sensing orientation

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.

Reply to
bitrex
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I vaguely remember seeing a bubble-level "switch", but haven't been able to re-find it. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson                                 |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations                               |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| San Tan Valley, AZ 85142     Skype: skypeanalog  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
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.

Reply to
Adrian Jansen

I have zero experience with this, but would it be possible to get the sensor out of an old iPhone?

joe

Reply to
Joe Hey

Look on AliExpress. accelerometers are very inexpensive. The cheapest I found was $.65 for 2 including shipping.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

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.

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Grizzly H.
Reply to
mixed nuts

Digikey lists 11 things they call tilt switches, the cheapest (by far) of which is 1.35 in small quantities.

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P700000.pdf

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.

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www.wescottdesign.com
Reply to
Tim Wescott

Show it 2 pictures of naked PCBs, one male one female.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

LOL nice 1

Reply to
bitrex

Would something like this work?

formatting link

Reply to
Kevin Glover

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?

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Maybe so! Cool, thanks!

Reply to
bitrex

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