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Continuous operation of a general purpose relay? (midwest.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hello, I have a circuit that will need to return connected hardware to a default state if power is lost. The hardware can handle continuous voltage, so I'm thinking a simple solution would be to use a battery to provide that fallback power source. To avoid draining the battery, I'd like to connect it through a relay on the normally open contact and energize the relay directly from the main power supply on my board.

Do I need to look for anything in particular to make sure the coil on the relay I choose can sustain constant voltage for potentially months at a time without damage? Or, is there another similarly low cost and simple solution you'd recommend?

The circuit runs on 12VDC from a [Mean Well IRM-10-12 (specification), and the relays I have on hand are OMRON G5LE-14-CF 12VDC (specification). I don't see anything on the relay documentation that specifies a maximum duty cycle.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

The relay will cause a short voltage drop when switching. This could be a problem if your circuit can't handle a short voltage drop.

Probably the Mean Well has adjustable output voltage. If you can trim the output voltage of the power supply to a higher voltage than your battery, then you can probably just run each power source through a diode and merge them after the diodes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

note that if you do have issues with the voltage fluctuating when the relay switches, you can often connect a ceramic capacitor across the coil contacts of ~1uF along with a small diode acting as a flyback connected in reverse polarity, and it's enough to smooth out a good bit of that draw and/or switch-off flux pulse. Filtering saves lives

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks, I don't think there are any external settings for the power supply, but it does provide a few more volts than I strictly need. Toggling a single relay hasn't caused me any issues in the limited testing I've done. A momentary drop to as low as 5V should be perfectly fine, although, looking over the specs for my components, I see I'm getting dangerously close to the upper limits for the power supply's current rating. I'll have to look into connecting 2 supplies in parallel (or getting a larger supply) I suppose.

I haven't worked with battery backups yet, so I was thinking it would be best to keep that element simple to minimize potential issues like a trickle charge draining the battery unexpectedly, or damaging the battery from overcharge. The minimum requirement is just to ensure the hardware (a motorized ball valve) returns to a closed position if power is lost. The battery needs to provide at least 9V to power the motor, so I could use a 9V (or a few smaller cells in series) to keep it below the 12V supply.

With your solution using a diode on each voltage source, would there be any risk of a trickle charge draining the battery unexpectedly if the battery? If so, in that configuration I'd need to do more research and figure out how to use a BMS, rather than an externally recharged or disposable cell.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

With your solution using a diode on each voltage source, would there be any risk of a trickle charge draining the battery unexpectedly if the battery?

Current flows from high to low voltage, but the battery is at a lower voltage than the supply. Check the diode's datasheet for the reverse current at the voltage that would be across it. It should be negligible

Here's an example from my notes: