I thought that might be for the LED.  Still I wanted to check with other users first.

Anyway, power the LED with +5v with a 220 ohm resistor inline.  Polarity on the resistor doesn't matter.  If you hook up the leads to the LED backwards, it won't hurt it, just reverse it.

Cool.  Thanks for the replies everbody.

[Rocky]

No smoke, just a quick sizzle.

Thankfully, it isn't hard to replace the LED's 

[torez]

No smoke, just a quick sizzle.

You sizzled my shizzle! ... sorry, I couldn't resist LOL

I acutally had the same question as Sizzler for my Omega Race control panel, so I got my answer.
Sizzler, the right one looks like it has less connections and kinda darker dome.  Is that right button just a switch, without the led?

My switches are rated for up to 250VAC and is stamped with +=2V MAX.  Peculiar, they have 6 connections, but only the otside ones plus 2 turned 90 degrees ones are connected.  What are there other two connections for?

[Sizzler]

Sizzler, the right one looks like it has less connections and kinda darker dome.  Is that right button just a switch, without the led?

That picture is from the wiki pages.  But yes, the one on the right is a version with no LED and you can see it's also missing the posts at the bottom because it's not made for an led.   I think the black topped ones were used for missile command fire buttons and probably other places too.

Peculiar, they have 6 connections, but only the otside ones plus 2 turned 90 degrees ones are connected.  What are there other two connections for?

On mine and on the one in the photo there are 5 connections the two in the middle are for the led and the other three are just like other microswitches with one NO one NC and a C common ground.

I read a post about the six connection buttons.  Instead of a NC NO and C they are NC NC and NO NO where you connect the two that match how you want the button to work.   For normally closed you would wire the two NC posts and for NO you use the two NO posts.  I think that was what the post said.  You can probably find it by searching or just leave them as they are if their working

[smalltownguy]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I had a question:

Can the IPAC (more specifically, the mini-pac) be used to drive the LED's in these switches? My control panel will use these volcano buttons as the player1 and player2 start buttons, and I thought I might try and use the mini-pac to light them. If not, no biggie, I can always run power from my CPU power supply @ 5v, or take power from a ps2 or usb port. In that case, they'll always be on, but maybe I'll wire up a switch for them.

[Turnarcades]

Yes in theory. The i-pac family can power the 3 keyboard led's directly which are usually set up to flash as they did on the arcade originals. Aint seen a topic on this in a while, but if you check the Ultimarc website or e-mail Andy you'll get the answer you need.

[mytymaus007]

are you putting these buttons on a MAME cab with 3/4 plywood is so you have any pics, would love to add these to my CP panel for player 1 and 2 buttons and missle command!!!!!

[ViciousXUSMC]

Yes in theory. The i-pac family can power the 3 keyboard led's directly which are usually set up to flash as they did on the arcade originals. Aint seen a topic on this in a while, but if you check the Ultimarc website or e-mail Andy you'll get the answer you need.

Wanna say that this was removed with the new software or version of the ipac?   I know I read something like that around here somewhere.

[smalltownguy]

are you putting these buttons on a MAME cab with 3/4 plywood is so you have any pics, would love to add these to my CP panel for player 1 and 2 buttons and missle command!!!!!

No, my panel is metal. But mounting on a wood panel wouldn't be too difficult, however. Just make a hole large enough to accommodate the switch housing underneath, and mount the button to the plexi on top.