Contents:

The Beginner’s Guide to Switches Page 1 Basic Introduction

Page 2 Push switches

By
Jennifer Maddox of Small Scale Lights Page 3-4 Toggle switches

Page 5 Magnetic switches

Page 6 Uses of switches

in model making

The Basics
A switch with two pin connections looks pretty simple, but what if it’s a toggle switch or has three or
more pins?
This guide aims to break things down into simple concepts so you should find them easy to
understand and use.
In simplest terms a switch is simply two wires that stay apart until they are pushed together by
pressing a button or a lever, thus connecting the circuit and allowing electricity to flow through.
It’s either on or it’s off.
Switches are everywhere including the keyboard on your computer that you may be using now to read
this!
Switches come in different shapes and sizes and some common ones you will have used are push
switches, slide switches, toggle switches, rocker switches and magnetic reed switches. We will go
through all of these in the guide.
Switches are either momentary or maintained/latching. Momentary switches are on only when pushed
and off once released. E.g. the buttons on your computer keyboard are momentary.
Maintained/latching switches stay on until they are turned off. E.g. A push switch when pushed down
until it clicks, stays on until pushed again and it pops back up, or a toggle switch or rocker switch
which is flicked to one side to switch on and back to switch off.

more on 2
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Small Scale Lights – Beginner’s Guide to Switches

Some common terms:

SPST: Single Pole Single Throw
SPDT: Single Pole Double Throw
DPST: Double Pole Single Throw
DPDT: Double Pole Double Throw
NO: Normally Open
NC: Normally Closed
ON-OFF-(ON): Brackets () = momentary

So, what are switches and how do you use them?

Switches can seem complicated when you hear the names ‘poles’ and ‘throws’ associated with
them. SPDT, DPDT…. Help!
If we break it down into simple terms:
A Pole is the number of circuits a switch can control. A lot of simple switches are single pole, one
wire in. A double pole switch would have 2 wires in. SP = Single Pole. DP = Double Pole
A Throw is the number of pins the switch has, so a single throw switch has two pins. One in and
one out. A double throw switch would have three pins. One in and two out. That means you can
control two lights independently from each other, so say you have a white light and a red light, you
can connect the white light to one pin and the red to the other and when you flick the switch one
way the white light is on and the other way the red light is on. A three way toggle switch is a
common SPDT switch. ST = Single throw, DT = Double throw
There are DPDT switches available with 6 or more pins but we will stick to the easy switches for this
guide.

Keeping it simple…
The battery snap opposite has the
simplest switch available. A single pole
single throw (SPST) push button switch.
It’s also known as an inline switch
because it sits in line with the wires, one
wire from the battery to the switch and
one wire from the switch to the output,
i.e., a light.
Most standard push switches are the
same.

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Small Scale Lights – Beginner’s Guide to Switches

Wiring a toggle/slide/rocker switch

With toggle/slide/rocker switches you must wire them to make a complete circuit, so the positive
wire of the switch goes to the negative wires of the light(s) as shown below. Any toggle, rocker or
slide switch is wired in the same way.

Single pole double throw (SPDT)

SPDT switches are any toggle switch, rocker switch or

slide switch with 3 pins. They have three pins with the
centre pin always being the ground or negative wire.
The outer two pins connect to the output source, so a
light or motor etc.

Slide switches can be used as a single pole single

throw (SPST) switch by only using two pins. The centre
pin and one outer pin. This makes them easier to use
as the ‘off’ middle position can be hard to locate.

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Small Scale Lights – Beginner’s Guide to Switches

Wiring a SPDT toggle switch

If you have a single pole double throw (SPDT) toggle switch you will have three pins as discussed
above. In this specific example we want to have bi-colour LEDs along with single colour LEDs
(we’ll use white for the example) so that the bi-colour LED (White and red) turns red when the
switch is flicked to one side and white when it’s flicked to the other and the white lights are all on
together. In the photo above the LED with the red and black wires is the white light and the LED
with the grey wires is the bi-colour LED. All white lights are on at the same time.

The photo above shows how to wire the LEDs and switch so that you can have the white LEDs on
at the same time as the bi-colour white LED but off when the red LED is on. For example, you
could have a U-boat model where you want the red night lights separate to all the other daytime
lights.

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Small Scale Lights – Beginner’s Guide to Switches

Magnetic Switches

A magnetic switch is simply a switch that is activated by a magnet. The magnetic field pushes or
pulls the contacts together, which are just two tiny wires, to close the circuit just like pushing the
button or flipping the switch creates the circuit with other switches.

They come in two types; normally open (normally off) and normally closed (normally on), but
normally open in the most common. This means that the magnet must be close to the switch to
close the circuit and turn on the lights.

You will have used these in lots of household applications like your laptop screen turning on when
you open the lid or an iPad case that turns on the iPad when opened or in your house alarm where
the alarm would go off if a door was opened. The two white blocks on your door and frame are a
reed switch and a magnet, housed in an insulating cover.

Reed switches for modellers are often used in model railway layouts where they are used to
activate lights when the train passes over the reed switch. The magnet is attached to the
underside of the train and the reed switch is set into the track and when the train passes over it
closes the switch and activates the signal lights.

The more powerful the magnet is the further away it can be and still ‘close’ the switch.

Wiring for these is just like an inline switch so it’s wired into the positive wire of the circuit between
the battery/power supply and the light(s).

Note…
Reed switches with a glass case are very fragile and easily broken. Care must be taken with these not
to drop them or use force when handling. If the glass is broken, they no longer work. You usually
need to bend the wires down to insert into track etc so use pliers to carefully hold the wire next to the
glass case, then bend the wire 90 degrees with your fingers against the edge of the pliers.

Reed switches inside an insulating case are larger but much more robust and unlikely to be broken.

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Small Scale Lights – Beginner’s Guide to Switches
Uses of switches in model making
Simple push switches like the mini on/off switch are easy
to install as they are usually round. A hole can be drilled
to fit the collar of the switch and then the button can be
easily pushed, enabling the switch to be hidden
underneath the model.
In this example the switch is fitted into the base panel of
a Warhammer Tank.
Other push switches have a stem and mounting nuts so
they can be fixed into a panel so only the button is
visible.

Slide switches are often the smallest switches available

so are good for models where space is very tight.
In this example, one is used on the Warhammer Armiger
kit where it is soldered to a small PCB allowing the whole
kit to be very compact and fit inside the torso of the
model.

Magnetic switches also come in a version called a

HALL switch. They work the same as a reed switch but
are a small black chip for use on PCBs.

In this example I used a latching HALL switch on this

ultra-compact PCB for small Wargaming models with a
32-40mm base so that a tiny magnet can be used to
turn the lights on and off. Flipping the magnet polarity
turns the switch on and off. The larger the magnet the
further away it can be from the switch.

Small Scale Lights

info@smallscalelights.co.uk

All photos and information contained within this

document is copyright of Jennifer Maddox of Small
Scale Lights and must not be copied or used elsewhere
without my permission. For personal use only.

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