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A comment on Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014). Parent comment

Re:Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014) by karlkatzke on Thursday February 02, 2017 @03:07PM (#13554111)
I use mechanical relays to switch AC power for pumps and similar AC motor loads using DC signals from Arduinos and similar.

I have very very little experience with electrical engineering (I'm in the Lego mindset of I plug things in according to things I find online until they work), but is there something I should be using instead with 120V ~3-5 A loads?

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Re:Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014) by guyzero on Thursday February 02, 2017 @03:19PM (#13554239)
You could use an opto-coupled triac but honestly for a hobby project a relay is a lot simpler.

http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/blog/optocoupler.html

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Re:Circuit building: stop using antique parts (2014) by smileysteve on Friday February 03, 2017 @01:52AM (#13558246)
IGBTs. Solid state, 0 crossover, lower voltage to drive. Similar failure mode, but many more switches.
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