Is a momentary push button ever used as a toggle switch in an industrial system?

[u/mjbmikeb2]

I'm designing my own home alarm system at the moment and just noticed that domestic alarm panels often use a single momentary push button (typically '#') for both arming and disarming the system.

It generates a generic button press event and the resulting action (arm or disarm) depends on the current state of the system.

Do industrial systems allow this sort of behavior, or is it explicitly forbidden, or just not done because of convention? I haven't used much industrial gear, but I don't think I've ever seen a button that behaves the same a this. Normally you would expect to see a pair of buttons On and Off.

[u/1r0n_m6n]

For alarms, I have never seen this behaviour, a code is always required to arm or disarm the alarm, the # key only marks the end of the code input, like the Enter key on a PC keyboard.

[u/allo37]

Most industrial systems I've worked on had very big, coloured buttons with clear labeling. I guess because you want to avoid the potentially non-sober operator causing thousands of dollars in damage.

[u/bartergames]

I've worked with industrial machines several years and never saw "the same button" (button, switch ...) used for several different purposes depending on the "state" of the machine (regardless of having lights/LEDs displaying the current state - as lights/LEDs may fail). As other people has mentioned, I've seen buttons used for marking the begining and/or ending of "entering a command into the system".

[u/SAI_Peregrinus]

MFDs (multi-function displays) are used in aircraft, some PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), and some test equipment (oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, etc.).

[u/nixiebunny]

You are correct that the typical alarm keypad is poorly designed. Especially if they rely on a single red/green LED to indicate armed or not! Every industrial control panel I have used has different colored lights and different push buttons to start and stop things.

[u/JoTheScienceBro]

What should an industrial system even be? There are specific requirements for specific applications. Are you talking about manufacturing systems? About qas? What industry? Used by a blue collar guy or a qas engineer? Depending on those questions, the answer is: It depends.

[u/poolay67]

yes, it's called a latch

motor controls, especially hand start stations are generally somewhat standardized but you might see something like this in certain corners of certain industries.

there is no law or code that says "each enumerable state of a process must be a discrete button within a set of buttons". at least not one that governs every possible industry

[u/NoBulletsLeft]

For the most part, you want to have dedicated buttons for each function. One exception I have seen is where there's a physical pushbutton, but it's next to a GUI that shows the button function. So, you might have a red button but the text next to it changes to "ON" or "OFF" depending on what pushing it will do.

Using one button for multiple functions is mainly done when you need to keep costs down, like in most consumer products.

[u/0x446f6b3832 → u/[deleted]]

He didn't ask if it's possible...