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LED in a circuit with alternating polarities

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Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Discription: General Mobile Electronics Questions and Answers
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=143011
Printed Date: April 25, 2024 at 4:31 AM


Topic: LED in a circuit with alternating polarities

Posted By: croyfer
Subject: LED in a circuit with alternating polarities
Date Posted: May 28, 2017 at 3:02 PM

Hello.

I am builing a project that simplified is a dolly moving on a track.
When the dolly reaches the end of the track, it triggers a microswitch that cuts the power to the motor, and redirects the power to a LED to light up to indicate that the switch has been triggered.

My problem is that since the motor controller I am using changes the polarity of the motor to make it go left or right, I am getting positive _and_ negative voltage every other time. (depending on if the dolly is moving right or left).
I have tried to use a 12V relay to trigger and light the LED, but the problem with that is that the relay needs at least 6 volts to latch, and when the motor is running slow, the motor controller only provides 3-4 volts.

Is there anyone that has a sollution on how I can make this work? I am just starting to fiddle with electronics, and I am on a bugdet with this build, so therefore: Is there a relatively easy fix for this problem? Are there relays out there that has a latch range from 3V to 12V?

Attatched is:
1: Schematics of the circuit with the LED (and resistor) connected directly to the microswitch. The problem here is that every other time the positive and negative switches.
posted_image

2: Schematics of the circuit with a relay attatched to the 2nd output of the microswitch. The problem here is that the relay need 6 volts to latch, and the motor controller doesnt provide that at slow speeds.
posted_image



Replies:

Posted By: tonanzith
Date Posted: June 25, 2017 at 12:44 AM
When the dolly is at the end of the track does it bump into anything or is it very near anything? If so I would think a mag or magnetic switch or a proximity switch would be ideal here.

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Gary Sather





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