ITW Vandal Resistant Type 57 Switches - Articles / Reviews

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ITW Vandal Resistant Type 57 Switches

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Brian Kristensen
Kurtis
ITW Switches
Mar. 29, 2003

Introduction

Are you tired of those boring power and reset buttons on your computer? Do they only work intermittently due to low quality materials? Do you just want to bring more style to your case? ITW was kind enough to send us 3 of their Vandal Resistant Type 57 switches, one with a red LED, one green, and one without a LED. Today we will find out if these switches are as good as we hoped.

The Switches

The first thing I noticed when I opened the box, is the lack of wires to connect the switch to your motherboard, and the lack of instructions. This is acceptable because these switches weren't originally intended for use in case modding, and these switches are straight from the manufacturer. But who are we to complain about instructions and wires? To compensate for the wiring, I just ripped the power, power LED, and reset switches and wires from an old case. Now to solder the wires onto the switches. It just takes a little common sense, and knowledge of electronics, and it will be very easy to figure out how to connect the wires.

Testing the Switches

Now it is time to see how well these babies work. I first tested out the switch with the green LED. I plugged everything in, hooked the power back up to the computer, and pressed the switch. These switches have a very nice push button feel, and a good push back. The feel and operation of the switch itself screams quality. The computer turned on, and so did the LED. The LED in the center of the button had a very nice glow to it. It wasn't too bright, but it was enough that you could see it clearly from any angle. I then pressed the reset button (the switch without the LED), and noticed the same quality feel as the computer restarted.

I then decided to test the red switch. After soldering the wires on, and hooking it up to the computer, I pressed the button. The computer powered up, but the LED didn't turn on! This was a surprise to me considering the quality of the other two switches. I figured I had wired the LED to the motherboard incorrectly. So I double checked all my connections, and compared them to the green switch to make sure everything was the same. Sure enough, it was. I decided to turn the plug around and plug it in backwards into the motherboard. The LED turned on with the computer now. For some reason, during the production of this switch, a part must have been placed in backwards. This really surprised me, and I double checked all my wiring again. But everything was fine. This isn't too much of a problem because the LED still works if you turn the wires around.

Conclusion

All in all, these switches are fantastic! There is a definite quality look and feel to these switches, and I will definitely be using them in my next computer case. One problem I ran into was the LED was reversed in the red switch. I am hoping this is a one in a million chance that I got a bad switch, because I can't believe that such quality products would have a constant problem like this. Once again, this isn't too big of a problem, because it can be easily fixed. Another thing I was hoping for was a blue LED switch, but I guess I was asking too much.

Pros

Good quality
Good LED brightness
Great look and feel

Cons

No blue LED option
LED was backwards in red switch

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