Cards · E1 · Flex Port

E1 AC phase control

Four triac channels on 120 or 230 V mains, behind a line relay that opens on any stop.

In design

What it is

E1 switches real power. It sits on the Flex Port, under the Base, and drives up to four mains loads — heaters, elements, lamps, pumps — with phase-angle or whole-cycle control, metering each channel it senses. A line relay opens the line on any stop, even past a shorted triac. It's a controller, not a dimmer.

E1 leads every worked example that switches mains, from a sous-vide bath to a pottery kiln.

Capabilities

Design values. Current ratings are thermal-model values, to be measured.

  • Single-phase 120 V or 230 V, 50 or 60 Hz.
  • One to four triac channels, phase-angle or whole-cycle.
  • Four low-voltage drives for external solid-state relays, for a load past E1's own rating: a kiln element, a 5.5 kW mash heater, 24 V valves and pumps.
  • Current by build: 16 A in total with a fan, about 8 A with none, or 8 A per channel on heatsinks.
  • A line relay that opens on any stop.
  • Per-channel current sensing, and an io build that adds A7's analog and digital I/O.

Build with it

The pellet smoker, sous-vide bath, yogurt incubator, espresso retrofit, reflow oven, coffee roaster, fermentation chamber, mash tun, pottery kiln, heat-treat oven, greenhouse, aquarium and vacuum pump-down all switch their power through an E1.

Calibration

E1's current and line-voltage metering is calibrated off mains, at a safe low voltage, through its cal port. How calibration works