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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] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Unless otherwise specified at certain loads, relay duty cycles are always 100%.

Most relay duty cycles are in relation to switching currents, not the coil operation. There is always a slight resistance between dissimilar contacts, and carrying current across the contacts creates heat, so they have a max rated current for continuous use. They can often exceed this, but only for short periods before needing a duty cycle cooldown.

When the relay switches high near-max currents, especially in DC, it generates a large arc across the contacts. This makes them heat up. This limits the actuation frequency because too many arcs at max/overcurrent will overheat the contacts and could cause them to fuse together.

But the coil itself is designed such that it will never overheat on it's own just from the trigger voltage. Granted it'll waste a lot of power to resistive heating that is undesirable if your goal is power efficiency, but it will be perfectly OK.

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

I'm a little new to the terminology, so to clarify, the switching current refers to the amperage across the terminals other than the coil, right? I'm definitely within those limits; I don't expect to transfer more than ~1/8 of the maximum amperage.

Is there a rule of thumb for the minimum current I should allow across the coil? The only specification I see on the datasheet for coil amperage is that it was tested to failure at 100mA. I don't think power consumption is too big of a deal with this use case, but resistive heating sounds like it could shorten component life (and even if it's only a secondary consideration here, I'd still prefer to minimize waste).

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

the switching current refers to the amperage across the terminals other than the coil

Yes. "Switching current" is the load current being controlled across the main contacts. I figured you were well within specs, I was just clarifying what typically limits relay duty cycle other than the coil.

Is there a rule of thumb for the minimum current I should allow across the coil?

Stick to the rated coil voltage in the datasheet or below and you'll be fine. They set the coil resistance to be within the safe current zone per V=IR at rated control voltage.

Many relays can reliably switch well underneath their rated control voltage depending on their design- there's a lot of safety factor built in. I've had some 12v automotive relays switch successfully at around 5v (by accident, lol). Experiment a bit and you may be able to cut down on waste power

Just be aware that control voltage (coil) and rated switching voltage (load) is often different, since many relays use low control voltages to switch high voltage loads. Don't confuse the two!