Thursday 24 September 2020

Replacement bandsaw switch

 So, I switches on my bandsaw and BANG! This thing...


explodes.  Inspecting the switch reveals it had shorted out.  Googling around provided plenty of replacements at cheap prices.  The replacement switches were all of a similar quality, so if I replaced like for like, is it going to go BANG! again in a few months?


So I'm not replacing like for like.  I designed a simple push button operated relay which requires a long, one second push to switch on the saw and any push, while the saw is on, will switch it off.

I initially disregarded a microcontroller for this simple task and came up with...


Powered directly off mains supply using a capacitive dropper.  It was going back in the saw so the circuit was going to be encased safely.

Works fine if your supply voltage comes up quickly, doesn't work so well if the supply is slow.  So it would require various reset circuitry adding etc, etc... Sometimes its just easier to go with a £0.50 microcontroller from the start.  It simplified down to this...


Works great.  Now that ATtiny44 is in there I think I might make it periodically 'beep' while the mains is on, to remind me to switch it off at the plug.  I used an ATtiny44 because that's what I had in the drawer.

Here it is working...



No comments: