Recently there has become available a whole line of easy
to use and inexpensive radio controlled switches and H-Bridges created
by Team Delta.
These boards make operating practically any electronic
device as simple as hooking up these boards to your receiver and connecting
their outputs to whatever DC powered electrical device you want
to operate. There are several different models available. All of the boards
provide a fail-safe operation. This means they will shut down if they lose
a valid radio signal. This is an excellent feature because it complies
with the new rules that Battlebots uses. Team S.L.A.M and Team K.I.S.S
have used these boards and found them to be both reliable and well made.
I have had several requests to to describe how to use these boards so here
goes.....
A Very simple way to turn on a motor or anything else.....
The above drawing shows how simple it is to wire up one
of these switches.
The Team Delta board is connected to one channel from
the receiver by three wires basically a standard servo connection. The
receiver provides plus 4.8 VDC and Ground to the the Team Delta board.
This powers it's electronics. The receiver also provides a servo signal
to the Team Delta board. This signal doe's two things. First the board
recognizes a Valid radio signal. Then the board waits for a signal at its
triggering threshold to turn itself on. Once the board turns on it sends
plus 24 VDC to the control coil of the solenoid. The solenoid carries
the High current required to power the motor or whatever not the Team Delta
switch. Once the solenoid turns on it sends ground to the weapon motor
and the motor begins turning and hopefully starts killing your opponent.
Of course you can replace the motor with just about any DC powered
electrical device known. The above drawing (less the motor) can also be
used as an R/C shut down for you main robot power. Keep in mind that Battlebots
will still also require a Manual high current switch. But you could
easily place that on either the plus or ground wires shown going to the
motor. Or even better place a Manual high current switch
on the grounds going to the solenoid. It's pretty simple isn't it..
Gasoline Engine kill switch.
Another application for a Team Delta switch.
Team S.L.A.M just loves using the power of Dinosaur Juice.
We have also used Team Delta Switches to control the ignition system of
our engines. We learned the hard way that you can't directly control the
magneto kill circuit directly on some engines with a Team Delta switch.
This is because of an A/C voltage that is created by the ignition system.
The simple solution was to place a relay between the R/C switch and the
engine. The relay is wired with the normally closed side of the relay is
connected to the magneto kill wire and the engine ground is connected to
the common input of the relay. The Team Delta switch must be turned
on before the engine can run. The nice thing about this circuit is it will
always kill the engine whenever the radio power or signal is lost to the
Team Delta board. This failsafe feature gets us through the tech inspection
with ease.
R/C Duel Ended Switch.
Team Delta part #
RCE 220
Team Delta also builds a duel switch that makes it possible
to control two separate devices with one channel from your receiver. I
really like this little guy. The nice thing about this switch is that it
controls two relays. Its relays can handle 12 amps at 30 vdc. This is nice
because a lot of things like multiple big solenoids control coils may draw
more current than the basic R/C D-Switch can handle. I have used these
little guys to control a BIG DAWG H-bridge capable of providing 600 amps
to my drive motors. Like the R/C D-switch these board also have a user
selectable triggering threshold that can be set between 36% and 66%. If
you use this board as a duel switch they work like this. Joystick up turns
on one relay joystick center everything is off, joystick down turns on
the other relay. Each relay has both a normally open contact and normally
closed contact. The board can also be wired with simple jumper wires to
create a H-Bridge capable of powering a motor that draws no more than 12
amps in both forward and reverse.
But wait that's not all race fans the board also has
inputs for each relay that will read a limit switch that will shut down
the either relay when a switch is closed. This is very handy for controlling
a liner actuators stop position.
Using a Team Delta Duel Ended switch I control four large
solenoids to provide 600 amps at 24 VDC.
the Team Delta board is wired as a duel switch. Transmitter
Joystick up turns on Relay 1 which turns on solenoids one and two and the
motor turn clockwise. Transmitter Joystick down turns on Relay 2 which
turns on solenoids three and four and the motor turns counter clockwise.
Boy what kind of damage could be done with 600 amps? He He..
People are constantly asking me what we use for BIG power
Solenoids. Well I like the White Rodgers 586 series from Graingers.
Graingers part numbers.
24 VDC Single pole normally open part # 6C025
36 VDC Single pole normally open part # 6C026
36 VDC Single pole double throw part
# 6C027
All of these solenoids are rated at 200 amps continuos
600 amps surge.
The big Dawg H-bridge really is BIG. It weight
about 7 lbs. To flow its maximum current you will need a some large wires
like 0 gauge. In this picture I'm using doubled 10 gauge wires because
I don't need that much current. We ran two Bosch 750 W motors on Half Gassed
with two of these H-bridges.
The Reactor company also sells a large solenoid that has a 12 VDC control coil. We got these at Summit Racing They cost $72.00 each.
If you look carefully at the Reactor solenoid you will
find that they have the exact same design at the ones from White Rodgers.
I'll bet they are made by the same guys but they cost $24.00 more each.
I'll bet White Rodgers has a part number for these guys.