Jeremy Harris
Senior Member
Whilst looking for something unrelated, I came across these cheap serial addressable relay modules: http://www.banggood.com/One-Channel-Relay-Module-Intelligent-Custom-Command-Control-Serial-Control-Multi-Mode-Level-Trigger-p-1077655.html
From what I have been able to decode from the information on that link, these modules can be commanded with five serial bytes, can be programmed with a unique address and can be queried to determine what state they are in, all via a TTL level serial link.
I can see a fair few uses for these with Picaxe projects, as it means you could potentially have a multi-drop serial link that allows just two Picaxe pins to control and interrogate a number of these intelligent relays. Each only responds to its own set address, so setting different addresses to different relay modules should allow a multi-drop system to work.
There's also the potential to connect these relay modules to a serial radio transceiver, like the HC-12 modules, and then have a Picaxe send commands to a single HC-12 and that could then both command and interrogate many separate remote, wireless connected, relay modules. As the modules can also be used conventionally, with a trigger input, it may even be possible to trigger a relay module with a sensor and then interrogate it via the serial link to determine what state the relay is in. It's unclear from the limited documentation whether this would work, but it seems as if it might
There are programmable timing functions too, so if a pulsed output was required, a Picaxe could send a serial command to a specific relay module and have that pulse on, then off again, after a programmable time.
I'm inclined to buy some to play with, as they are less than £2 each.
From what I have been able to decode from the information on that link, these modules can be commanded with five serial bytes, can be programmed with a unique address and can be queried to determine what state they are in, all via a TTL level serial link.
I can see a fair few uses for these with Picaxe projects, as it means you could potentially have a multi-drop serial link that allows just two Picaxe pins to control and interrogate a number of these intelligent relays. Each only responds to its own set address, so setting different addresses to different relay modules should allow a multi-drop system to work.
There's also the potential to connect these relay modules to a serial radio transceiver, like the HC-12 modules, and then have a Picaxe send commands to a single HC-12 and that could then both command and interrogate many separate remote, wireless connected, relay modules. As the modules can also be used conventionally, with a trigger input, it may even be possible to trigger a relay module with a sensor and then interrogate it via the serial link to determine what state the relay is in. It's unclear from the limited documentation whether this would work, but it seems as if it might
There are programmable timing functions too, so if a pulsed output was required, a Picaxe could send a serial command to a specific relay module and have that pulse on, then off again, after a programmable time.
I'm inclined to buy some to play with, as they are less than £2 each.