17th May 2012
I have literally used many thousands of these switches with pupils from 11 to 16 years old. If they are taught to attach the leads correctly, there is absolutely no problem even with the youngest kids. Wires are best attached by quickly tinning the tags and then tinning stripped (5mm) wire ends. - we use 7/0.2 stranded. The join is made by melting holding the wire on the tag and melting the solder - not using the hole in the tag. Heat shrink over the tag and for 10mm over the wire insulation. The nut is difficult for kids to unscrew but goes back on fine - even the year 7 pupils do it without difficulty. Overall, they do the job well enough even though a bit delicate and easy to damage through inept handling. Getting quite pricey in small quantities though.
31st January 2012
These are absolutely useless. You are lucky if you can remove the nut without it shredding the thread, but even if you can it'll certainly shred it when you try and tighten it up again. Regardless of your iron temperature the casing will melt when you try and solder to the tags. The actuator is ridiculously loose and operating pressure vary wildly between buttons, sometimes switching just from vibration.
When it says 'not for industrial applications' its really not joking, although it might be better to say 'not for any applications' --RAPID'S RESPONSE --We are sorry to hear you are having problems with one of our products.These switches are from our budget range and are aimed at the education market . If you would like to contact our sales team on (0)1206 751166 we will be happy to arrange a refund for you. As an alternative we do offer a larger but more robust switch 78-1550 which should be more suitable to your needs. However if you wish to use a miniature range of switches we recommend you attach a crocodile clip to the tag close to the body of the switch during soldering. This will act as a heat sink and prevent the plastic distorting. Our larger switches tend to withstand heat from the iron better but a heat sink is recommended such as a crocodile clip.