Computer control of AC devices

If you have ever wanted to control electronic devices from your computer to control or regulate your environment, this instructable will guide you. In this example of computer control, a USB relay device (USBmicro http://www.usbmicro.com - U451) will control two 60 watt light bulbs from a PC program.

Step 1 Safety First!

First off - Any time that you work with 120V voltages, safety is paramount. If you are not comfortable working with mains power, please seek the assistance of someone who is.

This instructable is intended only for someone experienced and confident in wiring high voltages. Do not attempt to do this if you are not. Household current can kill or badly injure you if you who do not understand the danger.

Only the U451 relay contacts should be used for control/connection to 110V AC. The relay screw terminals are isolated from the other circuit connections. DO NOT touch the U451 when there is 110V AC present.

Comments

[amalkady]

what sholud i use if i want 220 v??

[staniagas]

Here No steps are given about how to connect this with computer? Can you explain this!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shortw]

How much power can you put through the board?

[indestructable]

The U451 is limited to about 2 amps at 110V. So at most each relay could control about 200 watts.

[whiplash]

then why does the usbmicron site say the relays are rated to 125v 10 amps ??

[ToddR]

From their website:
PCB trace widths limit the connections to the relays to about two amps - this should not be exceeded.

The board is what's limiting it, not the relays. Probably not that hard to work around if necessary.

[reoozeit]

My general knowledge of relays tells me that the 120v side is the side being switched on and off by the relay- essentially making it the same as the standard single pole switch in your house. And if those relay contacts are rated at 10 amps, they should be able to handle around 10 amps. The relays in components are typically purchased from other manufacturers and integrated into products by the electronics manufacturers. When they say differently about the connection to the relays being limited to 2 amps and are talking about the pcb, the 120v connection to the relays has some pcb trace going out to a separate terminal block- and that is true in this case (which would be a not-so-smart way to design a relay because it creates confusion about ratings, limits uses, and it could be done with terminals integrated into the relay to avoid all of this! ). In that case, a direct soldering of your wires to those contacts bypassing that pcb connection should suffice as described by author in comment below. Good luck, have fun, void your warranties, and BE CAREFUL! Don't hurt (enter your name here)!

[indestructable]

A reasonable work around is to use a heavy gauge wire to connect to the soldered relay connections on the bottom of the U451 USB relay board (in pictures above). You make direct heavy connections to the relays themselves to overcome the limits of the printed circuit board.

[maewert]

Very nice instructable.

Similar to mine at:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-Arduino-110v-Power Controller/

Mine does not use a relay board, so it is not for the faint of heart :-)


Best Wishes

[maewert]

sry for the broken link:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-Arduino-110v-Power-Controller/

[rohan9869]

How do u add the USBm.dll and the program to the U451?

[indestructable]

What are you asking? The program and the DLL don't get "added" to the U541 - the program runs on a PC.

[rohan9869]

From where can we download the software robot ide??

[indestructable]

RobotBASIC comes from http://www.robotbasic.org

[ckundo]

Awesome! This might be interesting to you: we created an inverse of this idea where you can use the A/C device to control the computer. Some documentation here: http://itp.nyu.edu/~sz590/blog/2010/05/23/api-for-the-world/

[Stevens_Carl]

Hey nice!! Can you think of a way to add current load monitoring to this... It would be cool to be able to create software to mon current load and control lighting and other circuits based on time of day and power consumption??? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[ckundo]

You can build your own current sensor with this instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/2-Carabiner-split-core-AC-transducer/.

[Buzzsushi]

Where can I buy one of these controllers? I cant find out lol

[indestructable]

http://www.usbmicro.com makes them

http://www.circuitgizmos.com
http://www.dontronics.com
http://strandcontrol.com
... sells them.

[ludionis]

I could see hooking a few house lights up to a system like this, and when I'm on vacation, use RDP to remote into my home server, turn lights on/off to make people think house is occupied, or wire to a garage door opener and remotely open it from anywhere I have internet....so many fun possibilities!!!

[drresearch]

Nice instructable, I voted for it and for your other instructable "eMail Light: LEDs show new e-mail". I finally bought the U451 and am waiting for it to arrive.

[ipodgeek]

I just made the plug version of this project a few days ago after seeing this instructable. It is awesome. I've tried it with some lights in my house as well as a fan a sander and a metal polisher. It's very cool to turn on and off devices using your computer. I will post a few pics of it later.

[indestructable]

That is great to hear! I'm glad that this instructable has helped you - I look forward to your pictures.

[databoy]

I am a qualified licensed electrician. The electrical industry uses PLC's. (programmable logic controllers). You can buy a PLC off the shelf. They are dedicated stand alone micro-controllers and far superior for electrical switching applications than using micro-controller boards and writing software. The cost factor is about equal.

[Stevens_Carl]

BTW my email is [e-mail]

[Stevens_Carl]

Hey I am semi familiar with PLC's... Connecting them and wiring them. That said I follow the schematic provided by the engineers. Now i can figure out the schematic but I do not know how to spec the hardware. i have been trying for some time to set up a PLC to monitor the load on all forty circuits in my breaker panel and shut some off due to load, power consumption,( both peak, and cumulative,), or by remote. If you would be willing to assist me in the defining what hardware to purchase ,(PLC Lingo is greek to me,), I would greatly appreciate it.

[insmac]

An Ardweeny and a opto isolated triac for less than $15 USD and free software. Is there a PLC available for near that? Besides who wants to program in ladder logic...a language that was obsolete 30 years ago, but refuses to die? ;-)

[mani522]

wat is d relay for 220 volt

[Thenwcp]

look for one with a rating larger than 220V

[ipodgeek]

Great instructable! I really like it. I think I'm going to make something like this when I have the time. Thank you very much for posting it!

[stackerjack]

I would love to make this project, but where, on my computer, do I enter the program?

[indestructable]

You would download RobotBASIC from robotbasic.org and use that for program entry.

[fly_boy_bc]

How to buy somethng and use it. This is an instructible? If you had to buy relays and a microcontroller it would be an instructible. If I show you how to build something using Mindstorms is that an instructible? NO IT IS NOT. Very very dissapointing. I was hoping to learn how to build something. I was not expecting "go out and BUY a controller and hook it up as per instructions".

[thaCrab]

just wondering if it would be at all poss to hook a spare cell ph to your computer so you can turn on lights etc via txt or call when you're on your way home ???

[Sagacity61]

This is an advertisement from Dontronics perhaps?

[munkey906]

I thought about doing something like this, and then found that the Insteon and other home automation equipment will end up being similar in price (when it's all said and done for a useable and professional install). Plus many of the home automation equipment will carry the on/off signal over the house wiring (no need for USB) and there are even options to hook them to your router and control from an iPhone or other web device. Very cool though... and handy if you don't want to drop cash on home automation stuff..

[DAG1030]

Very cool! I have a lot of application for this. Thanks for posting it.

[WVvan]

Nicely documented.

[Thav]

A note to people that might want to use this for something like a strobe light or dimmer application, (or even just bothered by the klackity klack you'll get) you will need some type of solid state switch. The simplest method for this is a TRIAC, which is basically a semiconductor device that will start conducting in either direction (important for line AC applications) when a pulse of current is driven into its gate, but will stop conducting at a current zero crossing, you can then gate it on again in the next AC line cycle. This is how some in switch dimmers function. Fully controllable devices would be IGBTs or MOSFETs, and you would need two of those devices per controlled device.

[jhd04]

Also, you could achieve higher amperages by using the relay output to feed power to the inputs of a contactor, which then is just a much beefier relay. It's how I control router and vacuum power on my CNC, so the machine can flip them on and off, but they take about 12-15amps, much too high for any relay. A contactor can go up to almost unlimited current ratings (though large ones are mad expensive). You can usually also add 1 or 2 circuits to each contactor, allowing you to power several devices off of one relay, though they all turn on and off at the same time. This one from Tyco can do up to 50A! That's beefy! Just make sure your supply circuit can deliver that before you turn it on, or you'll blow a breaker. http://www.tycoelectronics.com/catalog/pn/en/1-1672274-6?RQPN=PBC-050A3F Anyway, good instructable!