Messages

1

Voltage, polarity, wire size, etc. / Re: controlling universal motor interface with raspberry pi GPIO

« on: May 14, 2016, 01:34:12 PM »

great, thanks for the info!

2

Voltage, polarity, wire size, etc. / controlling universal motor interface with raspberry pi GPIO

« on: May 13, 2016, 02:04:43 PM »

i just ordered the universal control interface kit (http://rollertrol.com/store/en/motor-control-kits-for-home-automation-systems/58-home-automation-systems-motor-control-starter-kit.html), and i'm looking into controlling it via a raspberry pi.

my knowledge of electronics is a bit limited, so i'm not totally clear on how to reliably and safely control things. the universal interface info page (http://rollertrol.com/universal-DC-motor-interface-for-motorized-blinds-shades) says that it needs "switch closures" for control, which i'm interpretting to mean connecting one of the control pins to GND. i'm pretty sure i can do this with the pi's GPIO pins by outputting a low signal, but then i'm not sure what sort of voltage/current the pi will have to sink from the universal interface board? i feel like i saw something about 5v somewhere, although i can't find it now...i'm pretty sure asking the 3.3V GPIO pins to sink 5V isn't a good idea, right? if so i'll probably need to control a transistor with the GPIO pins, and use the transistor to connect the interface's header pins to GND?

thanks for any info!