So far I'm looking to see if arduino is the way to go for my situation.
what I'm looking to do is to use an arduino to accept the input from a momentary push button and use that input to trigger a low voltage relay (on/off with each push of the button) and then use that relay to trigger a 40 amp automotive relay to turn on lights on my truck.
it looks like it can be done because there is a tutorial for having the arduino accept push button inputs. and also a tut for triggering a relay.
all I should in theory have to do is to combined these 2 tutorials and that would do what I'm looking for correct?
I should have to follow the input with the debounce tutorial http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Debounce
and then instead of an led i would use that to trigger a relay like in this instructable here http://www.instructables.com/id/Connecting_a_12V_Relay_to_Arduino/
I would be able to this with a few buttons and relays just using other input/outputs on the arduino right?
the push buttons that I have also include a led in the button which i could either trigger when the arduino triggers the relay or i could just get the trigger for it when the relay switches over.
so as long as my assumptions are correct so far and I can use this for my purpose I have a few questions.
is using an arduino for this purpose way overkill? if so do you have suggestions for something simpler?
what would be the best board to go with (ie: cheapest that I can get away with. I would like a few in/outputs thought around 10 give or take a couple. once I get into this I may realize that I can use it for a lot more things.)
can you change the output and input type needed from the arduino like either a ground or + voltage trigger?
assuming I can figure out how to power the arduino off of a 12 volt source does anyone else see a problem with running a board inside a vehicle? i will probably put it in a project box for protection.
sorry for all the noob questions.
and thank you if you can provide me with any info,
Jonathan
awesome so it looks as though the Arduino Duemilanove would be a good board to start with. I should be able to run a fused 12 volt wire to power the board itself. now with the fluctuations in voltage that are present in a automobile will this have any negative affects on the board? (EDIT: this should not matter because I would probably use a negative output signal off the board to trigger the coil of the relay and use another 12 volt line to power the positive side of the relay coil. END EDIT)
also because this board uses 12 volts to power it will it be able to output 12 volts? it looks like in the description that this is not the case.
by looking at the picture of the board it looks like I would be able to use the 6 analog in pins to sense the push of my buttons which would be a negative trigger. then the programming would determine what pins it would output to although I'm not sure if the tx, rx pins and the PWM pins can be used as outputs like I need them to be so it looks as though I would be able to use at least 6 of the digital pins to control relays.
I see that the best price with a quick google search is about 30 bucks at http://www.liquidware.com/shop/show/ARD/Arduino+Duemilanove
as for using the switch, well that would be too simple
I already have a few nice buttons that I would like to use and that is the reason I'm looking to do it this way. I have tried to find simple latching ratcheting relays but they are pretty expensive and the other ways I have found to do them would end up taking up a lot of space. so I figured this would be a relatively inexpensive, compact and fun solution to my situation.
EDIT2: would it be a programming thing to make sure that when the power to the board it shut off that it would turn off all the outputs? so that in this case when I turn off my truck all the lights will go out with it? or will it keep its memory of what inputs were triggered when the power was shut off? END EDIT2
Thanks for your help and if anyone has other suggestions or comments feel free.
