for the life of me i cant get the opb917bz switch working in mach.
i thought the one that worked forever died when upgrading my computer so i bought 4 more!

i have the c11g BOB and are trying to use the 5v on the input pins to run the red+ and white wires. i ran a 220 ohm on the red and once without. no difference. i cant find any ma output on the 5v pins.
the black and green are tied together and grounded on the grd of the input pins.
the blue goes right into pin 11.

the old computer worked fine with this setup for a long time but now i cant get any input on this.
if there is close to the right amount of power to the led should i be able to see it with my eyes?

I have 043.066 for the version and was thinking about trying v3.042.033  if I can find a download for that. seems to be liked well for threading.

Putting 5v in on the red wire without a resistor will instantly blow the LED as you have not limited the current to the LED
Hood

I wired up a new one with the 220 ohm resister and it did not work.
I thought some where I read that the input pin 5v supply is already limited to something small?
if I have 5v then what resister size do I want to use?
thanks

so I have the opb917bz specs
Forward Voltage = 1.3
Forward DC Current = 50mA
BOB put off 5.6V

the online resistor calculator say to use a  100000 ohm resistor for the power red+
did this with no results on a new switch

http://led.linear1.org/1led.wiz

I added in a 10k resistor from the 5v source to the input pin of the switch (blue wire). still nothing?

5v to the red wire reads 1.06v after the resistor going to the led now.

Dont think your calculator was giving good results.
220 Ohm is higher than needed, certainly for OPB917b (no Z)

Where are you getting your 5v from?


Hood

the BOB has some 5v pins right next to the input pins......

Ok so is the 0V you are using referenced to the 5v that you are using?
Hood

I have the green and black wires tied together and going to a ground pin on the input pin header.

Ok I am not familiar with the BOB and pic isnt big enough for me to see however what I am asking, if you put a voltmeter between the 5v beside an input and the Gnd do you get 5v? If yes then that means they are basically from the same supply.

Ok so if that is the case then I wonder if the pull down resistor is too strong for the input? I am not an electronics guy so cant really say even if that could be an issue but I think it could be.

If you take the Output wire from opto out of your BOBs input and connect your voltmeter between it and the Gnd you should be able to block/unblock the opto and you should see the voltage on your meter.

Hood