Eagle Switch Pad?

[adamthole]

I am looking for an on-circuit switch. The kind that is made of just tracks. It is circular and has traces running through it next to each other on each side and to activate it a conductive device is pushed down on it. It is the kind used in calculators, etc. Is their any in an Eagle library anywhere? I haven't been able to find any. Also, what is the technical name so I can speak intelligently about it.

Thanks

 

[justDIY]

I've asked for libraries here before, never get any replies!

What diameter are the contacts you'll be using? I can draw one up for you real quick.

 

[2PAC Mafia]

Hello,

I don´t know if they already exist in the library, I know those kind of conductive contacts are carbon made or silver and carbon alloy contacts.

 

[adamthole]

Thanks alot justDIY. I need ones with a radius of .125 inches (1/4 inch diamater). I really appreciate you offering to do that!

Thanks,
Adam

 

[zachtheterrible]

I seem to remember those kind of switches not just being tracks, but also having some kind of flexible piece of metal soldered above it that can be pushed down to complete the circuit. I bet you could find them in a digikey or mouser catalog.

 

[evandude]

I recommend you check out this tutorial.
**broken link removed**

Making new components is really not that challenging in eagle once you get used to it. I think part of the reason people don't post up many libraries here is that once you get used to it, it's much faster to just make what you need than to ask about it and wait for replies. That, and the library system in eagle is HORRIBLE, it's a pain to try and manage custom libraries, making it hard to share library parts with others. The fact that an experienced user can easily churn out a simple device in only a couple of minutes is really the only saving grace for their library setup :lol:

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I seem to remember those kind of switches not just being tracks, but also having some kind of flexible piece of metal soldered above it that can be pushed down to complete the circuit. I bet you could find them in a digikey or mouser catalog.

Mostly it's just a piece of conductive rubber that presses across PCB tracks, these are usually in the form of interlacing 'fingers', and gold plated to prevent corrosion. The metal 'dome' type switches give a nice 'click' as you press them, but resumably are more expensive than the rubber keypad type? (at least for production purposes).

 

[justDIY]

cooked this up in a few min ... I didn't want to mess with the standard grid to get an exact 0.125" diameter - so 0.150" should be close enough for goverment work

remove the .txt extension

 

[justDIY]

Making new components is really not that challenging in eagle once you get used to it. I think part of the reason people don't post up many libraries here is that once you get used to it, it's much faster to just make what you need than to ask about it and wait for replies.

is it really that bad to share knowledge, perhaps in the form of a file, rather than just telling someone "go learn this and do it yourself". Sure there's the teach a man to fish saying, but big deal.

I think a lot of people aren't sharing their libraries because they remember how long it took them to learn eagle and they feel it is some sort of "right of passage" making someone else learn it too; reinventing the wheel, rather than just sharing a free file.

That, and the library system in eagle is HORRIBLE, it's a pain to try and manage custom libraries, making it hard to share library parts with others.

I'm not sure what version of Eagle you're using, but I have no trouble at all managing my libraries, or keeping custom libraries separate from the stock libraries. The fact that eagle allows you to specify more than one library directory makes this very simple - I have a local directory on my machines with the stock eagle libraries and a network directory which contains custom libraries. Eagle manages both these directories. This way, I have access to my custom libraries from any machine on my network; my office PCs, my lab PCs, or the machines at my remote office.

 

[evandude]

First off, I WASN'T trying to imply that learning to make custom parts is a "rite of passage" or that nobody should help him... I would have made a part for him myself if I hadn't had a final exam coming up shortly after I posted :wink:
Just suggesting that he check it out, to make life easier in the future.

Secondly, you're right, the library system isn't such a problem if your PC's are always running and networked and you can keep a deliberate, organized repository of libraries. But when I use multiple PC's that aren't always networked, and start putting different parts in copies of the same library on different computers, I end up with multiple copies of the same library (for me, the microchip PIC library tends to get this way) with slightly different contents, all of them including all the "stock" parts, and a handful of things that I've added. I can then open all the different versions of the library and copy the parts I want into the main one and then distribute that file to the various computers, but that can be tedious, especially if you might have various revisions of the same part or something, plus you have to make sure you get all the right packages copied over as well. I think what it boils down to is that I wish there was an automated way to MERGE/UPDATE libraries. Like, someone could send me one of their eagle libraries which matched one of mine, but had a few different parts in it, and I could merge them and have eagle only add the parts to mine which were new or newer than existing ones in my library, withouth having to manually go through and transfer them all, and check which ones looked more recent. Essentially, think of it like the way windows XP does folder copying - if you try to paste a folder full of files over one with the same name, it will basically combine the contents. Also, not that this is very pertinent to the present discussion, but it would be nice if the library hierarchy could go more than 3 levels (lib file name, part series, device)

While you're right, this may not be a huge problem for sharing libraries, it's kept me from bothering with any of the user-submitted parts libraries listed on the cadsoft website, preferring to make my own rather than deal with it, that's why I made my original statement. I admit, saying it's downright horrible is an overstatement, it's fine depending on the use, it's just cumbersome in my situation.

 

[justDIY]

a merge option would be handy ... having to drag and drop parts from one library to another gets kind of old.

as for maintaining libraries on different non networked computers - how about using an inexpensive usb flash drive ... I suppose then you have to keep it with you

oh, how about the program that lets you map a drive letter to a gmail account. as tiny as eagle libraries are, it should not take too long to open them over the internet, even over dialup.

 

[Oznog]

I'm not sure what version of Eagle you're using, but I have no trouble at all managing my libraries, or keeping custom libraries separate from the stock libraries.

I'm going to second the notion that Eagle library management is absolute crap.
Common packages cannot be reused in different libs, just copied. Zero design reused, bad idea.
I found it wise not to modify say the Microchip lib since it can't be merged. So I now have a MyComponents directory with tons of my custom components as well as say copies of devices from stock libs that they didn't think to make an SMD pkg for.
I can't share a schematic without sending my whole MyComponents lib along with it. Some of that is potentially proprietary. If there was an export function that only extracted the devices the design needed, put it in a single lib, and made that lib name customizable so it won't conflict with anyone else's custom lib name, it would be smaller and safer.
I can't accept someone else's design without installing their libs. This is out of the question if they didn't realize the problems in modifying stock libraries and the design depends on them.

 

[evandude]

I can't share a schematic without sending my whole MyComponents lib along with it.

so true! that's one of the things that bugs the crap out of me, I didn't think of it when writing my earlier posts. Considering the small size of the component libraries, I don't see why they can't embed the required component symbols/footprints into each project, and perhaps even allow you to extract those symbols/footprints from someone else's project into your own library, if you chose.

 

[adamthole]

Thanks for the switch pad, looks good! I have made some parts myself, but it usually takes me more than a couple of minutes. Perhaps your tutorial will be better than the one I used originally. Either way, I do need to get better and faster at it. BTW, Eagles worst feature is the search feature. It is terrible, even if what you are searching for is part of the name, it often will not show it. Crazy.