At 04:40 PM 12/10/01 +0000, ashly Dearden wrote:
>Is it a bad thing to use a solid state relay to control the power to a
>switching power supply or is a mechanical relay a better device

As long as they are rated for the surge current on connection, either type
should be fine.
The solid state type should be a bit better at this than the mechanical,
but I'm not sure that it would be significant.  Your PC power switch is
relay-like contacts.

--
Dave's Engineering Page: http://www.dvanhorn.org

Got a need to read Bar codes?  http://www.barcodechip.com
Bi-directional read of UPC-A, UPC-E, EAN-8, EAN-13, JAN, and Bookland, with
two or five digit supplemental codes, in an 8 pin chip, with NO external parts.

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.