Capacitance based switches

[64ninjas]

Does anybody have experience with these? Could I mod one on the front of my case and replace the conventional power button with one that you simply touch?

Most capacitance switch schematics I've seen are the On/Off type, not the momentary push button I'd think a computer would use.

To make it only work for a second I suppose you could remove the flip-flop from the circuits

edit: I guess vl system makes one, but the thing is hella ugly. time for some custom metal work.

 

[jagec]

A friend of mine's dad was a hardcore electrician, and had almost all their lamps wired with touch-switches. Ones he made himself. He even drove an electric car he made himself. Unfortunately, I could never get the circuit right.

 

[futuristicmonkey]

How about a darlington-pair based switch that is able to sense the current across anything (and I mean anything...even with the 100k protection resistor).

 

[davesaudio]

I think you are on the right track, the other approach is to have a high impedance
input to an opamp configured for high gain. it will pick upthe 60hz noise that is omni present.
would need to rectify and filter and still need to do the flip flop thing , tho
D