Hello,
I was doing some reliability validation on the Sparkfun Quad Relays. I applied 30V through the COM of relay 1 and attached an electronic load of the NO of relay 1. I set the eload to draw 0.25A at 30V and toggled the relay at 1Hz using the Qwiic interface with an FT232H board. After about 5 minutes the relay LED continues to toggle at 1Hz but the relay itself remains connected. This was also occuring with the Sparkfun single relay ( COM-15093 ). Any idea what is happening? The datasheet for the relays on board specify that it can support 30VDC at 10A.
Assuming you are powering the relay board with 5V, the LED toggles with the control for the relay. If you see the LED toggling, but the connection between COM and NO aren’t toggling… my guess is that either the relay is stuck or there is a short between your connections.
Maybe try doing a simple test with a battery and lightbulb (from like a flaghlight) to see if the relay is working. Just to isolate the issue from the max VDC rating.
Hi,
I actually opened up the relay and the relay contacts does seem to get stuck intermittently. I still don’t understand why it is getting stuck. A theory is that the contacts are welding due to the amount of the power going through the contacts. Do you think this phenomenon can be avoided if I were to switch a lower frequency? I was doing this test with 1Hz, which is not accurate to how it will be actually used for my setup. If not, I will have to source a different relay or perhaps move towards load switches.
I’ll see if someone from tech support can take a look into this. They might try to replicate the problem to determine if it is a limitation in the relay or if you might have just gotten a bad relay.