I'm working on interfacing a PLC to an existing machine that's full of rela ys. I got to thinking that it would be a real time saver if I had a relay b reakout board of sorts. What I'm picturing is a relay base (in this case an 8 pin rectangular that plugs into an 11 pin socket) that breaks out into s crew terminals.
The effect would be like piggybacking another socket on top of the original . That would allow pre-wiring a lot of stuff and minimizing downtime, as we ll as making the modifications easily reversible.
The effect would be like piggybacking another socket on top of the original. That would allow pre-wiring a lot of stuff and minimizing downtime, as well as making the modifications easily reversible.
hmm. Maybe I didn't explain very well. The existing relays are already in e xisting sockets. I am looking for a device that can plug into the already e xisting sockets and provide a new set of screw terminals for me to connect to, so that I can make my connections without disturbing the existing wirin g.
Also, the sockets in question are rectangular, not round. Like these:
A bit of work... buy the socket you linked to and a relay to fit it. An old defunct relay would probably be fine. Cut off the workings from the relay but retain some connections to solder/attach wires to. Basically make a short extender cable :)
Nah, you explained well; the respondent didn't read well or jumped to a conclusion too quickly...
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Agree on the usefulness; no, I haven't seen the device.
I'd suggest contacting IDEC if that's the actual product and see what they say...issue against there being one would likely be just the holddown and reliability issue that they wouldn't want to have with the interposing part so can guess it never would have made production even if somebody in engineering had the thought.
Yup. Screw-terminal sockets for certain common relay sizes definitely do exist, I have some here for 2 stypes of "ice cube" relays. Not exactly sure what you are looking for in this piggyback thing, but to just plug an ice cube relay into a socket and have everything connected by screw terminals, you should be able to find those.
OK, you want to REMOVE the relays, and have something with screw terminals that plug in IN PLACE OF the relays? No, I can't think of something quite like that, off the shelf. Those relay sockets look like they take 1/4" or maybe smaller spade terminals, so you can get crimp-type male spade terminals and wire them to terminals strips. So, you could make such an adaptor.
Nope; the "piggyback thing" is precisely that; a pass thru socket that would provide a second parallel set of contacts independent in connection point to the originals so he can leave present wiring intact and add additional for test/upgrade w/o interfering with present operation. He's already got a screw terminal base...
Safer, both for the relay socket and pinouts, to take the base of an old relay and wire out to a terminal block, I'd think. It would eliminate plug-in errors entirely, once made and rechecked.
- The list of Obama administration disappointments would take three rolls of toilet paper to record. --BMF
Larry, you've got the right idea, except I don't want to MAKE this, I want a source to BUY it. For the current project, I need 20 of them, and I hope I'll need many more in the future.
I have sent an inquiry to a manufacturer (
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) who sells just the headers and also the sockets. If I don't hear back soon, I'll give them a call.
They do use the smaller 0.187" terminals, and I have considered just crimpi ng terminals on my wires and plugging them directly into the sockets rather than crimping ferrules onto my wires (I try to always do that for neatness & reliability) and putting them under screw terminals. That would be a che aper, almost no-parts solution. It's a problem, though, if I want to put mo re than one wire on a terminal.
Correct. I do a lot of this kind of work, and these relays are very common in older equipment. Pulling out the relays leaves a very tempting place to interface the new controls without ripping out existing wiring.
lays. I got to thinking that it would be a real time saver if I had a relay breakout board of sorts. What I'm picturing is a relay base (in this case an 8 pin rectangular that plugs into an 11 pin socket) that breaks out into screw terminals.
al. That would allow pre-wiring a lot of stuff and minimizing downtime, as well as making the modifications easily reversible.
Further to the discussion, back in the day, I used to use devices like this
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in my test fixtures. This was a "socket saver" meant to protect the socket from repeated insertions and retractions, while prov iding convenient points to probe the connections.
Something like that with the correct socket configuration and larger tabs w ith screw terminals or even just plain tabs to accept .250" faston connecto rs would be great. Would even need the second set of socket receptacles, th ough that would be a bonus.
Perhaps the tabs wouldn't have to come out of the periphery, the could just be .250 (or probably easier, .187) faston tabs where the socket receptacle s would be. Sort of a male-male relay adapter.
relays. I got to thinking that it would be a real time saver if I had a rel ay breakout board of sorts. What I'm picturing is a relay base (in this cas e an 8 pin rectangular that plugs into an 11 pin socket) that breaks out in to screw terminals.
inal. That would allow pre-wiring a lot of stuff and minimizing downtime, a s well as making the modifications easily reversible.
No, not like this. What you suggested is a relay socket - I really thought I had made it clear that I'm looking for something that will plug into an a lready existing relay socket, and bring the connections out to screw termin als.
For the third, fourth or fifth time: I work on lots of machines that have c abinets loaded with this sort of relay socket (with relays plugged in). I u pgrade these machines by adding PLCs in place of the relays. It would be a good thing if I had the ability to just plug my wiring into the already exi sting relay sockets.
Therefore, I'm looking for either a male plug shaped like the relay base th at would plug into the socket you linked to and provide a duplicate set of screw terminals; or even better, a socket with the female terminals (and sc rew terminals) on top and male terminals (like on a relay) on the bottom so that the device could plug int the existing socket , provide an extra set of screw terminals AND optionally have a relay plugged into it. So it sould sandwich between the original socket and the original relay.
No, not like this. What you suggested is a relay socket - I really thought I had made it clear that I'm looking for something that will plug into an already existing relay socket, and bring the connections out to screw terminals.
For the third, fourth or fifth time: I work on lots of machines that have cabinets loaded with this sort of relay socket (with relays plugged in). I upgrade these machines by adding PLCs in place of the relays. It would be a good thing if I had the ability to just plug my wiring into the already existing relay sockets.
Therefore, I'm looking for either a male plug shaped like the relay base that would plug into the socket you linked to and provide a duplicate set of screw terminals; or even better, a socket with the female terminals (and screw terminals) on top and male terminals (like on a relay) on the bottom so that the device could plug int the existing socket , provide an extra set of screw terminals AND optionally have a relay plugged into it. So it sould sandwich between the original socket and the original relay.
If you have enough of a requirement for them, it would not be terribly expensive to have a couple hundred PC boards made up to accept pc board terminal blocks like:
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to connect your wires to, and PC mount blade type power connectors like
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arranged to fit the relay socket. I've had similar boards made up, populated with the correct terminals for something like $10 - $15 each in quantities of 100 about thirty years ago. The ones I had made were to convert the connections of an odd-ball CD RON drive to accept a standard cable connector. Make up a few hundred and sell them to your competition - - - -
Which base configuration? If it is a standard OCTAL base there used to be breakout test plugs for tubes that would do the job. They had either binding posts or fahnstock clips on them. Haven't seen them for YEARS but they used to be readily available from what I remember from my days fooling around with old tube radios. One of the mailorder places I used to deal with carried them, I think. Not difficult to have something custom made in reasonable quantities at a decent price today.
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