Kinetic self powering remote switch

Clive, you need to get a "hackRF One w/Portapack" - a low-cost, self-contained Chinese SDR that can receive, display, analyse and rebroadcast RF signals on pretty much any frequency up to 6GHz. It's perfect for sniffing RF & sussing out the coding strategies used on all these low-power wireless gadgets. You can easily discern the modulation, bit depth (number of variants), whether encryption and/or rolling codes are being used. And if you connect the HackRF part to your PC, there are some open-source protocol analysers available that can go much deeper, if you feel so inclined...

Gordo

They probably have emergency flashlights for those "moments".

Big Clive

Neither of the units I've tried seem to be compatible with each other or any other receiver.

Big Clive

What sort of distance are people seeing on these ?

Ady Hewitt

They don’t half make running cables easier 😂I’ve used them for outside lights / summerhouse install at a good 50’ - already power there so absolute doddle to give remote switching. Beats hiding SWA in the garden just for switch lines, quicker / cheaper

RDM

Hmm...so we could very slowly charge a large capacitor from one or more of these units... Combine with Joule Thief? We could have elder homes wired to have their rocking chairs power the world using the power the elderly!! (You're welcome)

Michael Thompson

Those switches are on the next level of genius- the applications where they could be used is huge.

Mike Hughes

I wonder if the apartments where they install these en masse have wired light switches in case of faults?

Wim

I did toy with doing that, but it ended up quite late at night when I got to the point I would have done that.

Big Clive

The receiver does look messy, but the circuitry is reasonable enough. It's just been jammed into a very small module to poke through holes in ceilings. Whether you should really poke stuff like this into ceiling or wall voids is another matter.

Big Clive

I'd love to find this kind of thing that would work with the receivers I already have. ;)

I have wondered how the self-powered wireless doorbell buttons work and while this is a switch, it is certainly very different to what I imagined, especially for how it generated power. I imagined the pushing action would spin up a tiny magnetic flywheel inside a coil to provide power, like one self powered torch I saw a while back that required periodic squeezing of its trigger to keep lit.

Seán Byrne

Circuits like this are why you NEED an oscilloscope for these videos! I want to see the voltage across that capacitor and what it rises and falls to during a push!

Muxer Baker

Chip numbers, TX= Transmit RX= Receive 10 probs V1.

Alan King

I was thinking exactly the same thing :-)

I'd love to see this on a scope, to see the power generated and the time the unit retains it's power.

Paul Schuur

Awesome! I think the little coil antenna is also glued in place to keep it from vibrating which would induce addition nastiness one not wants in an RF circuit...

Michael Thompson

That transmitter looks very nice. I like the bistable action. Double the flux change at every press. The receiver looks a mess.

Mike Page

Judging by the title, I thought this is going to be about a bb gun to shoot at the wall switch XD. It's kinetic action, self-powered, and remote.

horrovac

They also do versions with a small battery in them. Where you're located external RF interference wouldn't be an issue. You can pair several stick-on switches and even a keyfob button to a single switching unit.

Big Clive

Nice concept. The Thermokon version we use is not the same, I haven't taken the PCB out as they are £80 each, but the sales rep said they were piezo. They have a separate button for each function rather than a rocker, that might speak to the energy generating mechanism inside.

The Tinkering Shed

That is really cool. Didn't know such things existed. Nice for block walls where wiring would be difficult. 👍

Steve Summers

So it was YOU who caused a Google-earthquake?! 😏https://imgur.com/a/7bIoqoC

Bo Holbo Rasmussen