USA
Asked — Edited

Relays Or Switches?

Skip to comments   Jump to end

Hi All.

I'm trying to decide how to best activate a couple things on my robot build (full sized K-9 in my avatar).

I need to turn on a laser pointer. I'm thinking a pico switch would work.
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/products/picoswitch

Is there a more direct solution with the EZ B (I'll be upgrading to v4 soon)?

Also, I need to move a car antenna up and down. This particular antenna requires reversing the polarity to get it to move backwards. A switch that's mechanically activated by a servo arm for one direction and another switch for the other direction would definitely work and I'd just need to control the duration of the switch's activation to control how far the antenna extends.

https://www.servocity.com/html/spdt_miniature_snap-action_mic.html

Would a relay be any better? Reversing the polarity appears to be more challenging for my feeble brain-- the simpler the better:)!

https://www.servocity.com/html/electronic_pwm_controlled_dual.html This one seems to be able to run things forward and backward, but I'm not sure how it'd work with the EZ B.

thanks in advance

Frank


ARC Pro

Upgrade to ARC Pro

Take control of your robot's destiny by subscribing to Synthiam ARC Pro, and watch it evolve into a versatile and responsive machine.

#9  

Thanks, eveyone.

For the TTL relay (I think I have one of those somewhere), how do I go about making the polarity reverse (both software and hardware-wise) so that the antenna retracts? Also, how do you control the duration of the antenna activation, to make the antenna will extend to a certain length? (I'm really quite a noob, if you haven't noticed already.:))

Thanks for the link on the lasers, Justin. That'll keep things nice and simple. The car antenna is what makes the "probe" go up and down (that's the red suction cup thing that's coming from below the eye area). The ears are separate-- they will spin via a simple hook up to a couple servos.

Frank

#10  

I guess a servo might work for deploying and retracting the antenna.... or even maybe a linear actuator?

#11  

For relay control you would need two of them. Often a single pole double throw relay is used for on off. A double pole double throw relay is used for direction.

#12  

If you're not going to use an H bridge a better solution might be to use a mini servo with two snaps switches like you mentioned before.

#13  

I will be powering my EZ B at 6 volts (for my particular servos). Will it be ok to run those 5 volt lasers at the 6 volts, or will I need to reduce the voltage?

thanks,

Frank

#14  

You'll have to try one and see if it will last for more than a few minutes. Some of the better built laser pointers may work quite well.

Login to post a comment