Wiring a falcon picap to a relay via GPIO pins

CheekyCholla

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Aug 1, 2019
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I am curious as to how to control a relay with a falcon picap. I understand how to control it with the software but am curious how to physically wire the picap to the relay. The picap sits on the rasspi by connecting to it's GPIO pins. Would I just jump from the top of the picap where the GPIO pins are?

Sorry for any lack of hardware understanding.
 

Notenoughlights

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I wouldn't assume it to be possible directly as (excuse my errors if this is all wrong) the Picap looks like it's designed for pixel data output only, so you would need something (Hanson Electronics DC2811) that can control DC outputs with a pixel signal. Connecting a relay directly to GPIO pins is a terrible idea without backEMF protection circuitry as you run a high risk of cooking the GPIO output when the relay clicks off, I also believe they are 3.3v logic level output so may not even drive a relay nor have enough current to get it to hold.
 

Grozzy

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Aug 16, 2018
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The Hanson PiCap has a breakout for GPIO26 but I don't think the Falcon one does.
You would have to manually jumper to a free GPIO pin.
As far as the relay itself is concerned as long as you stick to one of the little Arduino modules you should be right. They are opto-isolated and have back EMF protection and trigger on 3V. You just can't power them off a GPIO pin.IMG_20210915_160729_edit_1223977071618963.jpg
 
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