While various circuits that enable an on-off latch function are known, a simple electromechanical solution can be the best approach. Alps provides a variety of high-quality push buttons - in this tutorial, we will look at the SPEF210101 and SPEF220100 SKUs and provide information on how to select buttons intelligently.


Why Waste Time on Selecting Buttons Physically?

Marinetti's discovery of tactileism paved the way for this article - he postulated that human beings interact with their environment not only via the eyes but also via the sense of touch imparted via the hands.

Especially when it comes to test equipment, more valid words have rarely been spoken - an excellent example is the lukewarm response to a recent release of portable test equipment by a popular American vendor. The main complaint was not concerned with the relatively high price of the trinket. Instead, users complained bitterly about the use of a foil keyboard, which feels cheap. Due to that, anyone working on a product where a perception of high value is required is well advised to perform a physical casting of buttons before committing to a particular SKU.

In the case of Yours Truly, this takes the shape of a large distributor order with ten or more different SKUs, which are then tested by handling them collectively.