Back around 2004 when we built the FlockBots, a small army of differential-drive robots, we needed a microswitch with an extra-long, 4-5", actuator arm that we

Back around 2004 when we built the FlockBots, a small army of differential-drive robots, we needed a microswitch with an extra-long, 4-5", actuator arm that we could bend to form a bump sensor. There's exactly one place to get such a thing: the pinball machine repair industry. Pinball machines have microswitches with long actuators bent into all sorts of odd shapes to stick up out of the little divots in which balls fall and be triggered when they do so. There are so many obscure shapes that the industry just supplies long straight arms designed to be bent as needed into whatever shape you need for your unit. It's essentially a microswitch with a straightened-out paper clip welded onto the switch actuator. https://www.pinballlife.com/sub-microswitch-with-4-straight-wire-actuator.html https://www.pinballlife.com/sub-microswitch-with-4-straight-...