8 Channel I/O (8 Relay Version)

Hi Brian,

Your addition of the 8 channel relay open so many possibilities for home automation or links into other projects based around external conditions, on my wish list would be:

Rain detected/Rain stopped
Day/Night -
Lightning detected - maybe linked to Thunderstorm limit with so many strikes per second as recorded on WD, so relay operates irrespective of type of system used to detect the lightning,

A future enhancement could be adding AND - OR to the triggers/relays, so for example if rain was detected and lightning detected a relay would trigger giving a sort of confirmed result.

The use of a remote means of operating a relay would add a great deal of value to me.

As an aside - do the inputs on the 8 channel relay board do anything?

Thanks for all your hard work on this.

Ian

my understanding is that you have 8 inputs and 8 outputs
I am opening the outputs (LED light glows)
and I would presume then that then closes the circuit (from the input)

Ah OK, when I had a play with the board nothing much happened so I assumed it needed to have some level of processing via a working connection to a PC.

i might be mistaken
http://www.hobby-boards.com/download/manuals/8%20Channel%20I-O.pdf

trying to work it out…maybe Niko can help

The saying always read the manual is so true here!!.

Its all in there :slight_smile:

As I read it, if you leave the the “Relay Control” switch for a channel “on”, and you apply an appropriate voltage (or link to the +5) on the corresponding input, then the relay for that channel will switch. But the manual isn’t very clear, and I’ve no idea how the software knows if a channel is being used for an input or an output :dontknow:

[quote]The 8-Channel I/O supports eight channels of input or output. By default all eight output relays are enabled. If a channel is used for input the output relay can be disabled by sliding the appropriately numbered relay control DIP switch (marked

I can get the relay LED to light up and you can hear a click
so the relay (output) is being energised
but using my Digital voltmeter and set to make a sound when there is a circuit, I can not find any circuit! (tried all pin combinations)

That’s odd, have you tried putting a piece of wire in the relay terminals and tightening them down, and then trying the meter on continuity, maybe their is a coating on the pcb stopping a good connection.

I am touching on the top of the screw
but I will try in the actual terminal where you put the wire

thats works
whew
for C to NO (common to normally open on the output relay)

Great, I’ve been caught out with touching the screw and no connection before.

I guess the screw must have been so far wound out it was not making contact

You can set up to use an input trigger , lets say you have a RG-11 Rain sensor
You can have the output , open or closed

So we want the RG- 11 output to go high when rain its the sensor and low know rain

This feeds the input on the relay board by using the 5v setup on the relay board

to make a hi or low input trigger ,which will make the relay output switch on or off

This setup is a stand alone ,not connected to the pc

Using with wd setings will triggered the output relay ,
Use as a switch relay on or off .so if wd is set to trigger the I/o board when it rains
The output relay should switch on or off or maybe set a timer in wd for the relay to stay on
for a time limit
Will setup some info on my website with images showing different setups

latest .zip update has now rain and lightning thresholds to open a switch

Hi Brian,

This is really looing good, the temperature has a defined on/off, how does the wind, rain and lightning relay know when to turn off after the parameter has been met or exceeded or is it as simple that when the wind or lightning fall below threshold the relay changes state, and with the rain relay, this resets at midnight?

Couple of yet further suggestions, could the relay indicators be numbered 1 - 8 and the wind have an 5 minute average check box for wind exceeded, just to remove gusts from tripping the relay in and out.

will need to probably have it a user selectable or similar how the rain and strikes and wind thresholds are reset?
eg wind below a certain speed it turns off
and when rain resets to 0 (midnight) or no rain for a period of time etc

I have come up with a way to control the 8 channel relay from a mobile device over the internet…
(i.e to turn/off channels…override)
using Dropbox data store (which is a free to use web service API)
(uses your dropbox account (free to setup))
(i.e utilises a simple database)
I have a test app working…just a demo of changing data in a simple database…which will be used to send what replays to open/close
do you have an android phone?

Yes, I can do just about anything on it but make a call :slight_smile:

This would be a good time for me to test the lightning relay (see Pic).


Hi Brian,

I received the new Hobby Boards 8 pt relay board today. I have had a HB lightning detector running for several year usung the Dallas 1-wire reader wiith WD.

I went to the FAQ and found the 1-wire setup instructions and kind of remembered what I did to get the lightning detector to work. Stopped WD.

Downloaded and installed the new zip version bld 293. I downloaded the drivers ( 64-bit for W7&8 ) and installed since the drivers I had were several years old. Was v403, now v404…

Ran the new version HB1 program. Pressed the search button and found the lightning detector. Copied and pasted the address and pressed save.
Went to the 8pt relay page and it the search, copy, paste and save. Did the test relays and all looked good. The closed the HB1 program.

Restarted the new version WD. The 1-wire program started as normal, along with webcam capture, croncloud, and realtime clientraw FTP.

No HB1 startup.

Tried restarting the computer, with the same results

Manually starteded HB1 program with 1-wire reader still running. 8pt relay does test switch but no automatic operation.
No errors found in the error log.

Questions.
0. What did I miss?

  1. Should HB1 start automatically
  2. Should the 1-wire reader and HB1 both be running
  3. HB1 has no USB/Serial setup - does it get info from the 1-wire setup?

This looks like this board has a lot of possibilities.
Thanks,
Gus


re the start when WD starts
make sure to tick to use the new HB 1 wire reader
in the com port setup in WD (1 wire section)

yes, it gets the serial or usb info from the normal dallas1wirereader.exe
and yes you can run them at the same time

did you click on find sensors again first tab?..so that then it should say allocated the rom to the lightning detector switch found

re the 8 relay…you can tick one or more of the 8 tick buttons and then click on test…to that relay on (1 to 8)
but the board does need power to the round jack (6 to 12 volts or so) for the relays to work