
Jaychadw
United Kingdom
Asked
— Edited

I have a feeling this is going to be another silly question for the ez-gurus to snigger to them selves at, but i'd like to know if there is a device that can be used as a switch. In my case to turn a light on and off using the EZ-B. I played with the idea of using a servo as a switch but I am not really convinced this is the best way to go.
If you want to switch a mains ( ac )circuit I would suggest using a relay with an opto isolator,that will allow you to control it with a digital output from EZB
You can purchase these as a complete unit.
Digital relay, I'm sure I've seen one of those recently
this is a possibility
remember you may be asking a question that could assist others
If you are not familiar with making connections to a mains circuit I suggest you use a dc adaptor and say a 12v dc bulb to experiment with.
Here is another possibility like Bravia's but is solid state relay and rated for 2 amps. (always watch the volts and amps)
EBAY
Another EBAY
EDIT: I now see you're wanting it for DC. There are a few options in the forums to hand make them using TIP 120 transistors or MOSFETs. I will find premade ones and post below soon.
Single channel MOSFET
4 channel MOSFET
As I've said before you can always make them (i.e. TIP120 circuit) from designs posted in the forum by Rich and Josh.
@Jaychadw what you might be looking for is a Solid State Relay (SSR) which has all the benefits of a mechanical relay but without the noise (electrically and audibly). They seem to be getting pretty cheap in price on ebay.
EDIT: Sorry @Tony beat me to it
I am very low on funds so building my own may be a good idea. Finding it hard enough to spare funds for servo's and sensors. That being said a prebuilt one would be far more suited to what I require. By nature I am a coder, including AI and CV, so making the leap to full robotics was only right and has been amazing but i'm still very unsure about making my own circuits. I'm ok soldering a load of pre made parts together in the right(ish) way to get results but beyond that I get a little *stress*
@Troy and @Bravia i'm certainly going to be looking into SSR's. Within a couple of hours I have a greater understanding of this. When I've raised my equipment and REALLY get going with what I'm doing, I can't wait to show you all. As in essence you've helped me create it
Here is Rich's tutorial on TIP and MOSFET circuit building.
@jaychadw - You'll get used to this forum being totally different to pretty much all others in that everyone will help and nobody has an attitude or makes you feel stupid. Ask and you'll find someone will answer pretty much anything without judgement
@Rich i'm getting there. Although I think i'm left permanantly scarred from some of the forums I've been on. You can wait days for a response only to be treated like an ass.
I haven't made a definite decision about which way i'm going to go with this, i'll be checking out that tutorial ( thanks @Troy and @Rich ) and look into those others like TIP/Mosfet