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New Microswitches sticking ON

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riley454:
I've got a few questions about recently bought Zippy pushbuttons with Zippy microswitches.

After only a few hours use, out of the 17 microswitches so far 3 of them are sticking ON. The button goes in when pressed but doesn't quite click back to the OUT position. Sometimes if you play around with the button on the switch it pops out again but still becomes stuck again fairly quickly.

-Is this normal for NEW microswitches and do they need to be "driven in", or is this a sign of a faulty switch?
-Can they be pulled apart and tweaked or do I just ask for replacements from my supplier?
-Do new microswitches have a high failure rate or did I get a bad batch or is Zippy crap?

Theres not much talk about microswitches, so I'd love to get some experienced thoughts before I gun down my local supplier for failure of a ONE DOLLAR product. :angry:

Lilwolf:
Not normal.  Are they normal size?  Take them off the button and see if they just aren't fitting right.

And no, you can't take them apart well.  Kinda their purpose.  And I don't believe I've ever had a failing new microswitch.  But I've probaby only had 50 or so, so the numbers aren't enought to say if its normal.

riley454:
Thanks Lilwolf, the switches seem to fit perfectly to the button but after swapping another switch over, this one too seems to get stuck sometimes too. The pushbutton seems fine, but the microswitch button is what is sticking. It almost seems to be microswitches that stick are used as a button that requires constant quickfire pressing. When I swapped microswitches, so far the same problem occurs. In case it helps, here are some links to the products I have purchased...

This is the button:
http://www.ozstick.com.au/img/pb01.jpg
This is the microswitch:
http://www.ozstick.com.au/img/ms01.jpg
This is the suppliers entire 'button/switch' page if it helps:
http://www.ozstick.com.au/prod_btns.html

Note the buttons are advertised with "industrial quality" microswitches which are "rated to 10,000,000 clicks". These microswitches seem to be sticking after a few hundred. Moments ago the same thing happened again. Is it possibly a bad batch or are Zippy switches crap?

Santoro:
Maybe you got sawdust or dirt in the switches?   

MonMotha:

--- Quote from: riley454 on September 28, 2010, 06:37:25 am ---Note the buttons are advertised with "industrial quality" microswitches which are "rated to 10,000,000 clicks". These microswitches seem to be sticking after a few hundred. Moments ago the same thing happened again. Is it possibly a bad batch or are Zippy switches crap?

--- End quote ---

Welcome to the land of marketing, where it's OK to make outlandish claims as long as they might actually occasionally hold up.  That said, failure of multiple units that quickly is a bit of an outlier.  (Tested to 10,000,000 clicks - after 10,000 of which 99% of the switches were broken).

Zippy switches are generally considered to be middle of the pack in terms of quality at best.  I'm personally a fan of Omron V series, but they can be a little pricey.

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