Hi All,
For the most part, when switches fail it is due to vibration, operator abuse/misuse, foreign matter, solder failure or bad solder joint, and or they just wear out. I am sure there are some special cases out there where maaaaaay-be a switch or two have catastrophically failed i.e. wiper arm some how departed from lead connections. Or the wiring to the switch some how was sliced (wire cutter style) in flight. I am sure this stuff has happened once or twice, and it is probable that the cause was poor set up and operator error in these very special instances.
Vibration is our biggest enemy. Vibration prematurely wears the wiper and contacts out, causing them to eventually lose some of their built-in spring tension allowing them to slide on their own. When and if this starts to happen, the results are never good, glitches, unexplained power loss, etc. etc. All situations that can be very hard to trouble shoot and diagnose. One market that we have really seen a huge boom in for solid state switches is the Heli market. These guys eat mechanical switches like body builders eat protein bars. Alot of them are starting to use solid state switches without a standard slider as an extra measure of protection.
Every once and awhile we will get a customer that has used our switches or is using our switches, and they want a standard type slider like you would get with a new radio system. If for some reason I can't talk them out of the standard slider, I will accommodate their request on one condition. That condition is that our switch is
No Longer FAIL SAFE due the slider switch. Why you ask? Once the slider is added to equation the system is as fail safe as a normal switch with the exception of the special, I mean really special circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1.
When we first developed our Non-Regulated Reliaswitches 4 years ago, one of our sticking points was the method of on off. When we first designed it, we had originally spec'd out a standard slider. This posed a huge problem for us, when we looked at the two together, (solid state electronics, and switch slider) Military Intelligence, and Jumbo Shrimp came to mind. So we chose a different method.
I am not trying to say Jim O's switch is not a quality piece of equipment because
it is
. His switch is similar to our Regulated Reliaswitch, or I should say ours is similar to his as his came first. He goes about the electronics in a little different fashion than we do but in the end the same job gets done. His regulated switch will also handle slightly more amperage than our
standard regulated switch. As to Maxx products I have no experience with them, so I can't comment on their quality.
My 3 cents
Kurt Cook
Fromeco Scale Avionics LLC
www.fromeco.org
[email protected]