Dwayne, Wouldn't this be a good target for a capacitive touch application? It may need some smart software control to avoid false positives, etc, but otherwise looks like the less noisy switch you can ever think of. Perhaps the touch on the panel is noisier than ideal, but you can protect it with some soft material to avoid direct contact and make it really noiseless. My 2 cents. --=20 Ariel Rocholl http://www.rf-explorer.com On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 5:52 PM, Dwayne Reid wrote= : > Good day to all. > > Many years ago, I built some announcer control boxes intended for use > with Broadcasters. These are fairly simple: mic preamp, two separate > listen inputs (each with its own level control) and intercom talkback > / IFB (separate talk button and listen level control. They've been > working well for more than 20 years now. > > However, they suffer from my poor choice of switches. There are two > push-button switches (Honeywell / Micro "AML" line) for cough and > talk-back and a toggle switch for turning the mic on or off. All of > these are acoustically noisy. > > I can live with the noise of the push-button switches but the noise > from the toggle switch is annoying to the audio guys who mix the show > audio. They've asked me to do something about it. > > The toggle switch is a standard mini-toggle switch that mounts in a > 1/4" diameter hole. There is a fair amount of space around that > switch but the depth is limited. Otherwise, I'd just install an > old-time telephone lever switch and call it done. > > Can anyone suggest a mini-toggle or similar switch that is not noisy > when you slam its lever from one end-stop to the other? > > One option I have been considering is to replace the toggle switch > with a keyboard switch module. These are highly reliable pushbutton > switches that were designed for use in computer keyboards before the > current keyboard designs came along. I would then just add an > electronic alternate-action circuit with indicator LED to show that > the mic was live. > > I've used these keyboard switches as pushbuttons for similar purposes > in years gone by but I simply don't have enough of them around and > I'm pretty sure that they have been obsolete for a couple of decades. > > Any suggestions gratefully accepted. > > Many thanks! > > dwayne > > -- > Dwayne Reid > Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA > (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax > www.trinity-electronics.com > Custom Electronics Design and Manufacturing > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .