fixed my window switch

[asavage]

Grease will not reduce arcing, but will definitely retard corrosion.

[kassim503]

oh, id figure the grease would act as a insulator until the two contacts come real close, but it would stop corrosion and much hassle

[odie]

what about a little bit of solder on the contact points? Just a thin coating of solder that can "sacrificially" wear out.

[asavage]

Solder will not last any significant length of time. Arcing quickly melts the lead/tin mix. It might last a couple dozen cycles at best.

[rlaggren]

As I understand it, the arcing is the direct result of running DC and chopping it off sudden like. You run AC, no (almost) arcing. So the obvious solutions... <G> Actually wouldn't be too much trouble w/lights, but I don't know right off if those motors are universal or not.

That stuff is only for the guy with no more projects left anyway. <GG>

Actually, now I think about it, you could drive the motor on DC w/a little black box amplifyer that ramped the power on and off over a period of, say 250 ms. That should start/stop the motor quick enough while eliminating arcing... Only issue would be how big the power transister; put in an overload cut-out and a bit of heat sink and you could probably design for a 20% duty cycle. Somebody probably make these already but I don't know where to look. You don't have to open up the doors, just insert the gizmo in the hot line to the window somewhere.

Hell, just put a couple of _good_ DC relays inside the door and use the switch to control the relay. _That_ should give the switch some life with no fancy pie-in-sky stuff. I guess if they make a double throw relay you'd only need one.

Rufus

[odie]

the only way i can think of recoating the switch is probably dipping it in copper, or whatever the special metal is, which is probably an alloy, cause copper is kinda weak when it comes to arcing between contacts, using electroplating.

coming back to an old thread.....

I wounder if you could melt a penny to use as a copper dip? Or heat a penny hot enought so that it starts to drip and try dripping a drop of copper on the end of the metal strips? what kinda metal contact point is used on a set of points in the old type distributors? that is DC current and cycles more times in a day than all you window switches in a centruy or longer.

[asavage]

I wounder if you could melt a penny to use as a copper dip?

What makes you think there's copper in pennies?

what kinda metal contact point is used on a set of points in the old type distributors? that is DC current and cycles more times in a day than all you window switches in a centruy or longer.

Yes, but . . . the inductive load on a set of ignition points is a lot less than that of a window motor. The fix is a big diode in parallel with the contacts, as discussed in this thread.

[odie]

I wounder if you could melt a penny to use as a copper dip?

What makes you think there's copper in pennies?

well, copper plated zinc these days....older pennies have a much higher copper content. Turns out it's damn near impossible to metal a copper penny, but the zinc/copper ones are easier by comparison...But I wonder what the high percentage of zinc will effect on conductivity and longevity?

I'm just thinking what to try next if the switch goes bad again or the contacts start to burn out.

I don't suppose these switches can be easily located anymore?

[asavage]

If you can't get a replacement switch, you can add a relay to do the job. What remains of the switch can easily switch the coil of a small relay.