The Straw Tilt Switch

How does it work?

This swatch works as an enlarged version of a typical tilt switch. When tilted up the metal balls inside complete the circuit.

Materials

• drinking straw
• metal balls
• conductive thread
• needle
• fabric
• hotglue

Technique

I sewed two lead legs into opposing sides of the straw leaving a knot inside which the balls would connect. I then capped one end with hot glue, filled with a few balls and closed up the other end with hot glue. I mounted this to a piece of fabric and then sewed leads for the alligator clips to connect to the straw negative and positive leads.

References

I’ve seen this before in my Arduino days. I like the tactile nature of the switch, and that’s why I wanted to try my hand at it, that and a surplus of small metal balls from a previous project.

I made a few sketches. Ideas for later too!

I had hoped to do silly strings in the beginning but my metal balls were too large for the straw and got stuck. Would have been a fun switch though. There’s always next time!