Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button

“

Please place the Weighted Storage Cube on the Fifteen Hundred Megawatt Aperture Science Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button.

Click to listen

— GLaDOS

”

The Heavy Duty Super-Colliding Super Button is a game mechanic used throughout the Portal series. It is used within Test Chambers, and is activated when either a player or Weighted Storage Cube is placed upon it.

Uses

Buttons are present in the virtually all test chambers and, when activated, trigger a variety of effects. Buttons can either control the flow of Excursion Funnels, open and close hatches, release Weighted Storage Cubes, or even open and close the gate leading to the exit. It's up to the player to figure out how and when to use the button, or buttons, in order to proceed.

Buttons

Heavy Duty Super Button

The Heavy Duty Super Button is a receptacle that can be triggered by the weights of player characters, Weighted Storage Cubes, Edgeless Safety Cubes, and Frankenturrets. The button was introduced in Portal and remained prevalent in Portal 2.

An older prototype variant from the 50-70s era of the Super Buttons can be seen in the Portal 2 single-player chapters The Fall and The Reunion.

Weighted Storage Cube Receptacle

Weighted Storage Cube Receptacles, as obvious by its name, serves as a receptacle only for the Weighted Storage Cubes. This receptacle is only present in the co-op campaign of Portal 2.

The Storage Cube must be placed securely inside the receptacle in order for test subjects to proceed. Although its appearance is similar to the Super Button, it cannot be activated by the weight of test subjects or any other objects being placed upon it.

Edgeless Safety Cube Receptacle

“

You have no idea how tiring it is to praise someone for placing an Edgeless Safety Cube into a receptacle designed to exactly fit an Edgeless Safety Cube.

Click to listen

— GLaDOS

”

The Edgeless Safety Cube Receptacle is a receptacle for the Edgeless Safety Cube, introduced in Portal 2. The Cube must be placed securely inside the receptacle in order for the player to proceed.

Edgeless Safety Cubes and their receptacles only appear as testing elements in the game's cooperative campaign.

Contraption Cube Receptacle

The Contraption Cube Receptacle is exclusively featured in the educational version of Portal 2. Although it is designed for the Contraption Cube, the Receptacle will not recognize the Contraption Cube or activate any puzzle elements which are connected with it. Additionally, it appears entirely black in-game, when the model itself has different colors.

Puzzle Creator item properties

Entity cost: 3
Connections: This item supports outputs, which activate when the button is pressed and deactivate when it is unpressed. Connect to... is used to connect this item to another, via inputs or outputs. Connection visibility controls the visibility of this connection, and Remove connections can be used to remove an existing connection.
Button Type: Used to select between Weighted, Cube and Sphere buttons. In the educational version, it also allows switching to the Contraption Cube receptacle.
Toggle Stopwatch: Unknown, only present in educational version. Possibly related to the timer functionality present in that version.

Trivia

In Portal Test Chamber 16, turrets can activate a button. This is the only occurrence of this.
GLaDOS mocks humans for having trouble placing an Edgeless Safety Cube into a receptacle specifically designed for it.