{"id":3495,"date":"2017-02-24T17:44:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T01:44:15","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T07:00:00","slug":"3495","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/3495","title":{"rendered":"How can I control AC devices with the Digital Control Unit?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Digital Control Unit<\/a> (DCU-BTD<\/nobr>) is a great tool for integrating Vernier sensors with simple DC output devices, like buzzers, LEDs, and fans. However, the DCU cannot operate AC devices, like the kind you would plug into a wall outlet, directly.<\/p>\n

The easiest way we have found to control an AC device with the DCU is using a PowerSwitch Tail II. This power cord can switch on and off 120 V AC devices with a simple control voltage, like the output of a DCU, an Arduino, or other microcontroller. Connect a DCU line to its “+in” input and the DCU ground to its “-in” input, and it will switch “on” whenever the DCU line is activated. You can control lights, space heaters, toasters, or any device you would plug into a wall outlet. The PowerSwitch Tail II can be purchased from a variety of online vendors, including Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"3495-hardware.jpg\"<\/p>\n

DCU connected to the PowerSwitch Tail II. When DCU line D1 is activated, the light bulb will turn on.<\/i><\/p>\n

If you are comfortable with basic electronics, you can skip the DCU and use the PowerSwitch Tail II exclusively. Do the following:<\/p>\n

1) Using a Digital BTD Cable<\/a> (CB-BTD<\/nobr>) (or a Digital Sensor Cable<\/a> (MDC-BTD<\/nobr>) cable cut in half), fan out the individual wires. Determine which wire connects to each BTD pin. The pinout for the BTD cable is at www.vernier.com\/support\/sensor-pinouts\/
\n2) Connect Pin 1 of a BTD cable to the “+in” input and Pin 5 to the “-in”. Plug the BTD cable into the DIG\/SONIC1 channel of a Vernier interface.
\n3) In Logger Pro<\/i> in the Experiment\/Sensor Setup window, choose the “Digital Control Unit” in the drop-down menu for DIG\/SONIC1 (even though you are not using the DCU). <\/p>\n

Now you can control the PowerSwitch Tail II from Logger Pro<\/i>, just as if you had it connected to the first digital output line (D1) of the DCU.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The is a great tool for integrating Vernier sensors with simple DC output devices, like buzzers, LEDs, and fans. However, the DCU cannot operate AC…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9585,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[3062,509,798,5926],"class_list":["post-3495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-ac-power","tag-dcu-btd","tag-diy","tag-electronics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9585"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vernier.com\/til\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}