Sometimes, I can be really convenient to be able to power on and off devices remotely. This design can do it, by sending simple orders thru an embedded custom ethernet board : it means that we are using a LAN to perform switching with relays.

This kind of system can be used for various applications. The target application is to remotely control the power on/off of a Camera CCD as well for the telescope engine and to open/close a dome.

This design features :

• Full Ethernet 10Mbit LAN RJ45 communication
• Ethernet to I2C converter and I2C to Ethernet converter
• Ethernet to RS232 converter and RS232 to Ethernet converter
• Can switch by simple TCP/IP/UDP packet orders the opening and the closing of four 250V/10A relays
• Can switch by simple TCP/IP/UDP packet orders the opening and the closing of six 100V/2A relays
• Ethernet to 14 50Mhz I/Os

This picture shows the 2 PCBs : the left one is our embedded ethernet standard board, the right board carries out the switching of relays, as well as I2C and RS232 converters.

The embedded ethernet board as been already used with the following designs, for data transfer :

• Ethernaude CCD camera
• Chungara CCD camera