I was thinking about using a mercury switch for some application (detecting if a horizontal item is tilted vertically), but understand that mercury switches are being phased out because they are environmentally unfriendly and potentially toxic. Does anyone know what is being used as a replacement to perform the same function? Either in a electromechanical switch or in a chip (I seem to remember something about it). Thanks.
Replacement for mercury switches?
Dec 03, 2006
3 Replies
There's a number of vendors who make mechanical tilt-switches as a replacement for the mercury switches. I've recently used the CW1300 from Assemtech, a small metal tube with a tiny ball inside. They bounce like hell, but do the job.
:wq
^X^Cy^K^X^C^C^C^C
There are two options:
- Mechanical tilt sensors. The very best ones have two balls inside; one is a contact, the second hits the first to pierce any oxide layer that might be on the contact ball. Only one company makes this style, and I forget their name :)
- MEMS accelerometers. Significantly more expensive, substantially more flexible and reliable; you can implement however much hysteresis you desire.
There are also mechanical/optical ones that use a single ball and optical detectors.
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