Elk M1G Performance Questions

[wuench]

Hey Pete,

I didn't realize you were doing outdoor lighting with this. Is your outdoor lighting low-voltage? Could you describe exactly how you have this hooked up to the M1?

I am looking into migrating my outdoor lighting to the ELK, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to do it directly. It seems the elk outputs aren't rated for the DC load if they sit between the transformers and lights. I have drawn up a plan to with two layers of relays, but I would like to find a simpler solution if possible.

 

[sandman]

Hey Pete,

I didn't realize you were doing outdoor lighting with this. Is your outdoor lighting low-voltage? Could you describe exactly how you have this hooked up to the M1?

I am looking into migrating my outdoor lighting to the ELK, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to do it directly. It seems the elk outputs aren't rated for the DC load if they sit between the transformers and lights. I have drawn up a plan to with two layers of relays, but I would like to find a simpler solution if possible.

Wuench

OK, this is the way I did it with one set of relays. The output of the ELK is about 50ma and the relays I use need about 80ma to kick in and then about 40ma to maintain closure...these at 10A 240V contactors that sit on DIN rails.

To drive them, I use the darlington driver chip, input directly to the ELK output (goes high) and the output is inverted and provides ground to the relay. The beauty is, if its lighting control only, you dont wanna drag the current from the ELK RS485 bus so in this case, connect the +12V to an external PSU and the ground will come from Darlington driver.

Here is the datasheet:

http://www.jaycar.com.au/products_uploaded/ZK8855.pdf

I simply used a bit of veroboard with tag strips down either side... one side gets wired directly to the output of the expander and the other side (output) goes to ground on the relay.

The relays I use are:
http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?I...eMax=&SUBCATID=


Hope that helps..Pete