Hello! Looking for some advice on my project. Thank you for your time in advance.
I am looking to control a 20V power source with a Triac Nanoshield. From my research, the product seems to work great with projects where you are trying to control/dim high voltage appliances with an Arduino Uno or Mega.
I am currently using an Uno. The schematic below shows the 5 volt source of the Uno going directly into the Triac.
Question: Is it possible to power more than one Triac with a singular Arduino Uno to control multiple appliances? My approach would be to attach the 5V pin to a breadboard rail to power, at most, 5 triacs (Possibly ambitious?).
Here is the product information and sample diagram from the site, if anyone has used this before.
This triac module just turns on or off the power to a device, which in your case is the 20V power supply.
But if your source is a switching type, you will probably have problems using this triac module.
There is a schematic under downloads on the product page. The input from the UNO is used to drive a transistor (though a 4.7K resistor) that drives an LED (with 2.2K resistor) and the input of an opto-coupler (another LED, with a 680 ohm resistor), so the load is minimal.
If we are talking about the same thing, that is the image I have attached to my initial post. I understand that connection is to the LED and opto-couple of the Triac. This is good to hear. My concern would be that having more than one triac would be too much for the arduino to handle.
Is that really 20V and AC or DC?Or 120VAC?TRIACS normally only work with AC because once triggered-on they latch-on until current falls to zero (i.e. on the next AC zero crossing). With DC they latch on "permanently" until power is removed. (1).
AC dimming works by triggering the TRIAC with a short pulse sometime after the zero crossing. Then it turns-off automatically at the next zero-crossing, and the cycle repeats.
If you are using an Arduino (or similar) with power-line voltages the zero-crossing detector also has to be electrically-isolated from the lethal voltages.
(1) AC solid state relays are usually made with TRIACs and for that reason you can't use AC solid state relays in DC circuits.
