Abstract: For the purpose of forming a base bearing position (4), the inside of the bottom portion (10) of the ball-guiding socket housing (1) of a ball-and-socket switch, where this bottom portion defines a base plane, is provided with a pyramid-shaped recess (8) as the base bearing position of the switching ball (3) in a (horizontal) normal (or rest) position of the ball-and-socket switch. The base bearing position is formed by a circular recess in the area of the vertex (9) of the pyramid and defines a particular tilting angle (a) of the switching ball. The light transmission elements (16) and the light reception elements are arranged in light-tight chambers behind the side walls (14) of the internal space (6) of the socket housing, these chambers, for the purposes of light transmission, being connected to the internal space by means of apertures (20) in the side walls (14) terminating in rotation-symmetric recesses that narrow in the direction of the chambers.

Abstract: A remote control transmitter includes a function selector device (17) for outputting selection signals in dependence on a function selected by operating the device. A function is selected by tilting the function selector device which includes optically functioning tilt switches. For this purpose, a ball guide housing (50) is constructed with five ball resting places, i.e. places in which a ball (K) within each specified tilt range always adopts a stable position. At one of the ball resting places a light transmitter (D) is mounted, while at other ball resting places light receivers (P1-P3) are located. A multi-bit signal is outputted by the light receivers, with the different bit sequences corresponding to different selection signals.

Abstract: A remote control transmitter contains on a circuit board (3), which is rigidly connected to the transmitter housing (1) of the remote control transmitter, a positional-deviation switch configuration (17), which in the event of an angular deviation of the circuit board (3) and thus of the remote control transmitter beyond a particular trigger angle (a.sub.o) from a particular given or instantaneously determined reference operating position generates an output signal designating the direction of the positional deviation. In a signal converter (5) of the remote control transmitter, this direction-dependent output signal is converted as a control command into a transmission signal, and emitted via a transmitter element (4) of the remote control transmitter to a remotely controlled electrical appliance.