sbj_ee
Electrical
- Sep 25, 2018
- 3
I needed to use some relays for switching 24VAC or 120VAC and thought that I'd share some information for anybody else looking to implement something similar.
Initially, I used a mechanical relay which was OK. I didn't like the mechanical aspect of this, but the price was right. It was sufficient for my initial proof of concept.
I'm improving my design now, so I looked at some solid state relays. The two that I honed in on were the IXYS CPC1965G and the Vishay VOR2142A8.
I thought the VOR2142A8 looked like the best option because it was two relays in a single package. I ruled it out after getting one and finding that it was always ON and no matter what I did it was always ON. Seriously... I disconnected the circuit to the LED and it was still ON. I actually have a video of it which I shared with Vishay support.
The IXYS CPC1965G worked perfectly. It even had an additional benefit of zero-cross switching. If you haven't dealt with this, it is simply the relay does not switch until the AC waveform is near zero. So you do not have a switch occur at peak voltage inducing all that noise. A nice feature if you're doing simple switching and do not need to load phase to be tied to your control signal.
There were some others that looked appealing from Crydom, but they were much more expensive.
If you're looking for a SSR to switch AC, then the IXYS 1965G gets my recommendation. Keep in mind that it only switches AC.
If anybody has good or bad experiences with other SSRs, feel free to share your findings.
Initially, I used a mechanical relay which was OK. I didn't like the mechanical aspect of this, but the price was right. It was sufficient for my initial proof of concept.
I'm improving my design now, so I looked at some solid state relays. The two that I honed in on were the IXYS CPC1965G and the Vishay VOR2142A8.
I thought the VOR2142A8 looked like the best option because it was two relays in a single package. I ruled it out after getting one and finding that it was always ON and no matter what I did it was always ON. Seriously... I disconnected the circuit to the LED and it was still ON. I actually have a video of it which I shared with Vishay support.
The IXYS CPC1965G worked perfectly. It even had an additional benefit of zero-cross switching. If you haven't dealt with this, it is simply the relay does not switch until the AC waveform is near zero. So you do not have a switch occur at peak voltage inducing all that noise. A nice feature if you're doing simple switching and do not need to load phase to be tied to your control signal.
There were some others that looked appealing from Crydom, but they were much more expensive.
If you're looking for a SSR to switch AC, then the IXYS 1965G gets my recommendation. Keep in mind that it only switches AC.
If anybody has good or bad experiences with other SSRs, feel free to share your findings.
