Electronics > Beginners

220 and 110 V

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forrestc:

--- Quote from: andy3055 on November 10, 2019, 04:33:55 pm ---IanB hit the nail on the head so to speak. After 50+ years of experience, I still take extra precautions when I have to deal with anything that has exposed mains voltages.

--- End quote ---

I don't know if it is necause of experience,  knowledge, wisdom, or just becoming a bit more risk adverse as I get older, but I find that as I've gotten older,  my desire to bring mains voltage anywhere near my circuits has decreased drastically.

Some of my early experiments were computer controlled lighting controls, assembled with great ignorance.  I'm surprised I didn't burn anything down.   I still have one assembled carefully in a wooden box with inadequate standoffs.  And no I don't use it anymore.  It's simultaneously frightening and also amazing that I succeeded in making this work.

For the OP:  there are lots of interesting projects out there which don't directly connect to the mains, and instead connect using a certified power adapter, such as a USB charger.  In fact a couple of the projects you described would work this way.

For instance one can buy pir sensors which would run off 5V which is USB voltage.   You can also buy safe relays to control with them or with other circuits (look up DLI IoT relay).   

The LED light array also wouldn't need direct AC connection.

I'd just skip anything which connects directly to the AC line.

soldar:

--- Quote from: forrestc on November 12, 2019, 03:16:38 pm ---I don't know if it is necause of experience,  knowledge, wisdom, or just becoming a bit more risk adverse as I get older, but I find that as I've gotten older,  my desire to bring mains voltage anywhere near my circuits has decreased drastically.
--- End quote ---

Same here. I was disassembling something I built decades ago and I was shocked to see 220 Vac everywhere and very close to the metal case. I would never build something like that today.

ender4171:
It depends on the circuit.  Most switching supplies don't care if you feed them 110 or 220.  If you have a circuit that uses a transformer or a linear supply you might need to change out some components.  Pretty much anything with an IC is going to actually run at low DC voltage.  In the case where you can't run a circuit off either AC voltage, you just need to look at the schematic/block diagram, determine what parts are the power supply, and modify the components/values to suit your voltage.  For instance, say you had a simple 555 timer circuit that was driven by a 220v to 12v transformer, rectifier, and filtering circuit.  You would change out the transformer and anything before it with equivalent 110v versions.  Once you get to the LV DC part of the circuit, it shouldn't need any modification.

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