Relay Soft-Device

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Overview

A Relay Digital Output Soft-Device is capable of driving a two-wire inductive relay or contactor (which is a large relay).  A relay is made up of a coil of wire that surrounds a metal part that responds to the magnetic field produced by the coil.  The metal part is induced to move in response to the magnetic field.  The motion of the metal part causes one or more electrical conctacts to "make" or "break" thus completing or interrupting an electrical circuit.  You may connect the two wires from the relay to any two Soft-I/O pins, or you may connect one wire to the same pin as other digital output devices and then connect the second wire to any other Soft-I/O pin, thus saving pins.  Your may configure the output pin to source current or sink current.  It's up to you.  Just make sure that the common is the same level.  Or course, Soft-I/O will guide you to make sure that you to not accidentally connect it up incorrectly.  It's that simple!

Features

  • Two-wire connection
  • Soft-I/O supplies power to the relay, up to 12 Watts!
  • You can drive the relay with either 5 volts or 24 volts
  • You choose the state names
  • You can invert the state names
  • Flexible pin assignments
  • Non-volatile saving of settings
  • Flexible tags for remote control

In Action

You configure the relay by giving it a name--for example "Compressor Start" and then drag-and-drop the connections to any Soft-I/O pins.  Relay are highly inductive.  When inductors are turned off, the dynamic part of the inductor will continue to supply current, thus trying to drive the voltage of the turn-off transistor up or down, depending upon how you configured Soft-I/O.  With most PLC's and I/O systems, you are required to put a diode across the relay coil to handle this inductive current.  While it's not a bad thing to do, you don't have to do this with Soft-I/O.  It's up to you.  When you have finished the relay configuration, merely submit your choices and then test the relay on the Soft-Device page.  What could be simpler? 

Technical Specifications

Each relay is connected to the Soft-I/O module with two wires—the module supplies relay power, and that simplifies wiring.
Non-volatile, user-configurable parameters include: Soft-I/O module supplied 24 V or 5 V power selection; sourcing or sinking circuit configuration and state naming and Soft-I/O pin assignments.

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