Control an AC Load with a Microcontroller, Arduino or Raspberry Pi

Playing with the mains voltage can be deadly, so proper isolation techniques and safe working practices are very important. Besides emphasizing these lifesaving things, this article also explains in detail how to apply them when building an AC load controller or light dimmer with a well-designed PCB. The device itself can be connected to a microcontroller, but also to an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi board.

Controlling/Dimming the AC loads is a useful topic. At least controlling the home appliances is an interesting challenge.

This is a submission from Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH’s about their booth at this year’s PCIM trade show in Nuremberg from May 7th to 9th – located in Hall 9 at booth 521 – will focus squarely on the hot topic of electric mobility, and feature a range of exhibits from electric vehicle charging station technologies to the functional safety of battery management systems. Andreas Mangler, Head of Strategic Marketing, will also be holding a lecture on this topic at the e-Mobility Forum in Hall 6-322.

The Chinese company Seeed Studio offers a lot of interesting things for electronics enthusiasts. Along with selling products from various manufacturers, Seeed develops and produces their own products, many of which are very innovative. Seeed has also developed their own miniature soldering iron, which is now available in a European version.

Isolation is a means of preventing direct current (DC) and unwanted alternating current (AC) between two parts of a system while still enabling signal and power transfer between those two parts. Isolation is used in a wide variety of applications: to protect human operators and low-voltage circuitry from high voltages, to improve noise immunity, and to handle ground potential differences

Although the projects published in Elektor Magazine can be built and used without modifications - at least, that is what we aim for - in many cases they double as sources of inspiration. The Power Analyzer we present here is such a project. Inspired by the AC/DC Power Meter published in Elektor September 2015 it evolved into a 3-channel high-performance, high-precision instrument with a graphical user interface. The software was written in mikroBasic.

You can make a smart power bar (also called ‘block’; ‘strip’) with one single semiconductor component: a triac!

LEM has introduced a new series of small integrated-circuit transducers for AC and DC isolated current measurement up to 100 kHz. These new parts offer complete isolation despite their tiny dimensions. They have an integrated primary conductor for nominal current measurements up to 20 A and with a measuring range of 2.5 times the nominal current. In addition they can handle large current surges up to 200 A for a short time (1 ms).

1, 2 or 3 channel power analyzer, giving number or graphic display (scope picture or FFT) on a 128 x 64 LCD

With this little tool, id like to make a simple, but efficient monitor to see if all wiring in a power socket is connected right. In general, a single phase power socket and be wired in 2 ways:1. PHASE/PHASE/EARTH: we get 2 phases; 230V between them. If the earth is connected right, we measure 115V between both phases and earth.