SparkFun Forums

[dequo]

simple, a 5v signal wire that can control a power socket that goes in between the wall socket and the appliance, no messing around with relays. if this is already out there please link me

[Valen]

simple, a 5v signal wire that can control a power socket that goes in between the wall socket and the appliance, no messing around with relays. if this is already out there please link me

There won't be any way withouth some form of relay. You should use one in one way or another: opto-, magneto-mechanical, or solidstate. Trying to conduct mains through a transistor or MOSFET connected to the 5 volt circuit is asking for trouble.

[n1ist]

Look at the power switch tail. It does use a relay internally, but you don't need to mess with the high-voltage side yourself.
/mike

[dequo]

valen i just meant to messing with relays yourself, a unit ready to go like n1ist posted. now we just need that in 240V...

[UNTEngineer]

It has to be either a solid state MOSFET relay or a mechanical relay. I'm already working on various designs to incorporate both types of relays for use with the Arduino UNO, the Teensy and for standalone use.

[erc]

you wouldnt use a mosfet for switching line voltage AC power. You would use a thyristor based solid state relay. If turning things on and off you would use the zero crossing variety. If you are using it to dim an incandescent lamp or vary the output of a heater you would use the non-zero crossing variety. Alternately you can use the proper optocoupler (such as MOC30XX series) and a back to back pair of SCRs or a Triac. In either case make sure the required heat dissipation is considered as well as the requisite safety practices involved when working with line voltage AC power.

[phil]

There probably are many items out there which will work, but I recently bought
one of these (in Australia) which I think pretty neat since they're opto-isolated (and cheap).
Not so cheap however are other parts like an enclosure and cable glands etc.

http://secure.oatleyelectronics.com//p ... 069f3c1ff