Questions regarding Arduino Uno and Powerswitch tail 2

Other Hardware Motors, Mechanics, Power and CNC
1

Hello, I am new to the Arduino forums, so please excuse me if I am posting this in the wrong area or have done something incorrectly. I am also a newbie at Arduino, so sorry if these questions seem obvious or dumb. I am interested in controlling a standard strand of christmas lights (or any small electronic that uses an ac outlet ) with a powerswitch tail 2 Information.com People Search | Free People Finder & White Pages - Locate Anyone (or whatever is better than that if anything), but before I invest my money into anything I wanted to get some opinions of more advanced users. Would have emailed the PowerSwitch people but didn't want to take the chance of being persuaded to purchase something so they can suck the most money out of me. My questions are as follow:

  1. Is the PST 2 the best choice for a newbie? From my research that's what it seems like.
  2. What is the difference between the other products they have listed like the PowerSSR Tail?
  3. Are the Arduino Uno and powerswitch capable of toggling a device at a fast pace? (multiple times per second)
  4. Does the powerswitch make any kind of noises when being toggled? I would have it in an area that would easily be heard by people if it did make any loud sound. (watched some videos on youtube and could hear a clicking sound but wasn't clear if it was the powerswitch).
    Thanks and sorry if I did anything wrong. :slight_smile:
2

The PowerSwitchTail2 uses a relay for switching and so it will make a click when turned ON or OFF.

The PowerSwitchSSR is intended for dimming applications but needs both the ZeroCrossingTail thing and Arduino software to do that.

The PowerSwitchTail manual says:

Life expectancy: 100,000 operations @ 15amps, 125vac, resistive
Operate times: 15 ms max actuate, 10 ms max release.

So, it's fast enough for multiple times per second. Up to 100,000 total times...

3

terryking228:
The PowerSwitchTail2 uses a relay for switching and so it will make a click when turned ON or OFF.

The PowerSwitchSSR is intended for dimming applications but needs both the ZeroCrossingTail thing and Arduino software to do that.

The PowerSwitchTail manual says:

Life expectancy: 100,000 operations @ 15amps, 125vac, resistive
Operate times: 15 ms max actuate, 10 ms max release.

So, it's fast enough for multiple times per second. Up to 100,000 total times...

Thank you very much! Just what I needed :slight_smile: