Approved 240V Arduino Interface?

Thinking about doing a shake-up of the wiring of at least part of my house and was wondering if anyone could provide any pointers to a standards-approved/certified interface to allow an Arduino to control 240V house lighting.

There are of course a cornucopia (and a half) of solutions available, ranging from electromagnetic relays to solid state relays to discrete triac controllers - but being that it's going to become permanent mains wiring, I'd prefer to have something which is properly approved (lest my insurance company decide I'm not covered in the event of misfortune).

Oh, and as I'm a stingy bastard, something as cheap as possible ;-)

--
Bob Milutinovic 
Cognicom
Reply to
Bob Milutinovic
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Not sure if its a useful reply.....

Is there something like an X10 or similar interface already existing that you could I/F to the arduino?

Reply to
McAvity

cheap =/= certification. cheap, try Silicon Chip projects and make sure you get the fix.

Reply to
news13

What's wrong with remote controlled powerpoints like those Tevion ones you mentioned some time back?

Those are not very expensive and RF modules to talk to them are dirt cheap (I paid $1.38 for transmitter/receiver pairs about a year ago).

Reply to
Andy Wood

** Aside from regulatory issues - are they ANY remote control devices suitable for use with regular CFL and LED lamps?

Because of the internal SMPS, the vast majority of CFLs and LED lamps are "non-dimmable" and probably the only 100% guaranteed way to even turn them on and off is with a relay.

The basic( non PFC) kinds of SMPS employed draw current only at the peak voltage points in each half cycle, this does not suit triacs one bit.

I can think of ways to make a triac switch CFLs, but it means using continuous high frequency pulses or even DC drive to the gate.

.... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Just a thought - my old man has just had a bore installed. It has a box on the wall that turns the single phase pump on/off via some low voltage wiring that runs to the retic controller.

This may do the job. It should be certified and given that there will be thousands of them out there they should be cheapish.

Reply to
McAvity

Look to mod the extra low voltage side of something off-the-shelf "Clipsal C-bus" looks like a maybe, use stock switches and mod the remote

--
umop apisdn
Reply to
Jasen Betts

If it is to become part of the building's permanent mains wiring then it would have to be installed by an electrician, as other Australians are not allowed to do this (unlike the residents of most countries).

At an electrical wholesaler you will find DIN-rail mounted relays or contactors. You may then have to show the staff where you found them and what they are called so they can look up the price, or you could order them more cheaply from element14 yourself. Some of these have all of the necessary approvals so an electrician could install them in a wall box of some sort, and some of these contactors have 24VDC coils which are separated from the contacts by reinforced insulation. If the electrician correctly segregates the coil wiring from the mains wiring, then it may be possible for the Extra-Low-Voltage coil wires to pass out of the electrician's box into an area where you are permitted to work on it without an electrician's licence. It would be worth reading AS3000 to check if they explicitly mention this though probably it will say something vague and open to interpretation, or refer you to a more expensive standard. Just make sure your wiring does not convey any useful information or else you will need a different licence from ACMA or Austel or whatever they are called this time.

If you were in the UK then you could get some of those bathroom light switches that are operated by pulling a string, and rig up some servo motors to pull the strings. I think Australians are still allowed string, for the time being. Sadly I doubt you can find string operated switches here so they have that one covered too.

Reply to
Chris Jones

You can still get the outmoded string operated ones in Australia but they are not used as prolifically as in the countries still in the dark ages. :)

Reply to
F Murtz

Don't knock them. They have their place. I have one ceiling mounted pull-cord-switch (Clipsal) controlling the fluoros over a wide workbench where a wall-mounted switch would be difficult to reach over workpieces.

Reply to
pedro

Just having a dig at pommes.

Reply to
F Murtz

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