Hello everyone,
My name is Jason and this is my first post so i apologize if I put it in the wrong discussion area. I decided it would be fun to have a pet project and build my own aquarium controller....and then I came upon the Reef Angel site. I currently have an Arduino Mega, TinyRTC from Sainsmart, a 7" Sainsmart touch screen LCD, the multi-circuit board from Atlas scientific along with their PH and EZO chips with sensors, and a temp probe also from Atlas. Everything is connected and so far everything is working great! I would like to start incorporating some of the products that the Reef Angel offers such as the 8 outlet Relay Box.
So now to my question....I would like to add the relay box to my project but I do not want to build my own due to lack of knowledge and confidence. I would feel much safer buying the one that was professionally made by Reef Angel. I contacted Reef Angel and asked if i could connect their 8 socket relay box directly to a mega and they said YES.....they also mentioned to look at the eagle files on their site to see the pinouts for the box. I have stared at those schematics and i will admit I still have no idea how to interpret them. I could take some guesses but I wanted to post here to see if anyone has done this. If anyone can help me determine what the pinouts are on the relay box and what they correspond to on the Arudiuno Mega side I would greatly appreciate it.
Please let me know if you need more information. I have Googled everything i can think of but still cannot find a definitive answer as to how to wire it up. Thanks again!
Jason
wire Reef Angel Relay Box to Mega
Re: wire Reef Angel Relay Box to Mega
SVGA pinout:
1- Port1
2- Port3
3- Port5
4- Port7
5- Port8
6- Port2
7- Port4
8- Port6
9- NC
10- GND
11- Actinic
12- Daylight
13- SCL
14- SDA
15- +5 output from internal power supply.
1- Port1
2- Port3
3- Port5
4- Port7
5- Port8
6- Port2
7- Port4
8- Port6
9- NC
10- GND
11- Actinic
12- Daylight
13- SCL
14- SDA
15- +5 output from internal power supply.
Roberto.
Re: wire Reef Angel Relay Box to Mega
So thank you for the pinout information. The project has been slow going but i am making progress. Unfortunately I have run into another issue with the relay box. Please excuse this if it is in the wrong forum. Sor far my setup is as follows:
1 Arduino Mega 2560 with power being supplied by an AC/DC 7.5volt 1A adapter. Currently wired to the Mega are a 7" TFT LCD from sainsmart, 1 PH circuit, 1 EC circuit, Temp probe, RTC, and an 8 port relay box purchased from Reef Angel.
These devices take up almost all of the digital pins on the Mega. My problem occurs when i am trying to control the 8 relays on the Reef Angel box. All I did was wire ports A1-A8 to the pins assigned to each relay on the Reef Angel box. From there I just set each pin to HIGH or LOW depending on whether i want it on or off.
I am able to control all of the relays individually....I can turn each of them on an off without a problem. However, I can only turn on 3 of them simultaneously at one time. After that I no longer hear the clicking of the relays to activate. I am guessing that due to the large number of pins being used by the LCD and other devices that the Mega is unable to supply the needed amount of electricity to the 8 relays at the same time. Can anyone please provide any guidance of whether or not this is the proper way to control the relays within the relay box. Is there a specific voltage for each relay that a mega would not be able to supply?
Another strange thing is that when i set all of the relays to HIGH, when I reset the Arduino all of the relays DO turn on. However, when I turn one of them off I can't turn it back on unless I turn off at least 5 others.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give.
1 Arduino Mega 2560 with power being supplied by an AC/DC 7.5volt 1A adapter. Currently wired to the Mega are a 7" TFT LCD from sainsmart, 1 PH circuit, 1 EC circuit, Temp probe, RTC, and an 8 port relay box purchased from Reef Angel.
These devices take up almost all of the digital pins on the Mega. My problem occurs when i am trying to control the 8 relays on the Reef Angel box. All I did was wire ports A1-A8 to the pins assigned to each relay on the Reef Angel box. From there I just set each pin to HIGH or LOW depending on whether i want it on or off.
I am able to control all of the relays individually....I can turn each of them on an off without a problem. However, I can only turn on 3 of them simultaneously at one time. After that I no longer hear the clicking of the relays to activate. I am guessing that due to the large number of pins being used by the LCD and other devices that the Mega is unable to supply the needed amount of electricity to the 8 relays at the same time. Can anyone please provide any guidance of whether or not this is the proper way to control the relays within the relay box. Is there a specific voltage for each relay that a mega would not be able to supply?
Another strange thing is that when i set all of the relays to HIGH, when I reset the Arduino all of the relays DO turn on. However, when I turn one of them off I can't turn it back on unless I turn off at least 5 others.
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give.