These arcade buttons http://www.ultimarc.com/images/wiring.gif http://www.ultimarc.com/images/ulux_disassembled.jpg
have 3 pins, ground, normally open, normally closed.
following this example http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Button
do i wire the 5v to the normally open pin, and then the signal & ground cable to the ground pin?
OK given that I don't like this tutorial as you should be pulling down with a button not pulling up then:-
connect the ground (should be called common) to the +5V and the normally open to the arduino. This gives you a push to make the input low. If you want push to make the input high then use the normally closed to connect to the arduino.
so +5v to the common, and Normally Open (NO) goes to what? the data pin? So no ground connection then?
I'm agreeing with Mike. That's just the way it's most commonly or preferably done.
What Mike is saying is that the resistor would not be in the path between the input pin and ground. It would be between the pin and +5V, in essence, a PULLUP. Pressing a NORMALLY OPEN switch should make the switch short to ground, pulling it "down" and taking the pin level down to 0 logic level.
I understand why they did it. Push Switch = logic 1, un pushed switch = logic zero. That's great if you had SPST switches but you have SPDT switches, so as Mike said, you can swap the pin logic back to match the tutorial with your push button by selecting "COMMON" and "Normally Closed".
Normally Open (NO) goes to what?
I said:-
and the normally open to the arduino.
Sorry to the arduino pin that you are monitoring with your software.
