Well there is 120V all over the board - terminal strips, triacs and the
traces between them.  So sticking fingers in the board isn't good idea,
isolators or not.

My thinking is that yeah, the optoisolators would protect the low voltage
circuitry in case of a catastrophic failure of a triac, but in that case who
really cares because if a triac blows out the board is broken anyway.

I just don't want the thing to burst into flames because I omitted a critial
part.



On Dec 19, 2007 3:16 PM, alan smith <micro_eng2@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Acceptable if no human hands can touch the circuit..ie...potted or a power
> disconnect switch on the lid of the product (still not as safe as potting).
>  Acceptable? Sure, anything to save a penny is acceptable in the eyes
> management right?  But if you do......make sure its not plugged in when you
> program the micro (off board supply).
>
>  My take...if this is a small production type thing, just use the opto.
>  If your building gazzillions....yeah...might make sense.
>
> RV9 Factory <rv9factory@gmail.com> wrote:
>  STMicro has a line of triacs (BTA16-600SW is one example) designed to be
> driven directly by a microcontroller (or whatever) without using an
> optoisiolator.
>
> Is this a safe and/or acceptable practice? Power to be switched is 120VAC
> ~8A
>
> Thanks!
>
> RV9
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