14 Wire Selector Switch

Wow, I forgot about the t-bar relays. My former employer had one of those. Since it was a one of a kind, naturally we did not stock a spare and ended up putting in several "ice-cube" relays when it died.

It was used to select one of two different gray code encoders. We used relays with gold plated contacts since the signal was low voltage and low current. We had some on other applications with plug in relays switching drive analog signals and enable signals. The normal (silver) contacts would not last very long (tire plant with high sulfur atmosphere). The maintenance guys would put in the cheap relays sometimes for troubleshooting. Since they had manual operators and 10 amp contacts the guys thought they were better. It took several episodes of downtime to convince them that the gold plated 1amp contacts were superior.

Interesting thread, as always on this forum. My first take was to use a selector switch with relays, saw the next post suggest that. As I finished the thread I remembered why it is sometimes necessary to use a selector switch without relays.

If you use a selector switch with relays something has to power the relay coils. If you are switching signals between two systems and don't want to use a 3rd power source for the relays, you'd want to use the selector by itself. Food for thought, I've run into it a few times.

And with that, we're off to the New Year's party. Happy New Year everyone!!!

Have you considered a small PLC? This could be more cost effective than some complex switch and in the long run, may be more friendly when a tweak is required.

This is for a hydraulic valve motion controller that was first built for 1 station. The controller only has one channel and is no longer made. But we needed a second station but both station only ned the controller for a couple minutes each between assembly operations that are hours to days long ( die cleaning,inspection and assembly.

So it was replace everything or find a way to switch the the output and feedback wires to the other station. The 4 relays that OkiePC suggested worked like a champ. I don't know why i did not think of that. I was overcomplicating it i guess.

Is this a pretty benign axis or can you break something if it doesn't go right? You may want to do a quick failure analysis to determine what will happen if one of the relays doesn't switch and the signal is connected to the wrong machine.

Keith

Very simple app. It is just for die assembly Vs the old method of using flow controls this way is just more precise and can be commanded to an exact position. No damage or harm would come if one of the relays did not switch.