I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

On Jan 5, 11:07 am, Ignoramus8343
wrote:
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

Interesting. Those lamp switching devices have been made since the
50's. Used a vacuum tube, then. You do realize this is just one more
electrical device that is always turned on, even though the light is
off.

Paul

"Ignoramus8343" wrote in message
...
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

I have one of those less than two feet from me now. Each successive touch
would cycle through a low setting, a high setting, and "off." It was very
expensive at the time -- 22 years ago. g

The touch feature eventually went nuts; the light would go on an off at
random times. This burned out bulbs rather quickly and they're those 40 W
high-intensity lamps that cost over $3. So I shut off the feature (there's a
knob on top that overrides the touch feature) and built a homemade dimmer
with a triac and diac. It works fine now without the touch feature.

I hope yours is more reliable than mine proved to be.

--
Ed Huntress

On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 14:20:36 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Ignoramus8343" wrote in message
m...
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

I have one of those less than two feet from me now. Each successive touch
would cycle through a low setting, a high setting, and "off." It was very
expensive at the time -- 22 years ago. g

The touch feature eventually went nuts; the light would go on an off at
random times. This burned out bulbs rather quickly and they're those 40 W
high-intensity lamps that cost over $3. So I shut off the feature (there's a
knob on top that overrides the touch feature) and built a homemade dimmer
with a triac and diac. It works fine now without the touch feature.

I hope yours is more reliable than mine proved to be.

My Sister has one from around the same time period. Her's
used a real plant to turn the light on/off. You just grab or
touch a leaf on the plant and the lamp would turn on/off.
The only catch was that you couldn't let the plant dry out.
It had to be watered regularly or the magic switch didn't
work so well.

I think they are pretty cool switches. Iggy has just led a
sheltered life and missed all the rage with'em 20 years ago
We've been spoiled in the USA.


--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

first saw schematics for these in the popular electronics type mags in early
60s, touch switches are available at hardware stores cheaply, I have a pile
of them from a swap meet that I use when I make a lamp that has no practical
place for a switch - it works by capacitance typically. very easy to build,
but cheaper to buy
"Ignoramus8343" wrote in message
...
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:07:07 -0600, Ignoramus8343
wrote:

I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

http://www.touchandglow.com/Dimmers-Switches-s/1.htm

Such things are readily available at Wal-Mart.

On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:07:07 -0600, Ignoramus8343 wrote:
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

cmos doesn't take much current to pull a gate low.

On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:07:07 -0600, the renowned Ignoramus8343
wrote:

I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

These were more popular maybe 15 years ago.

Here's one of the chips used.. perhaps the Chinese have cloned them by
now. I think ST had a chip or two as well.

http://www.lsicsi.com/pdfs/Data_Shee...538_LS7539.pdf


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:07:07 -0600, Ignoramus8343
wrote:
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

cmos doesn't take much current to pull a gate low.

OK ....now I know where the interference is coming from when I am trying to
talk to the old country .... Those lamps are neat Dave but they are VERY
prone to generate a lot of hash which makes causes radio frequency
interference. I have put bypass caps in them with varying degrees of
success. Another nasty source of interference is the low voltage cheap
switching power supplies used in undercabinet lights. Try putting an AM
radio next to the lamp ...betcha can't hear Lum and Abner .....

Take care Tom in Belle Vernon PA

On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:44:07 -0500, Leon Fisk
wrote:


I think they are pretty cool switches. Iggy has just led a
sheltered life and missed all the rage with'em 20 years ago

Id bet he would be wow'd by my Lava Lamps and the Plasma Lamp Balls
particularly those that Dance To The Music.

I like cool retro stuff

Gunner



"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner

Ignoramus8343 wrote:
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

Wow, that's amazing and clever, like some elevator buttons!

On Jan 5, 1:20 pm, "Ed Huntress" wrote:
"Ignoramus8343" wrote in message

...

I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

I have one of those less than two feet from me now. Each successive touch
would cycle through a low setting, a high setting, and "off." It was very
expensive at the time -- 22 years ago. g

The touch feature eventually went nuts; the light would go on an off at
random times. This burned out bulbs rather quickly and they're those 40 W
high-intensity lamps that cost over $3. So I shut off the feature (there's a
knob on top that overrides the touch feature) and built a homemade dimmer
with a triac and diac. It works fine now without the touch feature.

I hope yours is more reliable than mine proved to be.

--
Ed Huntress

Had one of these several years ago. We'd find it on after almost
every thunderstorm!

On 5 Jan 2008 21:23:26 GMT, Dave Hinz wrote:

On Sat, 05 Jan 2008 13:07:07 -0600, Ignoramus8343 wrote:
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

cmos doesn't take much current to pull a gate low.


As a youth, back in the '70s, I used to use open base Darlington pairs to do
the job. Worked some of the time :-)


Mark Rand
RTFM

On Jan 5, 11:07*am, Ignoramus8343
wrote:
I purchased a desk light at Home Depot. It has an amazing featu it
is switched by touching its base. It does not have a mechanical
switch. All I have to do to turn it on, is to touch it. Very clever.

Capacitive switching was cool back even when it was crude and first
used on application like that. Now it's everywhere and growing. The
technology has taken off. It's used for a lot of electronics now
(think touch screen stuff) since unlike switches there are no moving
parts and it takes very little power to operate. I was recently
looking at a sensor system capable reading of thousands of tiny
capacitance sensors that would read your fingerprint in great detail.
That particular one is the cutting edge right now, but I'm confident
that most handheld electronics such as MP3 players use them, as well
as a lot of home appliances with glass screens and sensors underneath
the glass. They just don't wear out or care if you get it dirty.