Guess what just arrived?

Yup - the remaining switches. There is also no additional invoice inside, which is curious. Have to wait and see.

Chuffed, though!

Can't remember how many hours I spent looking around the net at electronic component dealer's catalogues. Was getting close to despair!

Anyway - here is the work on the left half, so far. The switches will be lined up a little more accurately before fixing in place. You can see where the crack appeared. have to be really careful when I try and redrill it.

What I don't understand is why is it so damn hard to find such switches here in the UK? Back home, I could've walked into any electronics store and they'd have these. Then again, those stores deal with everything from speakers to TVs and anything an "engineering or electronics" student might want....

Have you trid Rapid Electronics ?

I got the 16mm rectangular illuminated switches for my pit from them. They have non illuminated ones here:

http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Red-Squ-Ip67-Mom-Switch-10a-Mswitch-78-1830

I also got momentary action rockers on eBay quite cheaply and they're a bit bigger than the CPC ones.

Hope this helps,

Andy

Thanks for that link, Andy.

I didn't get any of those, but did this one which is costing me £20 in total (for 5).

The ones you linked to would have been okay, but very expensive at over £135. I did find some today of the right size (18x18mm) and colour - better than the ones I have now - and pretty cheap, too. I may buy them and retro-fit them in future, or do a completely new panel from scratch. I'll see how useful I find this one when it's finished.

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/push-button-switches/1192942/

Though I wouldn't buy them from RS.

When I built a switch panel I used these LINK

quite cheep and good .. as long as you don't mind shipping from Hong Kong

Yes, ebay can be a good resource. I bought all the components for my previous control panel on ebay.

Unfortunately I don't use it any more. My account got hacked into twice in a row by the same Russian-Israeli and even though I provided ebay (and the local police here) with his details, nothing was done. He tried to have items I had bought sent to an address in Haifa.

I closed my ebay account, but even now, 3 years later, ebay persist in sending emails, updates and stuff from "your favourite sellers" using my ebay account name which was supposed to have been deleted a month after I closed it and I coudn't get into if I wanted to.

ebay is fine as long as everything goes okay.

It's a shame, but I won't ever open another account with them.

I've finished fitting all the switches and am going about designing and printing the faceplate and titles. Then just need to wire it up.

Harrumph! All ready to go (except wiring, which is simple) but now Rapid tell me I have to wait a week for the momentary rockers...

Good job my new DVD set of Rome (HBO) arrived today!

Looking good Johnny!