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newbie - reed switches

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can someone tell me if it is possible to get magnetic reed switches,

one activated by waving an N pole magnet over the top of it
the other activated by waving an S pole magnet over the top of it

but one should not affect the other

if yes where can i get them from in the UK


thanks in advance
 
Never heard about magnetically polarized reed switches. Does it have to be a reed switch? perhaps you could try a Hall effect device, the little ones I have do have a marked end on the tiny magnet that came with them. You can find hall switches inside DC brushless computer fan motors, etc., useful for experimenting.
 
well , its a reed switch , because its to be sealed 2m underwater, a push switch would be pushed down all the time because of the pressure. I was going to have them activated by users waving magnets over the top

thanks for the suggestion, will look into it
 
A simple method would be to have a sliding magnet and a reed relay, slide the magnet over the relay to switch on, slide if back again to turn off. The sort of thing used on scuba diving torches.

If you wanted users to carry their own magnet, you could have the relay feed a latching circuit - activate it once to turn on, activate again to turn off.
 
NVE makes a device called a Giant Magneto Resistor. They respond to DC magnetic signals and output signal that is positive for one pole and negative for the other. A search for GMR on digikey.com should come up with some.

Brent
 
Reed switches

it sounds to me that you are wanting a device that you can use as a pulser. Or for that matter a switch. a homemade reed switch is to use a standard home alarm system door switch.. if you wish to use it to pulse DC p- AC. use a small toy motor 1.5VDC if desired and control the speed to generate a 60hz sine wave. Just place a magnet on each end of a straight piece of material and a round small magnet glued to each end. As it turns it will be a small ac generator for small projects. This is not what you were probably looking for but it was fun to type. designing for the government can get monotonous..have fun anyhow!!
 
There is (or was) such a switch used in telecom switching systems of the past. It was a magnetic latching reed switch used in analog switching systems manufactured by Western Electric/AT&T Network systems. The switch was closed by pulsing a winding with current that set a magnetic field into the reeds causing them to "stick" closed. Opening it was just a matter of pulsing the opposite polarity, causing the to open. They were used to set up analog voice switching paths in a matrix array. Not sure if you can still find them, but they were being made at one time. They were not capable of much current flow, but suitable for telephonic use.
Dialtone
 
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