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Mains electricity can KILL. Make sure you learn about safe shielding, connecting and grounding practices.
Above all, be extremely cautious!
I can't stress this enough.
EDIT: For more information: http://tubelab.com/Safety.htm
This seems like a really great use for raspberry pi. I recently finished a project involving a pi + a relay to activate a door buzzer, written in javascript. It was surprisingly simple and straightforward. Besides turning on lights, the cool thing about relays is that most things involving physical push-buttons can be taken apart and easily wired up to a relay.
What protection do you use for the Pi's GPIOs?
You can get a small remote power switch for $100 or so.
For a larger company with more signups/uploads, I'm envisioning a wall of LEDs, controlled by an Arduino board.
http://www.screenmediadaily.com/technology-movable-type-new-...
Working with mains power is stupid. Don't do it if you can avoid it, especially if you don't know what you are doing. You can get a small remote power switch for $100 or so.
Edit: $45 on Amazon at present.
BIG FAT WARNING: If you're going to relay your Raspberry Pi / Arduino to mains electricity, be very, very careful! Mains electricity can KILL. Make sure you learn about safe shielding, connecting and grounding practices. Above all, be extremely cautious! I can't stress this enough. EDIT: For more information: http://tubelab.com/Safety.htm
The usb relay is NOT designed for this! See the picture: http://www.circuitgizmos.com/products/cgu451/cgu451.shtml
In a device intended for hybrid hi/low voltage there is a clear gap between the high and low voltage components, and an isolation transformer or opto-isolator between them.
For a larger company with more signups/uploads, I'm envisioning a wall of LEDs, controlled by an Arduino board.
Or better yet, make it interactive with something like this: http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/majors/150-pan... Peggy's could be fun too: http://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/tinykitlist/75...
BIG FAT WARNING: If you're going to relay your Raspberry Pi / Arduino to mains electricity, be very, very careful! Mains electricity can KILL. Make sure you learn about safe shielding, connecting and grounding practices. Above all, be extremely cautious! I can't stress this enough. EDIT: For more information: http://tubelab.com/Safety.htm
Better yet: Don't connect your Raspberry Pi / Arduino at all to mains electricity unless you use an opto-isolator, or you have training in designing such circuits. The usb relay is NOT designed for this! See the picture: http://www.circuitgizmos.com/products/cgu451/cgu451.shtml In a device intended for hybrid hi/low voltage there is a clear gap between the high and low voltage components, and an isolation transformer…
This is not manufacturing. It's a one-off project. It's not a highly refined design. You don't have to worry about finessing a marginally lower build cost because of what it will mean in 10k unit quantities. Just use the opto-isolator.
This seems like a really great use for raspberry pi. I recently finished a project involving a pi + a relay to activate a door buzzer, written in javascript. It was surprisingly simple and straightforward. Besides turning on lights, the cool thing about relays is that most things involving physical push-buttons can be taken apart and easily wired up to a relay.
Arduinos can (supposedly) host webpages, and pins can be powered or depowered by (properly parsed) HTML POST commands. Combining this with a relay means we can create WIFI website interfaces for anything that uses electricity. The opportunities to improve current products are so endless that I become overwhelmed whenever I think about this. We all have the parts to do this today, but so few are assembling them. --- W…
http://www.thesinglestep.org/thoughts/qrcontrol/
The video halfway down shows it in action.