Thursday, December 23, 2010
The CUSB-36R Christmas Light Circuit
This is the circuit diagram for the Comfile CUSB-36R Programmed Christmas Lights. If it is a little hard to read drop me an email at keithsw1@yahoo.com and I will return a more detailed schematic.
Basically the Comfile CUSB-36R can either directly drive mains powered devices or it can drive relays to switch mains powered devices. There are two groups of 8 in this circuit diagram.
I have chosen to switch ports P40-P47 directly. This limits their total current draw to 5Amps which is protected in this diagram by the 5A fuse. Make sure you wire this in correctly and test that when the fuse is removed the circuit stops working. I accidentally miswired my fuse and burnt out one half of my circuit due to too much current draw.
The other 8 circuits are switched using high current 24V relays. This alows me to switch much greater currents without damaging the CUSB-36R.
The switch attached to P10 is used as an input to control the playback mode the device is in. To change modes you press and hold until it is sensed.
The other inputs P11, P12 and P13 are attached to a Cat-5 lan cable which connects to the Velleman K8055 and are used to synch the computer to the lights that are flashed by the CUSB-36R. There is also a 24V line which is used to power the relays the K8055 will close to trigger the P11, P12 and P13 inputs.
To do the power sockets on the cheap I bought 16 2m Arlec extension cords and cut the plug end off it. This works really well as the leads hang out of the box which means the box does not need a large surface area to hold all the sockets.
In my next post we will look at the program that runs the light show.
Basically the Comfile CUSB-36R can either directly drive mains powered devices or it can drive relays to switch mains powered devices. There are two groups of 8 in this circuit diagram.
I have chosen to switch ports P40-P47 directly. This limits their total current draw to 5Amps which is protected in this diagram by the 5A fuse. Make sure you wire this in correctly and test that when the fuse is removed the circuit stops working. I accidentally miswired my fuse and burnt out one half of my circuit due to too much current draw.
The other 8 circuits are switched using high current 24V relays. This alows me to switch much greater currents without damaging the CUSB-36R.
The switch attached to P10 is used as an input to control the playback mode the device is in. To change modes you press and hold until it is sensed.
The other inputs P11, P12 and P13 are attached to a Cat-5 lan cable which connects to the Velleman K8055 and are used to synch the computer to the lights that are flashed by the CUSB-36R. There is also a 24V line which is used to power the relays the K8055 will close to trigger the P11, P12 and P13 inputs.
To do the power sockets on the cheap I bought 16 2m Arlec extension cords and cut the plug end off it. This works really well as the leads hang out of the box which means the box does not need a large surface area to hold all the sockets.
In my next post we will look at the program that runs the light show.
Labels: CUSB Comfile CUSB-36R Circuit
