Ever imagined how quickly the horn of your vehicle responds? Not even a second or two, just push the button and there comes the sound. You put your hand off the button and it’s back to silent mode.   An instant response of these horns is due to what we call “push -button switches”. Push button switches are those which can be made to work with the force of a finger or two.  Not only vehicles but camera, lifts and several other common and uncommon interactions with machines/gadgets involve push button switches applications. But what makes this switch so user friendly? What makes it respond only for the time it is pressed no longer or shorter? How the contacts inside this switch work? 

Keypads have integrated deep into everyday schedule of an average person that it is almost impossible to carry out working on electronic devices without using them. Computer keyboards, calculators, remote controls, game joysticks, electronic locks and ATM machines are just a few cases where one cannot do even a single task without using keypad. It becomes quite uncanny that how deeply this electronic accessory has embedded into lives of a major part of the population. Various types of keypads exist as per user’s requirements. For instance, computer and some smartphones have QWERTY keypad while calculators and simple telephones come with an alphanumeric keypad.

Tactile switches are most often found in control panels of monitors, televisions, mobiles, radios, etc. They are widely used in industry for different purposes. They come with various number of pins as per the requirement. A tactile switch has only two states ON and OFF. Here 4 pin tactile switch is discussed.Inside the switch we can see there is a hat like thing. Actually it’s the button that we tap. The button looks very similar to a hat. At the bottom of the button there is a pointing arrow and below it lies a conducting plate. The pins are attached below the plate. 

Computer keyboard is a device used to convert the keystrokes in to the electrical signals that a computer can understand. There are special types of switches and circuits to do this.When we press a key, it completes its corresponding circuit and an electrical signal goes to keyboard’s internal processor which detects the key which is pressed.A keyboard works on a 5V power which it takes from the computer through the Serial cable or USB. When we press a key on the keyboard, it pushes down the dome shaped rubber button which in turn electrically connects the top & bottom layer at that point and the signal is sent to the COB IC.