Ask Electronics

3327 readers

49 users here now

For questions about component-level electronic circuits, tools and equipment.

Rules

1: Be nice.

2: Be on-topic (eg: Electronic, not electrical).

3: No commercial stuff, buying, selling or valuations.

4: Be safe.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

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

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

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [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