120/240V to logic level optoisolator (with schematic)

This type of module is used in applications where you want a simple way to detect that a piece of mains powered equipment is active. It can be used to detect if a load that has been turned on has actually activated. That allows automated fault detection and indication.
It could also be used to trigger functionality when a buildings lights are turned on or a pump runs.
For 120V use it may be useful to swap in a 1W-2W 33K-56K resistor to increase the optoisolator current.
As shown in the video, this building block is often used in multiples on elevator control PCBs for sensing phase presence and direction, to detect high voltage safety circuits and monitor loads to ensure they are powered when expected. Combining it on the main PCB saves on the cost of external phase monitoring modules.
Definitely use multiple high power resistors when doing this though. Even if it does take up a bit more valuable PCB space.
You can find these if you search for 220V optoisolator. They also do three and eight way versions.
They don't seem to do specific 120V versions, but these ones may work as is, or after the resistor mod. Cost for a single channel module seems to be around 4-5 space credits.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of KZbin's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.

[@BenMitro]

I must say that sharing your knowledge and experience is a very generous thing to do and to do it with added entertainment value is magic. Thanks Clive.

[@spawnterror]

I just found Clive's channel and I'm absolutely loving it. Very experienced with his stuff and - have to be said - great teacher material.

[@MrNams]

I need to detect 440v in 3phase @@spawnterror

[@stargazer7644]

The zener is there to protect the cap from a smoldering death in case either LED goes open circuit.

[@bigclivedotcom]

The current is very limited, so it might possibly pop, but would be more likely to slowly vent.

[@someguy2741]

@@bigclivedotcom the hiss of sadness...

[@TECHnoman753]

Magic smoke

[@LeifNelandDk]

@@bigclivedotcom we want to see what happens if you disconnect zener and the LED. Boom or fzzz. Whatever, if a cheap zener can prevent just a little goo in your box, fine.

[@user255]

@@bigclivedotcom Are you sure it is zener? Maybe it is there to offer ESD protection to the input side.

[@APSuk2]

Careless Whiskers, I love my bootlace ferrules.

[@rrsbr]

I read that as careless whisper, I could already hear the saxophone 🎷

[@Anvilshock]

@@rrsbr That pun is very much intended.

[@captainboing]

Aglet

[@GreenJimll]

Whilst I'm not an engineer who needs to use these on a day-to-day basis, this was very interesting. And handy tips to designers and manufacturers based on your experiences. Good stuff.

[@hotmailcompany52]

I always think designers should work on building stuff so they know all the quirks and potential risks/failures

[@WINGNUT307]

I'm going to use one to detect when my oil boiler is actually fired up by connecting it to the oik switch solenoid. This will then send the data to Home Assistant which will log the hours burnt and tell me when to refill my oil.

[@theskett]

@@WINGNUT307 I'm saddened that you don't have an oink switch solenoid, that might allow you to refill your sausages ;-)

[@thisismyuniquestory]

@@WINGNUT307 Good to hear of a link to monitoring your oil boiler with a Big Clive practical application. He must have been a very accomplished lift engineer with his approach to repair. Servicing in any trade needs more Clive's, my opinion for fifty years and travelling half the country working for national companies. As an industrial electrician from the sixties I did a crossover to work as an R&D engineer on oil combustion, including boiler design and then gas combustion after the oil crisis. My electrcal knowledge gave me fifty years of advantage to help many good mechanical engineers to improve their electrical thought processes. I made alarm circuits to notify customers when the oil tank was getting low, float switches with mercury switches to prevent any fire risk with arcs and oil vapour venting to atmosphere. All before Watchman or similar systems when I became a heating service engineer in Dorset and Hampshire. Oil servicing had few respectable craftsman so getting paid to drive around the New Forest was a gift.

[@drussell_]

You're probably expected to be mounting something like that with those little nylon push-on press-fit standoffs, not screws...

[@jkobain]

Yeah, nylon pylons. Or nylon screws.

[@colejohnson66]

Are plastic screws a thing?

[@jkobain]

@@colejohnson66 welcome to our age. Sorry. I mean, they literally are, I'm not the only one who thought about them instantly when Clive mentioned that you can easily short the resistor's contact with a metal screw.

[@jkobain]

@@colejohnson66 and they even can withstand temperatures over 100 °C.

[@AlexanderBukh]

thought the same but still better be designed universal

[@joshhaughton1893]

Did not expect the discussion to cover elevator control circuit boards. As a journeyman elevator tech in Canada I'm impressed by the depth of your knowledge on our trade. Bang on, and much appreciated.

[@MrConnor128]

Thank you Clive! Another great video as always. This is exactly what I needed for my project. I “reverse engineered” my own circuit, but I found that my Esp8266 was occasionally picking up the ripple from the mains. I ended up putting another small electrolytic cap on the logic side of the optocoupler. Works perfectly!

[@Robert-hr6sh]

Nice video! 👍 Thank you in all you do!! For myself a retired Electronics Engineer in the past 8 years now and in the "past working in Electronics" from 1972 untill 2013....Iam getting back into Electronics again. It's in the blood!! Thanks for the refreshing videos.

[@rick_.]

Mounting holes: I suspect the intent is to use either heat-staked pins or the plastic standoffs that have a split top.

[@templebrown7179]

I came to comment the same!

[@gordonlawrence1448]

Heat stakes would be my bet. I was trying to figure how to DIN rail mount them.

[@holzwurm_hd7029]

Honestly Clive i dont know what i would do without you and your Videos.

[@stevenA44]

I've been meaning to watch this for days and just got around to it. Interesting little board. Seems like it would be easy to make too. I have all the parts it has. Thanks for the info on changing the resistor for 120 volts.

[@stridermt2k]

Yet another great exploration and explanation! Wee see our share of optos that have been damaged for one reason another. Along electrolytics and comms ICs optos are regularly replaced in industrial stuff under repair.

[@DerMarkus1982]

"It's never gonna spark again, 'till you go reset that breaker, all the black soot settled down, I'm sure that something blew" Yes, Clive, I know that song!

[@wesleymays1931]

What song?

[@Graham_Langley]

@@wesleymays1931 Change the first bit to "I'm never gonna dance again".

[@theskett]

Just for comparison purposes, here's George: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6uqqHepp7Zkm7M

[@rich3500]

I know the fan timer pcb you mentioned, it's the same size as the one featured here but a bit longer. I think JW made a video about them a while ago. I've had several fail due to the resistor going thermonuclear so I converted them to half wave capacitive dropper using a 0.22uF X2 capacitor. No more heat and they're all still working.

[@michaelreilly5783]

This is a great tutorial! Your videos are extremely helpful.

[@patrickjmorgan]

Spot on Clive as usual,! (Lift engineer here) Even back in the day when I was working on the tool- 1970’s, board repair was discounted, even though a few of us could. Niwdays, it unheard of. Otis CMOS control and OI4 boards were just as this control and shorted regularly, cause all sorts of other unpleasantries.

[@olavl8827]

I'm just one of those Arduino hobbyists who lives up to the cliché of not knowing WTF I'm doing half the time when it comes to electronics. But I understood this circuit and I see the possibilities. I might even integrate this into a little board that I'm trying to design. Thanks again Big Clive.

[@SianaGearz]

A very similar tech is used in some 3D printers for the power loss resume function. A 3D printer has about 150-300W worth of heaters and 40W worth of motors, and the PSU is guaranteed to hold over at least 25ms dropout from its stored energy. So when the expected mains pulse is not detected, they can quickly turn off all heaters - and they still have about half the capacitor energy in the PSU left, which is enough to run the relatively frugal motors to move the toolhead a little bit up and prevent damage to the print, and then write a cookie to the internal nonvolatile memory, saying which file was being printed, which line was last finished, and where the toolhead is at at this moment, and then just wait until the power drains from the power supply. When the power resumes, they can just continue printing. The voltage sensing needs to be mains side, because when you see the voltage dropping on the output of the PSU, it's already too late, it has basically no residual energy left. Also they insert it before the manual power switch, so when you power it off by hand, obviously you wanted it that way, while if the cord is pulled or the mains just collapses, then the power loss resume is activated. Eventually other ways to implement resume were implemented by just always writing a cookie every layer with no mains side sensing, but it's not nearly as clean.

[@DeputatKaktus]

"Careless Whisker"...this is brilliant and I shall remember that.

[@jameshunt2141]

the careless whiskers are to remind you that your working with live electronics when it goes bang!

[@MaxiG]

Que buen video! Se nota la pasión por la electrónica, no muchos docentes la tienen, éxitos!

[@ghlscitel6714]

You are right. The QUICKTEST thingy is very practical. I learned that from you quite a while ago and then I got me one from farnell.

[@darylcheshire1618]

I was interested to hear your comments about the advantage of high voltage safety circuits compared to low voltage ones.

[@nixxonnor]

I think this video contains some really good advice for circuit engineers... (especially the part regarding using no more than half the resistor wattage)

[@jasharin]

it'd be interesting to see you break down one of those fan run-on timers. i've always wondered how they work

[@vk3fbab]

I live in an apartment building where I've taken a number of fan run on timers out with carbonised resistors and PCBs. Got some still operational examples if you wanted to see them. Grossly under power rated resistor in a capacitive dropper, TRIAC you get the idea. Designed to fit in an Australian mains socket. So quite neat. Low production run too. .

[@mikepurdy1738]

In Ireland, we call stray strands "hairy mollys"! Most common in lift controllers on mains 3ph terminals where 10 sq tails have been stuffed in without ferrules. Always a nice surprise in a dimly lit plant room 😝

[@hadireg]

nice! I have a couple of them, need to make use of them some day :) I'll steal "the careless whisker" expression 😉👍 Thanks Clive!

[@thoughtful_criticiser]

During my Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree it was suggested that we rate resistors at twice the power if we want a long lasting stable circuit. However, if you are building in obsolescence use the only slightly higher, this ensures a short but acceptable life and more sales! On the political side, I have a feeling that we are going to be paying a lot more for circuits like this. At least short to medium term.

[@tomschmidt381]

Interesting module. When I need to detect mains voltage I use a DIY isolator, a neon pilot light assembly shining on an LDR, and heat shrink over both. This kludge provides plenty of isolation and draws hardly any power.

[@twogitsinacar4811]

A triac 226D we used to use in sound to light units does the same, with a transformer providing some isolation. That is how we USED to do it

[@user-wp8zc8jy5n]

you have a lot of useful experienced knowledge.

[@ytgsmithwa]

Where I need to sense AC in my Arduino projects, I use a plastic encapsulated neon indicator (like a panel indicator lamp with an inbuilt resistor) and an LDR stuck on the outside, and wrapped in black tape. LDRs are pretty slow and I've found that typical response times are around 1/4 sec. The advantage is it's cheap, almost no heat dissipation, and I estimate better than 2500V isolation.

[@jacobwcrosby]

How does Clive *always* know when I'm laying in bed watching at 3am!?!? Thank you for the 'always' brightness warning!

[@SigEpBlue]

Unless I'm working with vacuum tubes, I'm not a fan of simply letting things run hot/warm like that constantly, especially for something as simple as voltage detection. Yes, "it works," but needless thermal stress is something to be avoided.

[@muxerbaker4638]

A better version of this is to use a capacitive dropper instead of a resistor (which @bigclivedotcom is well familiar with).

[@ovalwingnut]

Back to Basics. Very COoL. Ben has approved this video.

[@David8n]

I remember getting a belt off a lift door open detector switch many years ago. The switch was two exposed contacts on the edge of the door at mains voltage, the circuit being closed by the steel of the other door. Being an inquisitive teen-ager I poked them with my finger! They weren't shrouded or anything!

[@RNMSC]

An alternative, and about the same price, is to use an old (functionsl) 5v USB phone charger to your detector pin on your equipment, optionally through an opto-isolator. We use (or have used) this as a solution on ham radio repeaters to detect when we're actually running on battery power rather than commercial power to operate the transmitter at a lower power mode to extend the availability time of the repeater. (Use a resistor, or a voltage divider and resister if needed for 3.3v to limit current going to your micro-controller if you're not running it through an opto-isolator. I'd also recommend validating that the '5v' is correct compared to the ground of what you're sensing with, and isn't incidentally floating at high voltage because someone put in a transformer that's been wound too tight.

[@Seiskid]

What a simple idea. Like it.

[@Mike40M]

Been designing and testing quite large industrial systems. Apart from insulating high and low voltage, optoisolators are used for eliminating ground loops. They are often filtered to to suppress voltage spikes and other EMI. Commercially available optoinsulators can have a time constant of 20 ms. Had a problem in Finland where 3 optocouplers was fitted in series. As the machines speed increased, a pulse train fed into one computer disappeared. Every optocoupler shortened pulse length.

[@chrisdash9803]

Hahaha love the careless whisker comment!

[@andreipastushuk3234]

Awesome review! Thanks a ton!

[@davidjones9730]

Another great video Clive, thanks for keeping us both informed and entertained. The HCPL 3700 opto-isolators which have almost all this circuit built in, see 0033mer’s channel for a video on this chip.

[@sparkyprojects]

It seems they never do what used to be done with 'power' resistors, space them from the board, remember the ceramic bead spacers ?

[@jkobain]

I'm actually glad they didn't decide to draw it as another «fusible resistor» on the board, that'd be a disaster.

[@gordonlawrence1448]

I still have a pack of those spacers somewhere. These days I just tend to use 1W resistors running at about 25% dissipation.

[@alunjones3860]

It's quite common for ceramic resistors to have very high temperature ratings, a couple of hundred degrees C or more, so the board burns and resistor unsolders, completely unharmed.

[@bugdrvr]

I bought a set of lead kinking pliers to get resistors up off of the board neatly. Works about as well as the spacers in my experience.

[@tommays56]

I use stuff like this all the time we have crazy machines that have to control 5 12 and 24 DC and 12 and 24 AC from PNP sensors and the switching thresholds and voltages get crazy to manage Gotta love older Italian packaging machines

[@danburch9989]

We used optoisolators in the reverse direction. A logic level low would turn on the optoisolator. The output of the optoisolator connected to the gate of a triac (solid state relay) would turn it on and provide 120vac/240vac power to the load.

[@Berraud]

Undersized zener resistors is a very frequent failure on the pre of guitar and bass amps. They reduce the power stage voltage with a resistor plus zener to save a winding, but the reliability goes down a lot

I wonder why they use resistors instead of capacitors, wouldn't be better to power the the opto isolator using a capacitive power supply? I can only think of cost, a resistor been cheaper that a properly rated capacitor.

[@JoeRKsChannel]

I like these and have used a few in the past (~20 or so), but I think I'll always stick with a relay in low-frequency applications.

[@ATMAtim]

Neat demo and tutorial. I'm going to try to find an excuse to use these. They are too cool to pass up.

[@davidfaraday3085]

These days I prefer to use the AC-input optos, the type with two parallel LEDs that works on either polarity of input. The circuit then reduces to simply the opto and the resistor. OK, the output is then a series of low-going pulses at 100 Hz rather than a solid low, but its easy to either filter that with a capacitor on the output, or do that in code when driving an Arduino

[@gedtoon6451]

Do you mean the H11AA1 ?

[@davidfaraday3085]

@@gedtoon6451 Actually I'm using the TLP620, but its pretty similar to the H11AA1

[@berndeckenfels]

The galvanic Isolation and the high voltage zone looks well thought out, only the bare components might be not the safest option for makers,

[@SeanBZA]

33k says 24VAC control circuits in that lift controller, though often you find them running on anything from 24-48VAC as they are often a retrofit board to replace old relay or switch logic during an upgrade. Yes running resistors at rating is bad, especially when it is inside an enclosure and thus ambient for it is going to be 100C plus. Had that with an industrial timer, replaced the original 1W resistors with 10W ceramic, which barely fitted in the space, though I was able to do so as the original controller was multivoltage, and had 3 resistors to allow 120VAC, 230VAC and 277VAC so there were 3 1W resistors in a string. 10W resistor was just short enough to replace all 3, and with that, and replacing the 3 well cooked electrolytic capacitors in it, it ran cool and long lasting. Did not need the 2 other voltage tappings, so those wires went away, as the original installer left them bare end loose in the enclosure, despite a note saying to insulate the unused connections.

[@jkbrown5496]

I've been trying to grasp the sensing circuits on my heat pump defrost board that uses a PIC micro-controller. The board sends 24vac out to, say the high pressure switch, then back to the board and to a 1K power power resistor to the AC common traces. A thinner trace runs to a 47k resistor then a zener to the 24 vDC negative, thus then through the discrete diode FB rectifier. A 47k resistor also goes to the pin on the PIC m-controller. This video answered some question for me on the software sensing the fluctuation signal and such. I've been thinking of building circuits to sense when my thermostat energizes a signal to track what is being called for when. Such as when it calls for the back up resistive heat, etc. The opto-iso would ensure I'm not loading the signal wires.

[@David_11111]

yes ... well done Clive I enjoyed this :)

[@Richie_]

I had a whisker yesterday soldering a barrel jack. All good now.

[@theelmonk]

You can also make one from a mains neon and an LDR or other photo sensor. The LDR is a less decisive switch than the opto but the mains neon is much easier to make safe if you need to build it without a PCB.

[@bigclivedotcom]

The ones we used to use at Hussmann Refrigeration used a neon and LDR in a heatshrink sleeve to detect defrost activity.

[@thisismyuniquestory]

@@bigclivedotcom Hussman, Airdale, Denco, Wright Air Con Birmingham. A lot of time on main frame computer rooms, great for biood pressure with financial services leaving London. Plus the MoD Dockyards, heating for Concorde's and the Red Arrows etc. All in my past with a bad experience with a lift during my first week as an apprentice industrial electrician working on the companys lift. 1963, lift room, power off but the brake was jammed off with a wooden wedge as instructed. ?¿? Meanwhile the burly van driver forced a fourth floor lift open to load with 2/3 hundredweight of leather + driver. Fortunately I heard the lift motor spinning. 'Presence of mind by me to grab the wedge and the speeding car gently touched the springs. With a ranting van driver complaining he was a foot below the ground floor and he had never had such a quick trip before, I never explained. 1963, October continued Neon control for industrial timers made by Brook Motors (the only source in the country, allegedly) Huddersfield. Only available on three months delivery and with no other source and 200+ Brook timers in control systems built by the company. Very costly timers and all eggs in one basket. There was zero stocking from any supplier, wholesaler home or abroad. Memory prompt, the neon was 50mm long, the board was 90mm, with very few components. PS the Radiospares catalogue was 20 pages of electronic components. Catalogue page size the Imperial size of A5. Potentiomers, carbon track, for Pittards Leather they were used remote mounted to control the Brooks timers. Prone to arcing or sparking you choose. Point of History. From 1914 in the carTanning machinery, British, Turners ltd, ' had to be Yorkshire based, 1914 designed and all clunky, ' withstood lethal quantities of deadly alkalines, skin layers removed in 20 seconds, deadly for live maintenance to flick moving parts. Massive numbers of scarred employee's at the tanning end. Mercier Frere, a French manufacture of tanning machinery using hydraulics and so quiet. Delivered with control systems, panels included. The original block contactors with a life of weeks, all immediately rebuilt with Brook Motor face plate switch gear for reliability. Everything Brook was on a three months lead time. The face plate was 200mm high, 250mn wide. Large exposed solenoid, Copper contacts with 8mm silver contacts, every copper part was exposed, sou in extremely dangerous. No door isolators that required to be defeated to work live for fault detection. A Brook starter could be rebuilt in minutes with everything exposed for access. Great training. By 1966 my C&G Technicians course stalled at the intermediate level in Somerset. A two year C&G final Technicians course, Industrial Electronics sounded great, all based on 1930's valve theory, forget triacs, quadracs. Our course was the same theory as our lecturers had been taught. Not great for a student who was working in industrial electrics for maintenance and very little contact with electronics other than changing circuit boards and no teaching except the library and a 55-60 hour working week. Keep educating the world Clive.

[@railgap]

@bigclivedotcom This is way orthogonal from the subject of opto-isolators, but you've reminded me of something I think you'll find interesting anyway: Tektronix used to make a scope called the Power Scout which had channel grounds isolated from each other by over a kilovolt, yet they somehow stayed referenced to each other. So you could plug Ch.1 into the five volt trigger signal coming from a motor control logic circuit and Ch.2 into one phase - even across a delta without any ground connection - of say a motor control's 440V output. Try that with a normal scope, and the leads and scope will literally go up in flames along with the control board. I dunno how they did it, and I don't know what - if anything - they have replaced it with. Maybe a competitor like Fluke has something similar in the scopemeter line. oh, and it had a cute little CRT display about 3" across too. I want one still and I don't even have a use case, they're just sexy.

[@DarronBirgenheier]

This would be great to connect to the pressure switch of a submersible water pump in a deep well, so that the activity of the pump can be monitored remotely by simply activating an indicator light whenever the pump is running, or even all the way to data logging, analysis and notification, to detect when the duty cycle of the pump indicates an incipient or actual failure.

[@jontopham2742]

you also want to use isolating standoffs on the screws so you dont get leakage current i suppose since there is isolation

[@alunjones3860]

For safety reasons, always use nylon spacers to mount the board to any metal enclosure.

[@hamza4537]

the first board is IMEM lifts and the safety voltage is 110v AC.

[@pagiatis]

I lost it at careless whisker, thanks uncle Clive!

[@Zardox-The-Heretic-Slayer]

with the mounting holes, it would definitely be a good idea to use nylon posts/screws!

[@zebo-the-fat]

Nylon posts?? nah... just leave the board hanging from the cables! (more air flow to cool it!)

[@fifaham]

@3:48 The Zener Diode is there for protection and for current limiting just in case something goes wrong.

[@eideticex]

Mounting boards like that, I use plastic sleeves. Can usually find some sort of utility hose that is just the right size.

[@theskett]

You put the board in a plastic sleeve? Normally I'd approve, but in this case the resistor will overheat.

[@antoniomaglione4101]

The Zener diode is in there in case the infrared LED inside the optoisolator goes bad and becomes an open circuit. In that case, the full RMS voltage (220 x √2 Volt) would build up across the electrolytic capacitor, causing its explosion. With respect to the canonical design, there is a missing resistor, between the positive of the capacitor and the LED, calculated to limit the current flowing thru the LEDs at 15 mA. In the case of your board is R = 5.1 - ( 1.7 + 1.4) / 0.015 = 120 Ohm. 1.7 V is the Vf of the red LED, and 1.4 V is the Vf of the infrared LED inside the optoisolator. Thank you for the nice video...

[@robegatt]

Otherwise where is the voltage difference going? Are the leds working on a higher foward voltage on their curve? or is the zener turned off completely? who wins?

[@antoniomaglione4101]

@@robegatt The power would be otherwise dissipated in the 1 Watt resistor. If you draw the V/I diagram of the Zener diode, for all operating conditions, it become self-explanatory.

[@robegatt]

@@antoniomaglione4101 You did not answer my question.

[@theskett]

The cap's behind a high-value resistor, and hence won't explode. May vent, slowly. The Zener's a complete waste of time and money; redundant.

[@millomweb]

The weirdest encounter with lifts for me was Aston Uni main building. It was designed with 9 lifts and had had 2 more added to it externally. Using one of the new lifts, I opened the car doors as it was going up. It stopped, as expected. After closing the doors, it set off again - this time going down BUT the floor counter was still counting upward ! I think it got down to the third floor before correcting the counter.

[@phonotical]

I replaced some resistors recently that looked as though they had been baking the pcb, but I left them floating in the air by about an inch, I figured the heat dissipation would be a little better that way, rather than having the potential to kill everything around it

[@ThomasCouey]

I use the MID400 IC with a 2W 22K resistor (for 120V). Very reliable.

[@romycruz4498]

Thanks for sharing - from the Phils.

[@jassenjj]

The input resistor and the capacitor in the schematic actually shift the detection by adding a delay. I wouldn't use this for a safety switch especially on an elevator as even half a second of a delay could matter a lot.

[@ppdan]

12:24 I guess the main problem is wetting current (minimum required current for dry contacts). When the current through a contact is too low it might fail to "break through". We have had this problems on a bunch of relays in our locomotives where contacts started to fail after several years. The current through some of those relay contacts was too low and under the manufacturers specified wetting current. At first we replaced the relays by new ones, but soon found out that we could "electrically clean" the contacts by applying a higher current (about 10% of the max rated current) for several cycles and AC seems to be the best choice for this method.

[@IanDarley]

Yes indeed, the component maximum power rating is a limit, not a target.

[@afeathereddinosaur]

Double sided circuits are cool, I had to engrave one of those by hand with a blank plaque and some chemicals that certainly wouldn't do well down the drain, pretty fun thing to do

[@TheBackyardChemist]

Most likely iron (III) chloride (aka. ferric chloride), looks extremely brown when concentrated and yellow when diluted.

[@afeathereddinosaur]

@@TheBackyardChemist yes, I did use it!

[@Gold63Beast]

The ol twist and fold. Thought I was the only person who did that. The more you know.

[@empanada401]

or twist and pinch.

[@robbieaussievic]

..... I recognize my work from 50 years ago by the anti-clockwise (Mollydooker) twist.

[@gohilurvish]

I had some equivalent requirement back in 2012-2013 and made an almost similar stuff. It worked with AC 230v and 440v (2 of 3 phases) without any changes. The difference is that I didn't use zener or bridge.

[@gohilurvish]

Oh Wow!!! Thank you for this :)

[@mumbaiverve2307]

Hi Mr.BigClive , very nice tip about putting the || resistor. Am just curious about calculating the value of the resistor, any quick back of the envelope stuff , when you get time ? Cheers and keep them coming !!

[@3v1Bunny]

raising the prices one review at a time ;)

[@jkobain]

Whenever they deliver to the Isle of Man, they must've been already expecting an enormous spike of interest in their products! ;D

[@theskett]

Thing is, BC only raises the prices on *good* stuff. Unless you think that many people bought that high-voltage gay Dalek, as a result of BC's non-recommendation? :-)

[@johnrehwinkel7241]

I built a module like that to monitor when my water heater elements were energized, trying to debug which thermostat was sticking. It worked, but my implementation was slightly different, I skipped the series diode and capacitor and just had an antiparallel diode across the one in the optoisolator to serve as an indicator and protect the LED in the opto from too much reverse voltage (I had the code deal with the fact that it wasn't always on). I used a big chonky 5W resistor, it seemed fine.

[@Arek_R.]

You could use it in home automation to do voltage detection past the breakers and detect if it had tripped.

[@theskett]

But only if the monitoring kit was on a UPS or equivalent, which most people don't have.

[@Arek_R.]

@@theskett The home automation computer would be powered via separate breakers not used by anything else.

[@RcAircraft]

Where i used to work i made Scoreboards for football clubs each character was approx 12" X 12" with 8 x 8 lamps fitted these lamps where 240 Vac 5w all switched by Optoisolators but of coarse worked in the opposite direction all controlled by a Amstrad 486. Later on i made my own 8 channel board which i connected to my Sinclair computer to control Christmas lights Which was Fun.

[@markkayser426]

People might laugh at the part about getting legs reversed going to an elevator but I have seen it happen. On our campus we lost a major distribution leg. The electricians spent several days replacing everything without sleep. I was there when everything was kicked on and out of habit from working in a manufacturing plant with dodgy wiring I looked at the nearest motor and it was indeed spinning backwards. It was decided that it would be easier to redo all the motors on campus than to try to undo the transformer.

[@HappilyHomicidalHooligan]

20:06 I personally would design a board with an indicator LED on both sides of the Opto-Isolator so you can see both when the unit sees Mains Power and sends a Low Voltage signal.

[@TheScytheMoron]

I have seen quite a lot videos of you now but every time when you say something like "watch your eyes" before turning on the light/changing the exposure I kinda flinch and then be like "wait ... stupid me" XD

[@cyborgcoyote3251]

The photos looked like a control I/O board with 24vdc inputs on a VFD, a input precharge card to slowly charge up the capacitor bank before turning on the mains on a VFD, and not sure on the 3rd one. Probably the elevator's transmodial termporal inhibitor.

[@calinbaciu]

I would change 150k resistor with series capacitor. By that, zener diode can be removed.

[@melplishka5978]

Your the best Clive. I think it’s (wine o’clock now ) lol. Cheers

[@daw7563]

I'd say the zener protects the cap from going boom, in case the LEDs goes open circuit.

[@djscottdog1]

Its handy for mains zero crossing if your controlling a triac or thyrister with a ripi , gotta desolder that filter cap tho

[@duncanpotter5838]

Id love to see a module for the other direction - low level DC control to AC output.

[@5mxg]

I think the Zener diode is for killer option, where you have no optoisolator, but just 2 jumpers instead, to get 5V digital unisolated signal

[@zagabog]

I suspect open collector is more commonly used with PLCs because pulling current is less susceptible to interference than a voltage being detected by a high impedance input.

[@oleeide9763]

I was looking for something like this a while ago, but ended up designing my own. I did initially use just a couple of resistors and a diode, but found the combined heat from 14 of these circuits in the same enclosure, was not the way to go. I ended up with a capacity dropper and a full bridge rectifier instead, any thoughts?

[@silverywingsagain]

I wonder if the zener diode is there in case the high voltage load is inductive like a motor, starting and stopping might cause flyback.

[@weerobot]

I feel elevated....

[@MrJef06]

Thanks for uploading to odysee at the same time as YT!

[@TigerP1]

"A George Michel" - That made me laugh at 5am

[@kevinmartin7760]

If the circuit is using a full bridge rectifier and a filter capacitor, it could use a capacitor instead of a resistor to drop the voltage thus avoiding the big power dissipation. This would, of course, not work for doing phase detection! It would also need a discharge resistor on the dropper cap.

[@KoroniosPhotography]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I am wandering if there is a way to control one 200v device with an optoisolator and an arduino or an esp32. I want to control lights with hi frequency without the annoying relay's sound.

[@Seiskid]

Interesting little circuit board - a lot cheaper than the other option which is a 240v relay.