AP9613 Dry Contact I/O Smartslot Card input

[BillP]

Hi All,

We're planning to use the AP9613 card with a Smart UPS 750 to add controlled power off feature from the machine safety subsystem.

The config guide says "Control inputs are driven by user-supplied dry contact outputs."
Which implies that a stand-alone relay contact should be connected between the INPUT and the respective GND (no voltage should be applied to the input).

However, it also says "The dry contact closure sensing voltage available on these inputs is nominally 5 VDC at less than 1 mA."

which in my understanding means that at least 5VDC should be applied to an input so that it is considered "active" by the device.

This operation mode pretty much determines whether we could use this product. Could anyone confirm which it the right operation mode?

[BillP]

No problem. One other note - if you just want to turn the device off, you may be able to do it with the serial port on the UPS only without the need for AP9613 but if you require a graceful shutdown, we would recommend AP9613.

[Anonymous user]

I am trying to incorporate an EPO chain with the AP9613 card.  I basically just want the UPS to shut down when an EPO signal is given.   I'm wondering if I apply 24VDC to input 4 to close the relay on input 2 would work for this type of application.  Also you said you would need 2 external 3.3K ohm resistors as well to work?

[BillP]

I'm no expert, but as far as I can tell it should work, what I'm not sure about is the response time. We had no such requirement, because we didn't use this as EPO, rather a decent shutdown. What I'd do is connect a 3.3k between IN4 and ISOGND4; connect NO4 to IN2 and COM4 to ISOGND2, and configure input4 action to close output4 relay, and input2 action to shutdown. Thus, applying +24V to IN4 is supposed to shut the UPS down, and letting the input float should enable you to restart it manually.

[Anonymous user]

Thanks alot. 

[BillP]

Hi All,

We're planning to use the AP9613 card with a Smart UPS 750 to add controlled power off feature from the machine safety subsystem.

The config guide says "Control inputs are driven by user-supplied dry contact outputs."
Which implies that a stand-alone relay contact should be connected between the INPUT and the respective GND (no voltage should be applied to the input).

However, it also says "The dry contact closure sensing voltage available on these inputs is nominally 5 VDC at less than 1 mA."

which in my understanding means that at least 5VDC should be applied to an input so that it is considered "active" by the device.

This operation mode pretty much determines whether we could use this product. Could anyone confirm which it the right operation mode?

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hello, I double checked on this for you and was told:

The inputs can be driven either with dry contacts or with a voltage. To allow the inputs to be driven with dry contacts, the card is pulling the input up with 10K ohms to 5V. If the user overpowers this pullup with a voltage input the specification is on pg. 17 of the user manual: " 0–30 VDC, Minimum for active: 4.5 V; Maximum for inactive: 0.5 V "

[BillP]

Hi Angela,

Thanks again for your help. Recently we've tried a new configuration of controlling AP9613 using a 24VDC rather than dry contacts.

While the dry contact method works beautifully, we have tried to apply 24VDC on the input (and 0V on the respective ISO GND pin) but that approach doesn't seem to be working.

Could you provide some details on how we're supposed to connect the 24VDC control signal and the 0V? If you're allowed to disclose the circuit diagram of the input stage that would be the appreciated, but if not, please confirm the right way of using the voltage control mode.

[BillP]

Sorry for the delay. After further research here is what I'd say:

The problem probably is that nothing is ever driving/pulling the input low; the 10K pullup to 5V is a "high" and so is the 24V; probably the 24V input control is through a SPST switch. An approximately 3.3K ohm 1/4W resistor to ground on the input should pull it low so the 24V will drive it high.

Please see attached file for a schematic.

[BillP]

Hi Angela,

Thanks, we eventually managed to get it working.

The solution you proposed works, the only issue was that in non-energized state both inputs (on and off) would be 'closed', which in our case means that both the "turn on" and "turn off" commands are given simultaneously, which is not allowed, obviously.

If anyone faces the same problem in the future, here's the solution we've come up with to turn the UPS on/off.

We use the input #1 and #2 to turn the UPS on and off, and the input #3 and #4 to close/open the output relay #1 and #2, which are directly connected to input #1 and #2, and eventually turn the UPS on and off.

The key is to configure the output relays in such a way that when input #3 is pulled down with 3.3kOhm (NC, non-energized state), the output relay #1 is open.

Then if +24V is applied to input #3, output relay #1 closes and the UPS is commanded to turn on. Input #2 (and #4) and output relayˇ#2 works similarly.

This might look a bit complicated, but only 2 external resistors are necessary, all 4 inputs are used up though. Anyways, thanks again for your support.