High-power relay for Arduino, Raspberry Pi, PIC, or Wifi

It’s time for another Cool Tools video review. This is the DLI IoT Relay. I got it for around $30 on Amazon.

The 3-5 volts that comes out of an Arduino or Raspberry Pi can be useful for lighting up an LED, or spinning a toy motor, but on its own you can’t control an appliance, right? You can’t just plug your toaster into an Arduino. And that’s a limitation that loses some people.

The DIY solution is to wire together a relay switch that uses a low voltage trigger to switch mains electrical voltage on and off. But with this comes some real risk of fire and electric shock. Splicing 110v AC wires scares me, and it should scare you too.

This relay power strip from DLI is a great alternative to electrocution. You have two outlets that are normally off, but get switched on when triggered, and one outlet that’s normally on but switches off when triggered.

On the side here you have a removable screw terminal block that takes your low voltage trigger from an Arduino or Raspberry Pi — anything from 3-5 volts. One connects to ground and the other to an I/O pin.

Finally, the best part is that there’s an outlet here that’s always on that you can use to power your board. So yet get power for your board and your project all in one package.

When working with mains voltage relays becomes this safe and easy you really have freedom to play. I made a little project that uses an Ultrasonic sensor and an Arduino to send out 5v to the relay when my hand gets close. And now I can literally control any appliance with a wave of my hand — a light, a turntable, a fan.

It’s great for interactive props, or holiday lights, data logging projects, IoT projects, gardening systems — you name it.

-- Donald Bell