8-Channel 5V Solid State Relay Module Board for Arduino Uno Duemilanove MEGA2560 MEGA1280 ARM DSP PIC

Great solid state opto isolated relay module. I use it in a research instrument to actuate solenoid valves for irrigation. The solid state relays are quick and have stood up to months of use in a hot, humid, and intensely lit greenhouse environment. The price was appropriate, this product is a good value and high quality. I recommend this product for applications where the relays will be switching many times and at a high frequency, these modules are clearly superior to mechanically actuated relays for most applications.The LEDs are great for indicating the status of each relay. This is the second great product I've got from SainSmart, the first being a Arduino Mega 2560, and I will definitely seek out their products in the future.

As an electronics hobbyist, I am planning to design my own Christmas light show this year and dreaded the idea of having to build boards with relays on them that could be controlled by my Arduino. This board has all the features I could possibly want, and it's designed better than what I would have done at a fraction of what it would have cost me to do.NOTE: This uses a triac; so it's not going to work for switching on direct current loads. I verified that with a quick test. It works great for AC loads, but is not designed for DC loads. If you need to control DC loads, then you'll want to purchase the mechanical relay board also made by Sainsmart.A schematic of how each relay is wired is given at the Sainsmart website. Based on that and some measurements I've made, here are some features that aren't obvious from the description.1. Each relay is protected by a fuse. Granted, the fuse is hard-soldered to the board; so if you blow the fuse, you'll have to de-solder and re-solder a new fuse in place, but that's not a huge problem. Protects each circuit from drawing more than the 2 amps that the relay is rated for.2. The signal from the Arduino doesn't cut on the relay directly. Instead, the signal from the Arduino turns on a transistor, which closes a circuit that turns on the relay. The relay itself is optocoupled; so there is plenty of electrical isolation between the Arduino board and the relay. No worries at all on my part about frying my Arduino board.3. Each relay draws about 10 milliamps from the Arduino when switched on. If you're only turning on a few relays at the time, that is not a problem for the Arduino to handle. If you want to turn on LOTS of relays at the same time, the transistor design mentioned above allows you to provide an EXTERNAL dc voltage to turn on the relays and then the Arduino can be used to just switch on the transistors. It's a very elegant design that is ideal.4. Each relay has an LED wired to the circuit so that when the LED lights up when the relay is switched on. This takes the guesswork out of wiring issues and wondering if you hooked things up properly.I plan to eventually use 6 or more of these relay boards to be controlled by an Arduino Mega. Each relay will be used to provide power to an electrical outlet into which I can plug the Christmas lights. The time that I would have spent having to design a relay board just got eliminated so that I can spend more time on my light show design.Overall, this is an excellent design. If I run into any problems, I'll post again, but it looks like it's going to do everything I could possibly want.UPDATE: This board is fantastic! I've been using my Arduino to control AC loads with it. Works like a champ. Excellent buy for the money, since many board on the internet with this capability cost much more. If you want a solid, well built board that works, then this is the one for you.

built this crazy Christmas light show with this and was amazed

Alright, I ordered this with some skepticism because the boards commonly recommended by Christmas sequencers out there (like Vixen freeware) are all quite expensive and do-it-yourself intense. When I saw this board for the price, I ordered one to test out with my Arduino Mega board and it took all of 10 minutes to get it hooked up and working like a champ.I have not put it into use with 110VAC yet. (J Fuller, I would LOVE to see how you wired this up)From the LED status it's working PERFECTLY with an Arduino board and Vixen. It took 5V and a ground (provided by the Arduino in the "POWER" section on the Mega 2560 board), and I have no ground in the "GND" connection on the main 9-pin screw-down connector.In short - this board, combined with Arduino and Vixen greatly simplifies these "amazing displays" that you see all over YouTube.-S

This device worked flawlessly, and was an excellent value for the money. My only gripe is that the contacts for the inputs tighten upwards in the socket rather than downwards. I figured it would tighten downwards, and so tried to tighten the screws more than was intended, and ended up stripping the plastic. This is mostly my error, but with the caveat that tightening "up" is kind of odd! Other than that though, excellent product.