Electrical – Connect 3 circuits to one switch

arduinooptimizationpowerswitches

I am building some electronic circuits with some arduino in it to animate LED-strip.

The device is powered by 3 USB cables, because as I am using 270 RGB LEDs I can have 5A running trough the cables, so I splited it in three circuits. They are all powered from a powerbank and USB cables.

I already made a first version witch works correctly but I ended up with 4 117S switchs to turn in on.

enter image description here

I already found a way to lower it to 3 switchs but I do not know how to only go to only one since they are on different circuits. Because it is annoying to have to turn on 3 switch each time because the device is made to have all on them tu be turned on to work properly.

Here is how the circuit looks actually:
enter image description here

Is there some 2 state switch that can have multiple outputs? Like 3 inputs and 3 outputs? Each circuit carries around 1.5A. Should I use AND gates?

I'm still new a beginner in all this, I have a programming background and doing some electronic as a hobby.

Best Answer

The simplest solution is to use a 4-pole switch.

enter image description here

Figure 1. An on-off-on type 4-pole switch. Source: Sparkfun Switch Basics.

You need:

  • 3-poles (individual contacts) minimum.
  • 1-way or single-throw where each pole is either open or closed

So at a minimum you want a 3P1T switch. A 4P1T or 4P2T (double-throw has changeover contacts).

The type in the image has a centre off position so it's probably not quite what you want.

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