Understanding the Function of DIP Switches in Circuits

[salman213]

Can someone tell me how DIP switches work in circuits? I had an issue with a printer and saw that I had to change one of the DIP switches to change a setting. How do they work in a circuit?

I remember working in VHDL and there were also switches on a FPGA board (I don't know if those were also considered as DIP switches). Do they work the same way. That time, we took the binary value of the switch set (from the FPGA board), and programmed so that there were different conditions (Ex. if switch 1, 2 ,3 on (111) then do this) using an if-else structure.

Do DIP switches work the same way?

I was thinking of other applications of these switches.

 

[berkeman]

Can someone tell me how DIP switches work in circuits? I had an issue with a printer and saw that I had to change one of the DIP switches to change a setting. How do they work in a circuit?

I remember working in VHDL and there were also switches on a FPGA board (I don't know if those were also considered as DIP switches). Do they work the same way. That time, we took the binary value of the switch set (from the FPGA board), and programmed so that there were different conditions (Ex. if switch 1, 2 ,3 on (111) then do this) using an if-else structure.

Do DIP switches work the same way?

I was thinking of other applications of these switches.

A DIP switch is generally a line of several SPST switches in the same package. The two positions for the switch correspond to open and closed (obvious, I guess). You generally configure them to ground out the bottom of a pullup resistor when closed, which generates the low or high logic voltage corresponding to "0" and "1" signals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dip_switch

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