All right, so this
is our single pole
double throw sliding switch.
It's not a single
pole double throw
lever switch, like the
switch we just took apart.
It's a little different.
So it's got a
plastic slider here,
which goes back and forth.
And it connects the power
between this contact
and this contact or between
this contact and this contact.
So this is called a
single pole double
throw because there's
one pole in the center
and there's two
throws on either side.
So let's go ahead
and take it apart
and see what it's made
out of and how it's made.
The outer housing is
actually kind of ingenious.
It's stamped steel
that's nickel plated.
And what they've done is
instead of using screws or glue,
they've just basically
taken a flat sheet of steel
and bent it around
a bunch of times
to hold everything together
and create a nice housing.
This can be put on a
component circuit board
and soldered in place to
turn things on and off.
And it can be used
on our Spout bot,
of course, to turn
the LEDs on and off
and the motors on and off.
So let's go ahead
and take it apart.
The first thing we need to do
is these little tiny tabs here,
we're going to try and
bend those out of the way.
And I'm going to use
another pliers here
because it's tricky
to get inside of this.
Then hold it.
So we're just going to
bend those little tabs out
of the way.
There we go.
We'll go to the other side here.
And it takes a little bit
to get the tabs bent out
because they're itty bitty.
But they're strong enough
to hold the switch in place.
Almost got them.
There we go.
OK, so once you get the
tabs bent out of the way,
you'll see that there
is a board here.
It looks like an epoxy board.
And it's got a few pieces of
aluminum sticking through.
And if you look closely, you
can see there's three of those.
And you can see that
the top, the one
in the middle, the pole, it's
got a bit of a bump in it.
And what that does,
that's important
because that causes the switch
to slide into position so it
doesn't stick between
the two positions.
And let's see if we can
get this to come out here.
So we've got probably
an ABS plastic slider.
And then there's a little
metal slider inside
of that, a little
metal piece that
slides over the
contacts like this.
Slides over those contacts.
So when it's in this
position, these two-- sorry,
let me see if I can get this
to where you can see it.
Oh, there's the contact
that's popped out.
Let's put that back in.
There we go.
So when it's in this position,
these two are connected.
And when it's in this position,
these two are connected.
So the power flows
between this circuit
when it's in this
position and this circuit
when it's in this position.
Now, the way it
stays in contact is
it's actually kind of an
ingenious little spring that's
inside of here.
So this is the part
that actually conducts
the electricity between
the two connections here.
And then there's a
spring inside of it.
And what the spring does is it
pushes down on that contact.
And that makes sure that
it stays firmly connected
to the poles and throws.
So it stays firmly
connected like that.
And that's really
important because if you
don't have that spring,
the contact may lift up,
and then you may not
have consistent power.
Now, one more thing is we're
actually using this switch
as a single pole
single throw switch.
Whoa, got away from me there.
We're using this as a single
pole single throw switch.
So we're not actually
using both of the throws.
So we just bent this
throw out of the way,
because we only needed
one of the throws.
And the main reason why we're
using this switch for Spout
is that we just got a
really good deal on it.
You can find it for
about $0.05 online.
So it's really
cheap, and it happens
to do the job just fine.
