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temperature control switch

Andrej

Oct 25, 2022
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Oct 25, 2022
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Hey guys, I've been using these little temperature control switch buttons from Alibaba for my hobby project and they work great, but I'm curious as to what exactly is inside of them. I'd love to be able to replicate this circuit and potentially design my own PCB and silicone rubber button in the future. Any info regarding this item would be greatly appreciated, like for example what the main components are, how it works, links to tutorials/guides, etc. I took one out of the rubber casing to see if I could identify the components, but a simple Google search of the characters didn't reveal anything interesting.
 

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Bluejets

Oct 5, 2014
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Likely the uC will cost more individually than the complete device.
Reverse eng the circuit to find what goes where and draw the diagram.
Open one of the free online pcb drawing programs such as EasyEDA, design the board and submit to the pcb manufacturer for a quote.
Look up the component numbers on Google then try to find suppliers.
Or/ in the PCB manufacturers website, look up what they will supply and possibly fit to the board for a fee.
Some components will be in-house but others may not so extra cost there.
Testing and varification will be your responsibility.
i.e. if it don't work, start again.
Then you need to design the program code and program the chip, possibly with dediated programming device depending on the uC involved.
Again, if it don't work, back to square 1.
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Based on the above - just buy as many as you need. Designing and building your own is easily achievable electronically but the physical aspect takes a lot of research and might even involve having your own parts made if there's nothing on the shelves that can be used directly.
 

Andrej

Oct 25, 2022
2
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Oct 25, 2022
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So I was hoping for a little more guidance than "just reverse engineer it" or "just use the component you can buy already". At the very least I'd like to identify what components are on the board, but searching for the recognizable characters doesn't lead to anything useful....
 

Alec_t

Jul 7, 2015
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I'd like to identify what components are on the board
There are surface-mount resistors, capacitors, and a micro-controller. The pics areen't sharp enough to read the micro's type or the other components' values.
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Items marked 'R' are resistors, 'C' are capacitors and the RGB devices are multi-coloured LEDs. The 8-pin device is a microcontroller (unknown) but could be replaced using any propitiatory controller with the appropriate code.

We don't know what the device you show actually does (in terms of how the button operates etc) but if you use an 8-pin PIC device - Google the bold words - the device is manufactured by Microchip Inc and they have all the details, specs and datasheets you could possibly need plus access to PIC programming forums where you will find examples of coding to perform common tasks such as temperature control that you could either use directly or modify accordingly.

There's even a simple programming language (PICBasic) suitable for beginners that can achieve a result in 'minutes' if you have some Basic skills from your schooling years???

Note that whilst the above will be a potentially long learning curve the knowledge gained would stand you in good stead if you plan to take up processor programming seriously.
 
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