Electronic Circuits and electronic circuits, electronic schematics plus an extensive resource for hobbyists, inventors and engineers

DiscoverCircuits.com, has 45,000+ electronic circuits, cross-referenced into 500+ categories.
We have searched the web to help you find quick solutions & design ideas.

Got Designs?
Please eMail
if you want me to link to and/or post your original design
NOTE:  We make every effort to link to original material posted by the designer. 
Please contact us if our link is not to your site!  Thanks.

DiscoverCircuits.com -- Hobby Corner
Last Updated on: Tuesday, June 01, 2021 03:06 PM

Hobby Circuits List

The contents & graphics of Discovercircuits.com are copyright protected.
LINK to Dave's circuit, but DO NOT COPY any files to your WEB SITE server

More  Driver Circuits   Relay Circuits    PWM
 

Reduced Power Relay Driver  Aug 3, 2008


Relays can handle a lot of power.  However, for certain power sensitive designs you would like to reduce the power needed to hold a relay closed.  The circuit below performs such a task.  It uses a single CD4093 quad NAND gate. 
When the “on” logic input signal is detected, the relay is first pulsed on for about 500ms.  This is sufficient time to insure the relay is fully closed.  After that initial pulse the relay is then driven with a square wave signal, whose duty cycle can be adjusted.  The signal duty cycle can be adjusted from about 10% to 90%.  In most cases a 50% duty cycle will hold the relay closed.  This reduces the average DC current required by the same factor, which means a 4:1 reduction in power. The circuit can operate over a wide 3v to 15v range.

Click on Circuit Below to view PDF of Schematic



More  Driver Circuits   Relay Circuits    PWM

Hobby Circuits List
eMail David A. Johnson, P.E. about this circuit


HOME Schematics Index Hobby Corner Dave's Circuits Contact Info
Imagineering Ezine Dave Johnson & Associates Faraday Touch Switches


 About Us   |  Advertise on DiscoverCircuits.com   |   Report Broken Links  |    Link to DiscoverCircuits.com  |    Privacy Policy

Copyright  January, 1998 - June, 2021     David A. Johnson  All Rights reserved. 
 Linking is ALLOWED but COPYING any content or graphics to your web site is EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED.