1. Home
  2. Hobby Electronics Basics
  3. Inexpensive 4PST Rocker Switches?

Inexpensive 4PST Rocker Switches?

Hello,

Doing a search for 4PST switches (jameco, futurlec, mouser, digikey) it appears that the only thing in existence are 25A 4PST and 4PDT toggle switches. Mouser has them at $11 each. 25A is overkill for what I'm doing, $33 for three is a bit steep, and I would prefer rocker switches:

My computer has 3 hard drives in it- one FreeBSD, one Win2K, the other is a small auxilliary drive i use for occasional backups. Essentially, I have 3 hdds running all the time when I typically only need one. I want to be able to switch the power off to the drives I'm not using. Less noise, less energy wasted, less heat. Yes I realize this means a reboot/BIOS finagle each time I power something on or off, and that's ok.

I want to mount the switches on the front or top of the computer (surprise!) and toggle switches might be too easy to accidentally bump. Rocker/slide seems less precarious. Since I'm snivelling about the cost, I realize I can get a whole pile of DPDT rocker/slide/whatever switches for $1.50 each and accomplish the same end result, but I'd like to avoid that If possible. I could build something with relays or transistors or something, but that's like swatting flies with a thermonuclear missle.

Any suggestions on where to find inexpensive 4PST Rocker or Slide switches, or am I using the wrong search terms?

Thanks for any and all help.

Reply to
phaeton
Loading thread data ...

I just felt that a case of *complete* isolati> EG1949 EG1914 SW106 All under $2.

Odd! I didn't get any hits at digikey searching for 4PST or 4PDT. Now I do, and I pull up your part numbers just fine. Thanks!

Reply to
phaeton

...

What do you need four poles for? You only need to switch +5 and +12. You could do a "A drive-B drive" either/or with a DPDT.

But I wouldn't recommend it anyway. What happens to the data lines when there's an unpowered drive hanging on the cable? And the drivers/ receivers in the unpowered drive probably won't like having their inputs/outputs driven when there's no power applied.

Now, you could get a 44-gang rotary switch ...

Good Luck! Rich

Reply to
Rich Grise

Slide switches should be the cheapest:

4PDT From Digikey--- EG1949 EG1914 SW106 All under $2.
Reply to
John Popelish

Why 4p? If you intend to cut power to each hard drives, 2p will do the trick. Just wire them to 5v and 12v and ignore the ground (black) lines. Hard drives are often conencted to ground simply by being mounted on metal frame.

--
When you hear the toilet flush, and hear the words "uh oh", it\'s already
too late.    - by anonymous Mother in Austin, TX
To reply, replace digi.mon with phreaker.net
Reply to
Impmon

what do you need 4 pole switches for? hard drives only use 2 power lines,

5V and 12V, leaving the two Grounds (0V / black) connected won't have any effect - the drive is already connected to ground via the data cable.

Also If you turn the 5V supply off in most cases the 12V supply won't be used by the drive much, or at all. Bye. Jasen

Reply to
Jasen Betts

the drive is earthed via the data cable also... switching the ground will have no added effect.

I've seen a device destroyed by unpowered devices on the other end of the data line, it was a cheap printer conneted to an unpowered pc - the print head burned out.

I've also seen an unpowered drive disable the powered drive that was on the same data cable.

Bye. Jasen

Reply to
Jasen Betts

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.