Asked
— Edited
Alright. My dewy build is almost finished, but I have hit a problem with the relays I'm using. They require at least 1.5v to activate them, and then nothing to deactivate them.
Using a set digital control, I can turn them on, but turning the control off doesn't deactivate the relays.
Why would this be? Does setting the digital port off not set the voltage low?
How else can I activate them and deactivate them with the ez-b if not in this manor?
Signal to ground turns it on solid. No turning off.
In my mind, adding a diode to the signal pin should do it, but I'm not sure.
I would be concerned with a diode. It could short it out.
But it does work with the resistor, but inverted?
To All,
@ MazeHorizonTech and I still are missing something. We are not using straight relays, but relay boards, many with indicators etc. They are called Arduino compatible boards, but are not ezb compatible. Most are 5 volt which means we should use an external supply and common ground to the ezb. We get it to turn on . How do we get it to turn off?
I played with this in the past and ended up with a transistor switch operating the relay board, do to frustration, which has resurfaced again... LOL...
Please help us understand what we are missing.
I re-read Jeremie's thread. He said some of these relays work inverted due to an optical coupler. You said you placed the resistor between the signal and the ezb which allowed the relay to work, but backwards? Then it is working correctly.
So I think we really need some documentation on @Techno's relay board (is it the exact one that @Techguru linked too?) and I think we'll need some documentation on @ANDYROID's board as well.
I believe that they may have different relay control circuits. One may be transistor controlled and the other could be opto-coupler controlled.
In my first post I explained how to use a relay with your own transistor control circuit, but I'm guessing both you guys are using Relay boards with the control circuit built on.
@ANDYROID the board you posted above has opto-coupler control. I've been able to use this type of board with an ez-bv4 just recently. I needed to connect a 5V regulator to VCC, share the same Ground, and then I use inverted logic. A low digital output (0V) from the ez-b would cause the relay to turn on and a high digital output (3.3V) turned the relay off.
I will try it again the end of the week. I will post the results. Thanks,