Relay turns on when input is LOW?!



  • The title says it all: I have connected a relay to my network and it switches power on (led on the relay lights up), when the input pin goes low and vice versa.

    Thats a little bit confusing, when switching off something in the controller UI and the device is switching on 😉 and i don't think, that zwitching the state in the arduino code is the way to go 😄

    any idea whats wrong here? Wiring is straight forward (vcc & gnd with corresponding pins on relay + D2 to I1 on the relay).

    The code is the the one from the examples (as far as I remember 😄 ).

    I inserted some debug statements to prevent stupid errors on my side 😉

        Serial.print("arduino pin: ");
        Serial.println(message.sensor + FIRST_DIGITAL_RELAY_OUTPUT);
        Serial.print("message.bool: ");
        Serial.println(message.getBool());
        digitalWrite(message.sensor + FIRST_DIGITAL_RELAY_OUTPUT, message.getBool() ? RELAY_ON : RELAY_OFF);
    

    =>

    arduino pin: 2
    message.bool: 1
    

    results in switched off relay.

    Thanks for helping

    EDIT: maybe "hardware" is the wrong section and "Troubleshooting" a better location 😉 If thats the case: please move the thread if possible


  • Mod

    I don't remember why this happens, but the simple solution is to switch the #defines for RELAY_ON and RELAY_OFF in the beginning of the sketch. The reason those are defined is to make it easy to switch them.



  • Not sure what kind of relay setup you are using, but are you using a pull-up or pull-down resistor on your data line? If you are using pull-up resistors, the data line is always high and needs to be pulled low to be active. Check that you are not using the internal pull-up resistors on your data line. For this you should use a pull-down resistor if your relay setup does not already have one.


  • Hero Member

    If you are using a relay module similar to this one

    0_1465897251623_4-81.jpg

    They often use a PNP transistor to drive the relay. That means you will need to switch the arduino output low to turn on the relay, as you have discovered.

    As @mfalkvidd has said the simple fix may be to reverse the #defines

    Here is what the relay circuit would look like. They would also likely have a resistor from the transistor base to vcc to ensure the transistor turns off

    0_1465897544475_pnp driver.jpg



  • Ah that explains it for me. Thanks for the dettailed answer. I will @mfalkvidd's and switch the defines. thank you all 😉

    Greetings


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