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Author Topic: electronics help needed for a DS2408 relay driver please  (Read 3061 times)
EccentricAnomaly
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« Reply #15 on: October 19, 2010, 09:06:04 PM »

I tried linux for a while but in the end it just was too much work.

I tried Windows for about 20 years but in the end it just was too much work.

Less snarkily, part of the point of languages like Java, Ruby and Python is that, with a modicum of care, you can write programs which run on Windows, Linux and OS X (and BSD and...).

Even graphical user interfaces can carry over from one system to another.  My own experience of this is fairly limited though, just a small Java program which displays a few dialog boxes which I developed (and even complied) under Linux though its production use is under Windows.  (Mildly amusingly, it's invoked by a VB 3 program which I originally wrote in the early 1990s and have most recently fiddled with under Wine.)

For simple command line programs the main thing to take care of is the different formats of file names, e.g., '/' vs '\' as a separator.  Python, for example, has utilities to deal with most of this; if you remember to use them then you don't have to worry about these differences.  E.g., path.join('a', 'b') gives 'a/b' on Linux (and, I assume, OS X) but 'a\b' on Windows.  Similarly, if you pass the right modes to file open functions the libraries deal with the differences between line endings (carriage return, line feed on Windows, just line feed (often called newline in the context) on Linux/OS X).
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wyleu
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« Reply #16 on: October 20, 2010, 07:07:27 AM »

It's reliable, GUI-less, low power unix (arduino like) that is the real attraction here.
« Last Edit: October 20, 2010, 02:35:11 PM by wyleu » Logged
EccentricAnomaly
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« Reply #17 on: October 20, 2010, 10:33:30 AM »

Quote
It's the attractiveness of reliable, GUI-less, low power unix (arduino like) that is the real attraction here.

Indeed, but if somebody wants to use Windows then we should still not give up hope of any software they write being reasonably portable.
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mpooley
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« Reply #18 on: October 20, 2010, 10:49:26 AM »

Well I really didn't write this to be portable,  it never occurred to me lol
I have a plan of my house on screen showing the different temperatures with gradient colours being used for each temperature so i am afraid it wouldn't port easily.

It would be possible to strip the whole of the graphical interface I suppose and just leave the logger but even then I am using the OWserver from EDS which most people i suspect wouldn't want to use.
once you strip that out as well there wont be that much left. wackoold

Getting back to my hardware question though  Grin I have tried the relays out with a bulb and they work fine. BUT when the power is removed from the relay (remember they are solid state) the bulb stays on!! 

Do you think this is because they are made to switch AC whilst at the moment i am switching DC?  I can sort of see the sense in that. I assume it would drop out on the neg side of the cycle.

if this is right my cct still might work ok as i assume even the switch wires in the house thermostats are AC?

to be more clear I am disconnecting the wires from the house thermostats and using these ralays instead IYSWIM.

as you can see my electrical knowledge is poor but I learnt it all about 45yrs ago and have forgotten most of it, whistlie

thanks for help

Mike
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wyleu
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« Reply #19 on: October 20, 2010, 10:56:55 AM »

Could be a thyristor type component.

I seem to remember that they require the zero crossing to turn them off. In fact you can use a thyristor as a single component latch, which remains on until there is a break in the load circuit.

Yep, I thought I'd droned on about this before...

http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1758.msg12865.html#msg12865

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stephendv
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« Reply #20 on: October 20, 2010, 11:00:43 AM »

I have tried the relays out with a bulb and they work fine. BUT when the power is removed from the relay (remember they are solid state) the bulb stays on!! 

Do you think this is because they are made to switch AC whilst at the moment i am switching DC?  I can sort of see the sense in that. I assume it would drop out on the neg side of the cycle.


Head meet nail.  I had exactly this problem with an SSR I bought at great expense from farnell.  Think Wyleu has it, it needs the zero crossing to switch off.  Worked perfectly on AC.
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Alan
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« Reply #21 on: October 20, 2010, 11:11:36 AM »

Radio spares list 716 types of solid state relay.
41 are for D.C. switching.

On a room thermostat what are you switching that is D.C. ?

Regards

Alan
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mpooley
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« Reply #22 on: October 20, 2010, 12:20:36 PM »

Radio spares list 716 types of solid state relay.
41 are for D.C. switching.

On a room thermostat what are you switching that is D.C. ?

Regards

Alan

Alan I did say I wasn't sure but I'd assumed the normal thermostats are switching AC ?  I certainly hope so  banghead

I will have to test it.

Mike

mike
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Baz
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« Reply #23 on: October 20, 2010, 01:27:53 PM »

I think a lot of thermostat circuits use 24v AC and the battery thermostat/timers (or is it thermostat\timers) use tiny reed realys.
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wookey
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« Reply #24 on: October 20, 2010, 11:26:49 PM »

All thermostats I've come across switch mains, but there may be DC ones.
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Wookey
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« Reply #25 on: October 27, 2010, 01:24:45 AM »

Just thought I'd let you all know that my system has been running now for a few days and seems to be working fine.

Thanks to all  Wink

Mike
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mpooley
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« Reply #26 on: November 24, 2010, 01:37:57 PM »

I have Finally got round to taking snaps of my program working, showing the main page first where i set up the CH Programme and view the current tempertures around the house and secondly one of the graphs produced that shows the flow and return temperatures and when I am turning the boiler on or off.
I am fine tuning this at the moment and this graph is really usefull.


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