Hello there, Everyone,
I am totally new to Arduino and electronics in general.
I have purchased a few parts along with the Diecimila controller. One of these parts is a six-pin push-button.
I can't find any datasheets on this button, and all of the tutorials that I have found are about two-pin buttons. Can someone explain to me how to correctly wire a six-pin push-button?
It's difficult to say without seeing it maybe a posted picture would help.
However, you would need 6 pins if you had a duel pole change over push button. That would have basically two sets of three connectors. A common pin connecting to a normally open and normally closed pin. Here normally means "when not pressed".
If you have a resistance meter you can see the continuity between these pins and see which is which. If you haven't got one then you really should have before doing any electronics, but you can make do with a resistor LED and battery to check for continuity.
Just take the common pin and the normally open and treat it like any other two pin push button.
the typical 2 pin buttons are SPST( Single Pole, Single Throw ) and look like this on a schematic( p1 ____/ ____p2 ) and will say N.O.( Normally Open ) or N.C. ( Normally Closed ) which relates to how the default switch position is, open or closed.
So a 6 pin could be a 3PST( 3 pole single throw ) where you have 3 SPST in one package. it could be 2 SPDT( single pole double throw ) where each side has 3 pins where the center is the wiper/switch and pushing the button toggles one way or another.
The easiest way to tell is to just ring it out with a meter to see what is going on. You have to have a meter and know how to do this or else you should stop what you are doing now, go get one. They are cheap and as I said, you shouldn't be doing any Arduino wiring without one because it helps know when pins are high/low, what resistor values really are and how to figure out what a standard switch does without spending an hour online having people guess at what you have.
my guess is a 3 SPST configuration