DIY ATO w/ 9v Batt & Relay

Ok Ive been bored lately and needed an ATO so I made this!

What you need:

Float Switch with Mount
6ft Grounded Extension Cord
Solid State Relay Solid State Relays SSR 3-32VDC 48-480VAC 25A DC 3-25mA | eBay
9 Volt Battery
9 Volt Batt Snap Connector
Project Enclosure
Thin Gague Wire
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OK most of this stuff you can find at RadioShack and Lowes and on Ebay



First use the wire and the 9 volt snap connector to make a circuit that connects to the relay.

The red wire from the 9v snap connector will go to the SSR (input/control #3), the black wire conects to a wire that leads into one of the wire from the float switch. The free lead from the float switch comes back and will connect back to the SSR (input/control #4)

Next you will cut the extension cord, Cut the side that plugs into the wall longer than the one with the socket. Drill holes in the sides of the project box that will fit the cut ends of the extension cord.

Strip back the black casing of the ext cord and expose the 3 wires. You will need to reconnect the white and green wires, I used a sodering iron and shrink tubing. Now the black leads will connect to the SSR on the Output side.

Now drill a small hole in the bottom of the project box to feed the line that goes to the float switch. Almost Done!

Now we need to connect the SSR, on the top of the SSR you have the Output. This is the side that gets spliced into the extension cord. I used crip connectors to clean it up a bit. Now for the Input side the bottom 1/2 of the SSR conects to the 9v snap connector. The red wire from the 9v snap connector conects input/control #3, the lead from the float switch comes back and connects back to the input/control #4. Now plug in the 9 volt batt and close up the project box.

Finaly connect the black lead to the end of the float switch in the mount. I made my mount out of some spare acrylic I had.

Now this unit is basic and you can modify it to use 2 float switches for more safty. Ive been using it for a while now and it gets the job done.
But keep in mind that it runs off a Battery that will need to be replaced.

Hope this helps someone out!

 

Very nice design...

You could sub the battery with a 9v transformer so you would not have to worry about it... Just a thought...

 

Yeah Your right, originally I was going to splice in a 12v power supply I have laying around but I ended up with the 9v. Im going to see how long the 9v lasts and switch to the power supply down the rd!

 

Pretty cool!

 

I actually purchased a kit very similar to that. I haven't put it all together yet, but plan to within the next few weeks.

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