DIP switch

DIP Switch

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DIP switch

A DIP switch is a set of manual electric switches

Switch

Dual in-line package

File:Three_IC_circuit_chips.JPGIn microelectronics, a dual in-line package , sometimes called a DIL package, is an electronic device package with a rectangular housing and two parallel rows of electrical connecting pins....
(DIP) (the whole package unit may also be referred to as a DIP switch in the singular). This type of switch is designed to be used on a printed circuit board

Printed circuit board

A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using Conductor pathways, or signal traces, industrial etchinged from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate....
along with other electronic

Electronics

Electronics refers to the flow of charge through nonmetal electrical conductor , whereas electrical refers to the flow of charge through metal electrical conductor....
components and is commonly used to customize the behavior of an electronic device for specific situations.

DIP switches are an alternative to jumper

Jumper (computing)

In electronics and particularly computing, a jumper is a short length of conductor used to close a break in or bypass part of an electrical circuit....
blocks.

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DIP switch types

There are many different kinds of DIP switches. Some of the most common are the rotary, slide, and rocker types.

Rotary DIP switches contain multiple contacts, one of which is selected by rotating the switch to align it with a number printed on the package.

The slide and rocker types, which are very common, are arrays of simple SPST

Switch

In electronics, a switch is an electrical component which can break an electrical circuit, interrupting the Electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another....
(single-pole, single-throw) contacts, which can be either on or off. This allows each switch to select a one-bit binary value. The values of all switches in the DIP package can also be interpreted as one number. For example, seven switches offer 128 combinations, allowing them to select a standard ASCII character. Eight switches offer 256 combinations, which is equivalent to one byte

Byte

A byte is a basic unit of measurement of Computer storage in computer science. In many computer architectures it is a Byte addressing memory address space....
.

The DIP switch package also has socket pins or mounting leads to provide an electrical path from the switch contacts to the circuit board. Although circuits can use the electrical contacts directly, it is more common to convert them into high and low signals. In this case the circuit board also needs interface circuitry for the DIP switch, consisting of a series of pull-up or pull-down resistors, a buffer, decode logic, and other components. Typically the device's firmware

Firmware

Firmware is a term sometimes used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs that internally control various electronic devices. Typical examples range from end user products such as remote controls or calculators, via computer parts and devices like harddisks, keyboard s, TFT screens or memory cards, all the way to scientific instr...
reads the DIP switch settings when the device is powered on.

Applications

DIP switches were extensively used in older ISA

Industry Standard Architecture

Industry Standard Architecture was a computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers....
PC cards

Expansion card

An expansion card in computing is a printed circuit board that can be inserted into an expansion slot of a computer motherboard to add additional functionality to a computer system....
to select IRQs

Interrupt request

The computing phrase "interrupt request" is used to refer to either the act of interrupting the Computer bus lines used to signal an interrupt, or the interrupt input lines on a Programmable Interrupt Controller ....
and memory address

Memory address

In computer science, a memory address is an identifier for a computer memory location, at which a computer program or a hardware device can store a piece of data and later retrieve it....
es. They were also often used on arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, public houses, video arcades, and Family Entertainment Centers....
s in the 1980s and early 1990s to store settings, before the advent of cheaper, battery-backed RAM and were very commonly used to set security codes on garage door opener

Garage door opener

A garage door opener is a motorized device that opens and closes garage doors. Most are controlled by switches on the garage wall, as well as by remote controls carried in the garage owner's Automobile....
s as well as on some early cordless phones. This design, which used up to twelve switches in a group, was used to avoid interference from other nearby door opener remotes or other devices. Current garage door openers use rolling code

Rolling code

A rolling code is used in keyless entry systems to prevent replay attacks, where an eavesdropper records the transmission and replays it at a later time to cause the receiver to 'unlock'....
systems for better security.

These type of switches were used on early video card

Video card

A video card, also known as a graphics accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card, is an expansion card whose function is to generate and output images to a display....
s for early computers to facilitate compatibility with other video standards. For example, CGA

Color Graphics Adapter

The Color Graphics Adapter , originally also called the Color/Graphics Adapter or IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter, introduced in 1981, was International Business Machines's first color graphics card, and the first color computer display standard for the IBM PC....
cards allowed for MDA compatibility.

Recently (since the late 1990s), DIP switches have become less common in consumer electronics. Reasons include the trend toward smaller products, the demand for easier configuration through setting screens, and the falling price of non-volatile memory

Non-volatile memory

Non-volatile memory, nonvolatile memory, NVM or non-volatile storage, is computer memory that can retain the stored information even when not powered....
. But DIP switches are still widely used in industrial equipment because they are inexpensive and easy to incorporate into circuit designs, and because they allow settings to be checked at a glance without powering the system on.