Experiment #9 (update)

[DaOld Man]

Ok, this is a post in preparation for my current project. It will be a while before I post that project, but I thought I would knock this out first, then reference this thread later.
My next project will have a rotating monitor, so I thought I would try a different approach to turn off the monitor while it is rotating.
I used a relay to do that in my last project, but I wanted to try something different this time.
So i am playing around with a SSR (solid state relay).
I am using the Sharp S108T01 available from Digikey.
Data Sheet

it has 4 leads, two for AC (less than 8 amps), and two for a 5 volt DC signal. (You MUST include a resistor in line with the 5 VDC. I used a 1000 ohm and it seems to work good, but for final product I will use a 600 ohm.)
I ordered two of these.
The first one I soldered two wires for the 5VDC pins and a lamp cord on the two AC pins.
Here is a pic.


This seemed to work great in my first tests, but after reading up on the datasheet, they recommend you use a snubber across the AC pins. So I made a snubber for the second one, and thats the one Im using now.
The datasheet calls for a .022 UF in series with a 47 ohm resistor. The closest I had was a .047 UF in my junk box so I used that. The capacitor needs to be rated for high voltage. I used one rated for 100 volts, but it probably needs to be higher than the AC voltage you are using. But I thought I would give it a try, since thats all I had laying around.
So far it seems to be working OK.

Next i made a trip to Lowes and picked up a Switched Plug, a metal "handy box" and a duplex cover:


The switched plug is a duplex device that has one outlet, one switch, and a small indicating light.
The switch controls the power to the outlet. I am using this switch for a bypass, just in case the SSR fails.
This device has a jumper between two black screws:


I removed this jumper and installed another one between one of the black screws and the bronze screw:


Why do this? Well, the indicator light on the front of the switch is connected to the neutral and the bronze screw, so with the metal factory jumper in, the light stays on even when the switch is off. I didnt like this, since I wanted to have a true indicator of power on to the outlet. Moving the jumper around like I did accomplishes this.

Next I wired the other SSR, and my snubber into the device: (Excuse blurred pic).


Last picture is kinda busy, but I tried to cover the resistor with heat shrink, then I insulated the back of the device with electrical tape (rated at 600 Volts).

I then attached the cord and ran it and the wires for the 5VDC through a romex connector in the handy box.
I then installed the device in the box, and put on the duplex cover.


I have more pictures if anyone is interested.

Here it is being tested with a "wall wart" plugged in.


I am currently testing it with a house fan plugged in. It has been running for an hour with no problems. 5 volt DC power supply on, fan is on, 5 volt power supply off, fan is off.
Flip switch on, fan is on, regardless of 5 volts.

Here is a pretty rough but quick drawing I made. I forgot to put in the snubber on this drawing, but it's just a capacitor and a resistor, wired in series and across the AC pins on the SSR. (I can post a better drawing if needed.)
Im debating as to whether or not this is really needed.


This little device could have several uses in our hobby. Add a 600 ohm resistor to one of the 5VDC pins on the SSR and it could be controlled by a USB port. (control everything else when PC turns on or off.)
Im going to use this setup to turn off the monitor while it is rotating, so thats why Im locating the said resistor out of the box. I will get into this when I post on my rotating project.
You could also use a regular duplex outlet, one of the outlets could be on all the time (plug PC in), and the other switched by the SSR.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Similar to this little device:
http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKPS01&Show=ExtInfo

It's just missing the nice override switch.

[DaOld Man]

And that one's not "build your own". 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Indeed it is not.

[DaOld Man]

But it is a very good alternative for those of us who may not be comfortable building something like this. Thanks for posting the link.

[Johnathon1978]

Indeed cool, either of these would work great in my driving cab for a vibration motor.... very cool..

[DaOld Man]

Just a little update.

With the input (5vdc) turned off:
Seems like with no load on the outlet the voltage on the outlet is 120 VAC.
With the fan plugged in, voltage drops to 0.6 VAC.
With my intended LCD monitor plugged in, the voltage is 10-11 VAC.
I dont think the 10-11 VAC will hurt the LCD monitor, but maybe some of you monitor gurus can tell me for sure. The power light on the monitor goes completely off.

With nothing plugged into the outlet, the indicator light on the outlet glows. (With the 5vdc control off)
This is a neon light and it takes nearly no current at all to turn it on, but as soon as I plug anything into the outlet, the light goes off.

[RoyalScam]

OK, it's 11:30 pm here, and I just saw this, so if I get something wrong it's probably because I'm looking at it with tired eyes.  From the schematic you've posted (sorry it's a little convoluted) it seems you don't have a connection to neutral for your SSR.  That is you only have a neutral when something is plugged into the outlet.  It seems to me you've inadvertently wired the outlet in series with the SSR when it really needs to be in parallel.
Someone with fresh eyes look this over and see if that's so. Best of luck with your experiment!
Regards,
Scam

::edit:: forget the series/ parallel crap above.  Wire the SSR pin one to neutral of AC line(white wire from the plug). Wire pin 2 of SSR to neutral side of outlet.  Wire hot side of outlet to the pole (in on your diagram) of a spst switch. Wire throw (out on your diagram) of switch to HOT of ac line(black wire from plug). Sketch this on some paper, but I'm pretty sure I've got it right.

[DaOld Man]

Thanks for your input, but wiring the SSR in series with the neutral would basically take the switch (my override function) completely out of the picture.
The SSR is wired in parallel with the switch, not the outlet.
Here is a hopefully less convoluted diagram:

[drventure]

Nice. SSR's are really handy, and generally speaking, they're faster enough to be driven by the PCM from an ledwiz.

That means that, say you want to light some ELWire that uses AC voltage, you can connect the SSR to your LEDWIZ as just another LED, and connect the ELWIRE transformer through the SSR to your elwire segments, and presto, you have elwire that can blink, pulse, ramp up, ramp down, etc just like a regular old LED.

Just curious, is the reason you're turning off the monitor while it rotates because of magnetization issues (having to degauss more often) or something else?

[RoyalScam]

Like I said, tired eyes. I had thought the switch was meant to turn off power to the outlet in case of fault, not to apply power to the outlet in a fault condition. I got it backwards.

Regards,
Scam

[DaOld Man]

....
Just curious, is the reason you're turning off the monitor while it rotates because of magnetization issues (having to degauss more often) or something else?

No, Im using an LCD monitor, so degaussing is not necessary. On my last project I turned off the monitor while rotating (it was a CRT), and it's kinda neat to have Mala in the correct orientation when the monitor comes back on.
But the software Im writing (MRotateS, for the stepper motor), will have the option to leave the monitor on, and with the SSR setup shown in this post, I can simply flip the override switch on, to leave monitor on during rotation.
I like to leave my options open.

[DaOld Man]

Like I said, tired eyes. I had thought the switch was meant to turn off power to the outlet in case of fault, not to apply power to the outlet in a fault condition. I got it backwards.

Regards,
Scam

Been there several times