Attempting to upgrade the electrical installation with a control module.

Welcome,

This will be my first post in this section. I am looking to find out if there is any chance of my fancy ideas coming to fruition. I'm getting ready to renovate my flat, where the plan is to upgrade the power installation - from aluminium to copper.
I would like to add a mechanism to this installation that would check for the presence of occupants in the flat and, if not detected, switch off the power.

I would like to realise this with the help of a developer board ( RPi ) connected to the ICT network in the flat. The question is whether there is a relay that accepts 3V on the control and is capable of switching 230V at a maximum of 16A.

Something like THE

First of all, it's better to use a socket; 16A contactors are delicate devices, which can break down, and I don't know what kind of load you're expecting.


There are contactors for such sockets for 5V, 12V, 24V.
You need to have 5V for the Tiny, so not a problem. Rather powering directly from a pin is asking for trouble. You need a transistor + diode, e.g. like this:

https://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/topic1323874.html

I don't know what sockets you are writing about. Could you stick a link to an example?

Well, the picture I pasted is just such a socket, the contactor is that bright white cube.

Ok, so it is possible to connect the 5V RPi to such a socket and, by changing the state on the GPIO pins, switch the socket on/off so that the 230V power supply is switched on or off?

Yes, only it has to be a transistor as I wrote, don't power the contactor coil directly from the GPIO.

i honestly don't get it. Is this how it's supposed to work?

No, not like that.
Here's a bit on such a topic:
http://www.susa.net/wordpress/2012/06/raspberry-pi-relay-using-gpio/
And the transistor could be a BC817 even.

I can see I'm in for a wade through the basics of electronics -.-' and I thought it would be so easy

How do you freeze detect the "presence of residents in the flat" ? This compared to relay control is not a trivial problem.

TvWidget wrote:

How do you freeze detect the "presence of occupants in the flat" ? This compared to relay control is not a trivial problem.

Simpler than you think. The problem is that we are in the 21st century. The young population is not up to speed with gadgets either. What I mean exactly is that RPi can ping smartphones. And you know - when you leave home, you take your phone with you.

So I ping the defined IP addresses of the smartphones, which also respond when they are at rest. There is a ping - there is a person, no ping - no person.

And it's fair to ask what you want to disconnect? Any special device, lighting?

Generally everything except the fridge and gas cooker.

EDIT. the fridge and kitchen + router with RPi will be on the same circuit without the relay

In my case, it probably wouldn't work. My phone often gets discharged at night, or I forget to charge it. I also turn off WiFi when I don't need it.
Do you plan to set times when the mechanism works? E.g. weekdays from 8am to 5pm or something like that?

I do not plan to. However, I do not see a problem to program such dependencies. On principle:

LastCheck = is person
HoursNight => lastCheck && hoursNight = do not change state

As for unloading the phone, the problem does not concern me.

Are you sure that a sleeping phone will respond to pings ?
Mine is no longer responding after about 30 seconds after turning off the screen backlight.

I have checked several times. And I haven't noticed that my phones or girlfriends don't want to respond while I'm 'sleeping'. However, before the overhaul - today/tomorrow in total - I will try to upload a script on the RPi that will check attendance and save the results to a database to later verify if it is as I would like it to be.

Welcome back,

Gentlemen, I review datasheet of transistor BC337 and please confirm or deny. For the operation of this electronic component I need - in my case - AS much as 45V ?!

If this is true, is anyone able to suggest which transistor model on the collector needs 5V, base 3V and emitter 5V ?

45-50 is the MAX voltage!

OK, I asked because it didn't want to work as expected. However, now "dry" the buzzer shows that the relay is working according to the GPIO of the RPi.

I'll try to add the database structure and scripts I've prepared for further electrical upgrades in the near future.

One more beginner question - the emitter of the transistor is connected to GND ?