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by Animats 1 day ago
The STOP and RESET buttons are from a Documation card reader.[1] They're not guarded. They just come from a standard kit of buttons and lamps where you could assemble the components and dividers into a control panel. That style of illuminated push button was once popular and is still available.[2] NASA Mission Control consoles had lots of them.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se0F1bLfFKY

[2] https://cpc.farnell.com/rjs-electronics/rjs-k16-391-ge-65j/i...

2 comments

They are guarded, the guard just comes with the button assembly. There is no reason to have the sides raised like that except to guard against accidental presses of adjacent buttons.
> The STOP and RESET buttons are from a Documation card reader.[1] They're not guarded.

They're recessed. Buttons come with recessed or raised actuators depending on the application. Recessed buttons prevent something bumping into the control panel from pressing the button. If you ever look at a properly designed industrial control panel, start buttons are flush or recessed and stop buttons raised.

Emergency stop buttons (E-Stop) are not only raised but feature a large "mushroom head" design to ensure they are visible and easy to press. They may have a recessed guard around them to prevent accidental actuation.

> [2] https://cpc.farnell.com/rjs-electronics/rjs-k16-391-ge-65j/i...

Side note: I grew up in a machine shop and the Comet VMC-1000 Mills we had featured a lot of the square/rectangular buttons[1]. The cycle start button has a Molly guard but is almost always missing as it's quite fragile and easily knocked off (ours were missing too.) I like the aesthetics so when I went to Japan and explored Akihibara Electric City, I found an industrial electronics vendor[2] just outside of the Akihibara Station who had a nice selection of them from Fuji Electric. I bought a bunch with 24V lamps for a PLC test stand. Another vendor is eao.

1. https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/auctions-2023/bsctho10...

2. https://www.tanakamusen.com/