Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Interface the devices to the
Raspberry Pi
It is important to exercise cauion while connecing electrical appliances
to the Raspberry Pi. If you don't know what you are doing, please skip this
secion. Adult supervision is required while connecing appliances.
In this task, we will look into interfacing decoraive appliances (operated with an AC power
supply) such as the Christmas tree. It is important to interface AC appliances to the Raspberry
Pi in accordance with safety pracices. It is possible to connect AC appliances to the Raspberry
Pi using solid state relays. However, if the prototype boards aren't connected properly, it is a
potenial hazard. Hence, we use the
Power Switch Tail II
sold by Adafruit Industries.
The Power Switch Tail II has been rated for 110V.
According to the speciicaions provided on the Adafruit website, Power Switch Tail's relay
can switch up to 15A resisive loads. It can be controlled by providing a 3-12V DC signal.
We will look into controlling the lights on a Christmas tree in this task.
Power Switch Tail II - image source: Adafruit.com
