I have a device which is used to power two motors and I'm curious to how it works. It uses two 555 timers that run the motors for a specific amount of time, has a very small transformer, two triacs, and some opto couplers.
It seems to me that the transformer(well, the power supply part, which consists of the standard stuff) is used to run the timers and LEDS and the optocouplers are used to run the triacs which interface with the motors which are controlled by the timers. Is this a common way to run motors? i.e., by running the motors by triacs off the mains that are optoisolated and then using a very small transformer to run some ic's to control the triacs?
i.e, if I had to run the motors I couldn't run them through the transformers cause it would require a very large transformer but if I used an optoisolator then I can the same isolation but can use a much smaller transformer for the control part(which consists of timers in this case)... or is there something else thats probably happening that I'm not aware of(I know its difficult to know exactly without the circuit but I've pretty much summed up what it looks like at a glance and its just a simple timer control circuit for some large motors).
Thanks, Jon