AC Toggle

Naphtali Moore

So.... Im using the EFX controler to turn ac lights on and off.... in only controls 4 light. I want to use it for a Christmas display to sync 4 bells made of rope lights to music. Now I had the idea of using two light ropes for each bell to make turning one on and then the other so that each bell looks like its swinging. The easiest way is to use 2 channels for each bell. But they I can only have 2 bells. Soooooo what I want to create is a simple AC curcuit that would have 2 ac outlets and 1 plug. The curcuit would toggle the power back and forth between the two out lets. It would be great to have a dial to adjust the timing. Help me with this I have never worked with AC power. Is there something like this aready on the market?·Lots of thanks! [noparse]:)[/noparse]


··························^ variable timing dial
·---AC IN ---[noparse][[/noparse] project box]---- light rope 1
························· |_________ light rope 2

JonnyMac

The RC-4, also made by EFX-TEK (formerly Parallax EFX) and available via Parallax, is a good way to safely switch AC circuits. And it can be daisy-chained so that you can control up to 16 channels from a single controller I/O pin.

www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=31204

If you want to control the outputs directly, an easy way to create a program that can sync with music is by using Vixen and the Prop-2 program generator. There's information about that process here:

www.efx-tek.com/php/smf/index.php?topic=140.0

Spork Frog

JohnnyMac, I think he is using the RC-4. (Clarify?)

Who said you couldn't connect both strings to one channel? Or just use a hardware store outlet splitter? Just make sure the amperage doesn't overload the board.

JonnyMac

Spohrk Frohg,

You're probably right -- I interpreted "EFX Controller" as Prop-2, which is what Parallax calls it. The SSRs provided with that board can handle more than 300 watts, and I'm betting the light strings don't use that much energy.


Naphtali,

You can add a second RC-4 if you like, that will give you eight channels to create your swinging effect. What are you using to drive the RC-4(s)? If a BASIC Stamp, then you can use either the POT (BS1) or RCTIME (BS2) commands to read a potentiometer and set the speed.