touch switch

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paul@pboston.net

New Member
Using the 08M2 to create a touch switch was quick and easy. The sensor is a steel plate 3x5 inches with a bolt welded to the plate and a backing plate used to secure the touch plate to a gap on our inch thick glass viewing partition at a model RR display.
It worked very well, and three were installed and worked fine for a couple months. Then they all stopped working for over a week. Then they all started working again. The period when they were not working was also the time when we were experiencing solar flares and vivid auroras in the US.

Could these events be restated, or am I grabbing at straws?

Your comments please.
 
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MartinM57

Moderator
Related (you mean?) - possibly. I'm not a electrical phenomena guy though.

How did/do you calibrate the touch switches - just at initial build or does it self-calibrate every time you turn it on?
 
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SAborn

Senior Member
Im curious of how you would do a self calibration on power up, would you care to share how that is done Martin?
 
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mrburnette

Senior Member
paul@pboston.net said:
Using the 08M2 to create a touch switch was quick and easy. The sensor is a steel plate 3x5 inches with a bolt welded to the plate and a backing plate used to secure the touch plate to a gap on our inch thick glass viewing partition at a model RR display.
It worked very well, and three were installed and worked fine for a couple months. Then they all stopped working for over a week. Then they all started working again. The period when they were not working was also the time when we were experiencing solar flares and vivid auroras in the US.

Could these events be restated, or am I grabbing at straws?

Your comments please.
Click to expand...
As an old telephone engineer, the "could be" is definitely a possibility. However, I suspect not directly, but indirectly; perhaps through the power supply AC input issues. AC power lines are known to really get a whopper of a punch from solar flares ( a Google search is enlightening with NASA weighing in with warnings.) We mortals have come to expect very well regulated AC power, both in frequency and voltage, but solar storms can muck it up rather quickly. Also, I would suspect that the amount of induced EMF in the small touch plates would be very low, so I would go hunting for better AC regulation.

- Ray
 
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