Good source of DIN Rail control components

[Tim S]

Hi,

One for the electronics folk:

Hager do some very nice industrial style DIN rail components, including indicator lights, switches and relays (not contactors, I'm looking mostly at

[mick]

The DIN rail control components always seem to be pricey. Those prices don't sound extortionate. RS & Farnell are both a bit expensive anyway, but they are sometimes the only way to get one-off bits.

Lots of manufacturers (ABB, Merlin Gerin etc.) make the DIN stuff, but AFAIK none of it is particularly cheap.

I design small panels for a living and, unless you are using quite a few relays, timers, contactors etc. in a modular enclosure, I've found that the DIN rail controls tend to make the job expensive. They are great when you only need a few in those circumstances though, as it means that you don't need to produce special control plates to fit the box.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I tend to use the "Finder" range of relays and bases for DIN rail mounting, usually the 1/2" wide ones, which come in a range of contacts arrangements, current ratings, and coil voltages. Being quite compact, you can get a lot of them in a relatively small enclosure, and they're much cheaper than the price you mention above, even if you want to add the extra modules to the base such as indicator LED and/or back-EMF protection diode.

I buy them from CPC and Farnell (although they are the same company, they both stock parts the other one doesn't).

Funnily enough, one of the systems I've built is a computer interface controlling a boiler and two heating zones, which is in a small box with 5 relays. There's no human interface at the box -- that's done through a computer, alarm panel, phone line, or separate control panels built to fit in with the local decor (sort of, could be done better). In other cases, I have used MK grid switch controls and indicators. I picked up a load of the gridswitch indicator lamps a while back, and I tend to refit them with about 3 LEDs. (These are used to indicate external lights are on, where the switch is momentary action and thus doesn't indicate the on/off state.)

[Tim S]

Andrew Gabriel coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hi Andrew,

OK - Found them. Cool - much better pricing on the relays -thanks!

There's probably a lot to be said for using a grid panel for the user-side - sleekness being the main one. It's only for manual override switches and a few indicators to show the current system state (boiler call-for-heat, certain pumps running, that sort of thing).

Nice idea putting LEDs in.

Cheers

Tim

[Tim S]

mick coughed up some electrons that declared:

Thanks Mick. I agree the tag: "industrial" usually bumps the price up. But Andrew's pointer on relays is quite favourable. Hager's stuff is nice, as you could build a small style-coordinated panel entirely with their stuff, but their price on terminals alone is silly (RS sell 100's of different DIN terminals for tens of pence each, whereas Hager's list price is 2-6 quid per terminal!

Cheers

Tim

[mark]

I use

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim S saying something like:

How f'kn much?

I pay about five, six quid for those - DIN rail, DPST, 6A, from my local elec wholesaler. You're getting stitched, mate.

[Tim S]

Grimly Curmudgeon coughed up some electrons that declared:

Which wholesaler is that?

My local wholesaler isn't up to carrying such things - so it's a special order, which is list price - 20% + VAT, so more or less list and as we know, list price is twice what the product's worth.

In fact we have probably 6 or 7 wholesalers withing 5 miles and all the ones I've been to are useless (I haven't been to them all yet, but I've kind of lost the will to live here). I go with the friendly one (better friendly and a bit useless than obnoxious and useless :(

Oh well...

Cheers

Tim

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim S saying something like:

A small one in a town in Ireland, so you'd expect it to be not as cheap as the bigger ones in the YooKay, but I've been pleasantly surprised on many occasions.

Oh, oh, fatal words to hear, even from my bod - "Special Order", means it will indeed be twice the price. Perhaps I'm lucky in that my place does stock a wide range of gear for the size of it and these units are in stock all the time.