Part | Description | Link |
---|---|---|
Starter Relay | High Current Starter Relay 500 AMP DC 12V 4 Pin SPST Car Auto Start Contactor Double Batteries Isolator Control On/Off Switch | Amazon |
Momentary Pedal Switch | AC 250V 10A SPDT NO NC Plastic Momentary Power Foot Pedal Switch Black | Amazon |
Sonoff SV | Wireless Smart Switch | Sonoff SV |
Aligator Clamps | ||
Battery Terminal Connector | ||
Bolts/Nuts | ||
Probes | ||
Wire |
I ended up using a Sonoff SV since it had everything I needed. The Sonoff SV also has 3 GPIOs available which I used for a RGB LED. It also exposes the GPIO-0 (button) which I used for the foot pedal. The foot pedal made things so much easier.
I originally powered the SONOFF SV off of the battery but found that it would cause the SONOFF to reboot sometimes. So, I ended up powered it with a dedicated 12V 2A power supply.
I programmed the SONOFF micro-controller (ESP8266) to open the relay for a number of microseconds in order to perform the weld.
The time required to weld really depends on your battery source. I noticed that when the battery was running low, it took more time to get a good weld.
I programmed the micro-controller to perform the following tasks:
I revised the build to allow the weld time to be configurable via a web ui running on the microcontroller.
With my batter fully charged, a 30 ms weld did a good job most of the time.