Hacks & Contraptions
One day I got the chance to look around in the basement storage of one of the local electronics stores, and found these really big and beautiful Thumbwheel switches, that I just had to own.
I am a big fan of tangible interfaces like buttons, switches, knobs and sliders, all of it. There is just something satisfying in turning this kind of mechanical switch, and see a new number appear, and even more when it triggers something. I thought about what I could use them for, they needed a purpose and a new life. I was just getting into electronics for real at that time, and had also just gotten access to a laser cutter I ended up planning to make what is called a Resistance Decade Box. It is a box that contains a number of resistors, and by combining different values creates a specific value of resistance. This is used when developing and testing electronic circuits, e.g. to figure out the right value of a resistor to put into a specific circuit.
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