Anyone know of a quick and dirty way to sense which way a PCB is oriented (orientated, same deal.) Something that I might be able to make from my junk box?
I guess the old way might have been a mercury reed switch, but I don't have any of those. And I can't use 'em, anyway.
An accelerometer seems like overkill. I don't need intermediate angles, simply horizontal or vertical with respect to the "plane" of the earth's surface.
I vaguely remember seeing a bubble-level "switch", but haven't been able to re-find it. ...Jim Thompson
Look for tilt switch. Cant give a link, but there are still many around. Usually just a pair of contacts bridged by a caged ball. Simple, but work. The cheap variety of pedometers often use them.
I have zero experience with this, but would it be possible to get the sensor out of an old iPhone?
joe
Look on AliExpress. accelerometers are very inexpensive. The cheapest I found was $.65 for 2 including shipping.
Dan
That can be done as a tilt sensor with 3 electrodes wrapped around a bubble level in a capacitance bridge circuit. 2 electrodes could be used (VCO frequency) as a level/not level switch. Driving it at 1 MHz or so gives very high sensitivity. It could also be done optically.
Digikey lists 11 things they call tilt switches, the cheapest (by far) of which is 1.35 in small quantities.
That gives you one axis.
OTOH, they have a 3-axis analog out accelerometer for $2.34 in small quantity -- i.e., $0.78 per axis.
OTOH, if you don't mind digital, the price goes down to 98 cents, or around 33 cents/axis.
Show it 2 pictures of naked PCBs, one male one female.
NT
LOL nice 1
Would something like this work?
I find I can sense which way PCBs are oriented simply by looking at them. No need to make anything.
Was there some other objective?
Maybe so! Cool, thanks!
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