Stand Alone SSRs

jem5136

jem5136

New member
My manager at work has found out about my light display, and he is excited about it. He wants me to design and create a sign to put in the window of your logo and of an acronym we have. He wants them to be controlled with lights and be almost like a neon sign. I have the design of the signs and everything, but I don't know what to do about the controller. I only need 4 channels for each sign, and they need to be ran from an SSR, but it cannot be connected to a computer, any ideas?

Is there a way that I can program the Pic to run a 10 second sequence and loop itself over and over while it is plugged in? I can't have a computer sitting there running the signs.

Any ideas or suggestions would be great!

Thanks guys and gals!

Jesse
 
Check out the 675 controller on Dirk's store here:

http://diychristmas.org/store/product.php?id_product=79

It's a 4 channel stand-alone controller that runs through a programmed sequence when given 5v power. I was looking at the code for it today and it seems like it would be easy to do a series of short standalone sequence using one of these and a dirkscheapSSR.
 
Jesse, If you are looking for a low cost, quick, and easy solution then I agree with amps. The 675 and some Dirk cheap SSRs would be a great choice. If you are looking for a project to learn how this stuff works then I suggest you take a look into PICaxe micro-controllers. My son and I recently built a stoplight it was only 3 channels but there is an extra output pin so 4 channels is certainly possible. here is a link with a few details about the project http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?21297-A-PICaxe-project-for-my-son-and-I
 
This is exactly what the 675 controller was designed to do. Match it up with a DirkCheapSSR and you're in business. Power the 675 with a 5v wall wart and you're done.
 
dirknerkle said:
This is exactly what the 675 controller was designed to do. Match it up with a DirkCheapSSR and you're in business. Power the 675 with a 5v wall wart and you're done.
Click to expand...

Ok, so I am thinking that this may be the simplest way to do this, but I need to clear some thing up first. Does the 675 controller send out data for 4 channels when it receives power? And the pattern that it sends out, and it be changed?

Secondly, is the DirkCheapSSR dimable or just an on/off controller? I am really thinking about these controllers and I think they would be the best for what I need.
 
jem5136 said:
Ok, so I am thinking that this may be the simplest way to do this, but I need to clear some thing up first. Does the 675 controller send out data for 4 channels when it receives power? And the pattern that it sends out, and it be changed?
Click to expand...

Yes, the 675 can control 4 external channels as in sending the control signal to turn something on or off. The ASM firmware is available and yes, it can easily be changed. Several timing options are included in the firmware and you can create different delay times by simply calling different delay periods.

Secondly, is the DirkCheapSSR dimable or just an on/off controller? I am really thinking about these controllers and I think they would be the best for what I need.
Click to expand...

The DirkCheapSSR is indeed dimmable. However, if you want the 675 controller to perform dimming, you'll need to swap the PIC12F675 chip with a PIC12F683 which has PWM capability, and you'll have to add code for your own PWM control. The default 675 firmware does not include PWM capability. The 675 and 683 chips are directly pin-compatible.
 
I want to do something very similar. Not new to blinky, but new to programming stuff and want to learn. Any pointers? Where is ASM firmware available?
 
Zwiller said:
I want to do something very similar. Not new to blinky, but new to programming stuff and want to learn. Any pointers? Where is ASM firmware available?
Click to expand...

Like you, I'm not new to blinky flashy, but I don't know much about programming. But I would like to have the sign to be able to dim, so any tips on how to do that would be awesome. I can switch the pics out, that's not a problem, its just the programming that I have no clue about.
 
What type of lights are you planing to use? Swapping the PIC will allow you to dim DC LEDs but AFAK there is no ZC signal input to the 675 controller. Without a ZC dimming of AC lights will be poor at best.

Tyler
 
The 675 controller only has a DC power supply so there is no AC available. This being a DIY site, it would be possible to add a zero-crossing opto to the DirkCheapSSR and send the Z/C pulse back on one of the unused CAT5 wires. Pin-5 on the 675 board is currently defined as ‘unused’.

This way you could have dimming capability but you would still need to write the code.
 
For me I would like to be able to do a carny style chase with with mini lights for stuff like a around a yard sign. I would use 2 channels of minis which a strung offset from one another. Simple on and off. Would be nice if I could program speed/duration. I am curious what effects can be programmed into the 675. Maybe later I will look into PWM and fades...

With the exception of dimming, I thought I could power the 675 with a 5V wall wart and feed 120V to dirkcheap SSR to power minis. Am I wrong?
 
Zwiller said:
With the exception of dimming, I thought I could power the 675 with a 5V wall wart and feed 120V to dirkcheap SSR to power minis. Am I wrong?
Click to expand...

Yes. The 675 board has a dual-row of jumpers that makes it selective to use one of the four channels a typical control cable carries, and you could simply bypass it if you wanted, putting the +5v and GND to the board directly, thus eliminating one of the RJ45 jacks, the dual row of header pins and the shunt jumper.... saving a few cents...
 
It's not hard to do software pwm for all four channels of the PIC12F629 or PIC12F675 (the '629 doesn't have an on-chip DAC and is a few pennies cheaper, otherwise they are the same). I've got code that does it, except that there is a lot of other irrelevant stuff in it. There is no need for the PIC12F683, just someone to pull a Tom Sawyer act.
 
Not to highjack this one but.... Our company's owner has several chicken coops that I think is kind of his hobby. He asked me yesterday if I could look into a simple setup (DC powered, from solar cells since that is what he has now....). He wants to be able to setup some strips that would maintain illumination at least 14 hours per day; he wants to tweak it up maybe using a PC if necessary, over the course of several weeks. Would the 675 (Renard???) and the dirkcheap SSRs do the trick for this one?
Thanks!!!!
 
DanJ said:
Not to highjack this one but.... Our company's owner has several chicken coops that I think is kind of his hobby. He asked me yesterday if I could look into a simple setup (DC powered, from solar cells since that is what he has now....). He wants to be able to setup some strips that would maintain illumination at least 14 hours per day; he wants to tweak it up maybe using a PC if necessary, over the course of several weeks. Would the 675 (Renard???) and the dirkcheap SSRs do the trick for this one?
Thanks!!!!
Click to expand...

Way OT for this post. If it were mine to build, I'd start with an Arduino and use the OpenSprinkler (Google it) firmware. No need for a computer, a Ren nor an SSR.

\dmc
 
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