Momentary to Latching Switch Conversion With This Simple Circuit

Have you ever wondered if you could use a wee little momentary tact switch to turn large high voltage high current things on and off? Wonder no more!! Use this instructable and the circuit schematic to build yourself a latching circuit!

First things first, watch the video and see how I built the circuit. The video is all encompassing, but further on in this instructable you will find some more detailed instructions and some tutorial videos.

For this circuit you will need:

1 N-Channel FET

1 PNP Transistor

1 330nF Electrolytic Capacitor

1 Silicon Diode

3 10k Resistors

1 100k Resistor

1 1M Resistor

1 Push Switch

If you don't know how to use a breadboard, watch this video tutorial.

Start by using the schematic above to prototype the circuit on a breadboard and test it. If it doesn't work, check your connections!

Once you have built and tested the circuit on a breadboard, proceed to transfer the circuit to a perfboard. Perfboards are basically a bunch of holes with circular copper pads on each hole. Transfer the circuit, following your breadboard and the schematic. Don't forget to solder everything up!

Congratulations, you're done! You can use this new circuit in conjunction with a relay to control high voltage high current loads using a very small switch! Each time you push the switch, the circuit changes state. Push once to turn everything on and hold it there and again to turn it all off.

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