Remote Power Control for Battery Powered Devices

Intro: Remote Power Control for Battery Powered Devices

Thin conductors on both sides of a thin insulator are connected by wires to a remote switch. Slide it between the batteries. It breaks the connection until the switch is turned on.

STEP 1: Why?

In this case, the battery powered loud and obnoxious talking halloween skull was the face of Leaf Boy, a leaf stuffed guy. Too much trouble to get to the power switch, so he needed a power switch on a wire.

Also it would make him shut the heck up until someone was in the right spot for him to yell at them.

STEP 2: Materials

Thin. Thin thin thin. It's surprising how little batteries will slide apart sometimes in a battery stack. (Usually a non-springy contact on the plus side and a spring on the minus side) So 2 coins and a popcicle stick aren't likely to fit.

I found some thin 2-sided circuit board material. (thin copper on each side of thin fiberglass board. But I don't know where that is now, so...

Or use paper or thin plastic as the insulator and copper tape or thin copper sheet for the conductors. I think stained glass people use copper tape to solder over.

Then some 2 conductor insulated wire.

Soldering iron, solder, wire stripper, scissors (but not the 'good scissors'), and glue.

And some kind of switch.

STEP 3: Cut, Solder, Do

Cut the insutlator strip.
Cut the conductor strips smaller.
Sandwich together. Glue or stick the conductors on if they have adhesive.
Solder on the wires.

OR

Cut.
Cut.
Solder on wires first so the heat doesn't melt stuff.
Sandwich together.

STEP 4: The Switch

Could be any kind of normal old switch.

Or a reed switch

Or a backward reed switch.

Or a mercury switch.

Or a pressure mat switch that turns on when stepped on.

Or a clothes pin with conductors held apart by an insulator that gets pulled out by a tripwire.

Or just bare wires that you touch together.

STEP 5: Install and Operate

Slide the batteries apart and drop in the gadget. Usually is more like: FORCE the batteries apart and JAM the gadget in and hope nothing breaks.

Turn on the Battery Powered Device.

Turn on the remote switch, it's ON.
Turn off the remote switch, it's OFF.

Duct tape the wire to the Device for a strain relief because someone is going to trip over the wire and rip out those tiny soldered wires.

Comments

[lumilanis]

It's better to do this by double sided PCB, it is also cheap and you can find it in almost any electronic shop. :)

[impalemehornybitch]

I'm sorry but i dont really understand what you've done here ... or for the last three steps for that matter. Where does the switch come in and how does this work like a remote control? I'm really confused and i would appreciate it if you could clear things up for me.

[tubbychick3n]

it's not supposed to be a remote control, the title didn't explain what it was correctly. it is a switch that you can make so you can turn what ever you make the switch for on and off without having to take the thing down, flip it over to the back, and use that small switch there. it just makes a more accessible switch.

[DYLEGO]

OK... Why not just go to Radio Shack and Buy a slide switch? It would be much better quality.

[FocusedWolf]

Clothes pin tripwire... funny...last time i saw something like that was in the claymore mine field manual lol... except they took bare wire and wrapped a loop on the top jaw and a loop on the bottom jaw and used a plastic spoon in between... if i remember right...they put the handle in between the jaws, and a tiny hole was drilled in the spoons "spoony" area so that a tripwire could be tied.. Hmm that approach might be easier to do then yours... :P no need for the glue and flat copper... just two ends of wire, a spoon, or that paper seperater thing you used...althought...what is the breakdown point of paper? lol, and a clothes pin :)

[radiorental]

I like the clothespeg trip wire. Another suggestion is to put your contacts underneath a doormat, seperated by a foam washer.