5-Position Switch

5-position switch 

This is like a thumbstick or joystick, but without levels.  While a thumbstick can tell how far you have pushed in some direction, the 5-position switch only knows if it has been pushed up, down, left, right, or not at all.  

Parts

(1) 5-Position Switch 27801 
(4) Jumper wires
(5) Resistors – 220 Ω (red-red-brown-gold)

Schematic

Wiring

Script

The 5-position switch has built-in “external” pull-up resistors.  So all built-in pull-up/down resistors in the micro:bit I/O pins used in the script are disabled with …NO_PULL settings.

# 5-position-switch
from microbit import *
pin16.set_pull(pin16.NO_PULL)
pin14.set_pull(pin15.NO_PULL)
pin15.set_pull(pin14.NO_PULL)
pin16.set_pull(pin13.NO_PULL)
pin8.set_pull(pin8.NO_PULL)

while True:
    u = pin16.read_digital()
    r = pin15.read_digital()
    d = pin14.read_digital()
    l = pin13.read_digital()
    c = pin8.read_digital()

    print(u, r, d, l, c)

    if u == 0:
        display.show('U')
    elif r == 0:
        display.show('R')
    elif d == 0:
        display.show('D')
    elif l == 0:
        display.show('L')
    elif c == 0:
        display.show('C')
    else:
        display.show(Image.SQUARE_SMALL)

    sleep(100)

Tests

Without any pushing on the button lever, the 5-position switch will be in its detent position and micro:bit module’s 5×5 LED matrix display will display a small square.  If you press up, right, down, left, or center (into toward the breadboard), the micro:bit will display the first letter of the direction:

• U: up
• R: right
• D: down
• L: left
• C: center, into toward the breadboard