What do you control using relays?

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Sorry folks, took me a long time. I worked at the garden. Probably hauled about 2 yards of free mulch. Glad it wasn't that hot in late afternoon as compared earlier. Anyways, here are the pics.

I have a power adapter that is plugged into the ceiling outlet. It's output is 9v. You can see also that this device can be powered by a 9v battery. There are 2 wires(red and black) connected to the infrared light. The infrared light turns on when it senses some movement. It turns off after 5 seconds when it doesn't see anymore movement. Those 2 wires are connected to the pcb.

Do you think I can use this as a trigger? That means, if it turns on, it will be SHORT. So looks like it will be normally close. What do you think folks? If possible, how will I hook the wires to my elk m1?

I just thought just now. Looks like it won't be a good design since it really can't tell if garage door is open or close. Looks like garage door contact is what I really need.

 

[dBeau]

Garage doors are a natural for using relay outputs. One of my garage doors didnt respond well when I connected it's "doorbell opener" wires to the relay. It wanted only a short press while the elk could only make a long press (1 sec or more). So, I hacked an unused transmitter to let it's button be "pressed" by the relay. A bit of searching will show a lot of "interesting" things folks have done to their garage doors. Those posts are usually as much about relays as they are about sensors.

I use a relay output to control the flame on my propane "fireplace". The elk rules watch the temp on the nearest thermostat and turn the fire on around the same time as the heat for the zone would need to come on.

I have another set up to ring the doorbell. I dont use it for much but that's not really the point, now is it

Yet another relay output is connected to trigger the smoke detectors via an SM120x. If I ever get around to adding smoke detectors to the Elk's inputs, I'll be able to trigger the sounders on the 120v smokes using that relay.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

I got it to work. I directly connected the 2 wires to N/O and COM. I tested it with these rules

WHENEVER TIME is 12:30am
THEN TURN OUTPUT 14 to ON for 1 SEC

Now, I just need to purchase a garage door contact. Correct folks? Do you guys have any suggestion for a cheap one but reliable? I was looking for something that is lower than $10.

Update:

I restarted my ELK and when I turned it ON, the garage door opened. How do I prevent that from happening? And do you think I can use my car motion sensor with Elk?

 

[dBeau]

Now, I just need to purchase a garage door contact. Correct folks? Do you guys have any suggestion for a cheap one but reliable? I was looking for something that is lower than $10.

Check out this thread:

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12763

I restarted my ELK and when I turned it ON, the garage door opened. How do I prevent that from happening? And do you think I can use my car motion sensor with Elk?

and this one:

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12579

If you search for posts containing "garage" and "elk" you'll find a few more that might be of interest.

 

[iqvoice]

This use for the relay is in the planning stage. I have a thermostat-controlled NG heater in my garage. This is great in the winter time, but I inevitably forget to turn it off whenever I'm going to leave the garage door open for a while-- (like when I'm snow blowing or taking out the garbage...), and so the heater will just run and run and all the heat just goes out the door. I plan to route the thermostat wire through the relay and create a rule that will break the contact if the garage door is open, thus turning the heater off until the garage door closes again.

 

[Ira]

I'm in the process of setting up relays to shut off power to my water well pump if a leak is detected in the well pump house. Yes, I could also do it with an actuator valve, but that doesn't help if the leak is between the pump and the actuator valve, and it's recommended to not put any type of valve between the pump and the pressure switch (which is on the side of the pressure/storage tank to reduce contact bounce). I'm setting up a relay as a zone to notify me if my well pump "monitor" shuts off power to the pump (e.g., rapid cycling or overcurrent detected). I have relays that detect if my standby generator is running (exercising, providing power), if utility company power is present, and if power is present (from either source) in my house.

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

Woohoo, I found an extra window contact that I can use in my garage door. I've been working(fishing, improvised plate for the magnet, etc) on the garage door for almost an hour now. I'll post pics later. :lol:

 

[v1rtu0s1ty]

SUCCESS!!! :lol:

Later folks, I need to bring my son to his guitar lessons...

 

[kmitchell]

I've used relays in a number of projects including sprinkler control, zoned landscape lighting (motion=relay on), drip irrigation and ventilation control for a neighbor's greenhouse project, and simulated button presses on non-communicating devices like garage doors and a gate.

I generally use these boards: http://www.ontrak.net/adr2200.htm because they have inputs as well as relays.

In fact I had some left over from a project: http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14072 if anyone is interested in any of them.

Ken

 

[hucker]

I use relays for 3 things:

1) Garage Door
2) Fresh air exchange damper
3) Relaying information to my alarm system.

1&2 have been covered by 3 is sort of interesting in my case. I am using an automation controller that has a separate alarm system (caddx + homevision). I really wanted to use some of the inputs in the system for automation but found that the CADDX system was updating its status about once per second. I found that thiings I wanted to trigger with motion sensors (e.g. light turning on) needed to respond faster. I ended up wiring my interior motions into the homevision controller so I could have very fast logic, then I used a single relay to forward to my alarm system's single interior motion zone.

This gave me the following capabilities:

1) Fast control of lights using interior motions.
2) Ability to use logic to trigger on interior motion for the alarm (for example I might require more than one motion sensor to trigger in a given amount of time before I trigger the alarm). This can be used to reduce false alarm's particularly if you have pets.

 

[tmbrown97]

Currently I have a can in the garage with my M1XOVR and M1RB and have 12VDC and 24VAC transformers in there too...

Currently controls:
10 sprinkler zones
2 Garage doors

Planned:
* 12V piezo buzzer to warn when the "garage" timer is close to expiring so you can go in and disarm.
* 12V Outside strobe light right outside of the garage
* 24VAC Pool fill
* That leaves 1... will turn something on or hack something to lock/unlock the car, or something along those lines... who knows. Maybe hook it into the car's remote start so as I arm the alarm on a cold morning the car fires up Many possibilities exist.