Trigger a relay when plug is present in outlet.

[DanksFreeman]

This is half for learning half for the automation of it.

I have an inverter in my car that is buried in a mess of other electronics. An extension cord runs out of it to an outlet in my side panel. The inverter is turned on by a relay triggered by one of two buttons.

I'm wondering if there is an easy way of detecting is something is physically plugged into the outlet (outlet with a built in relay perhaps?) that could trigger the relay to turn on the inverter. So if something is plugged into the outlet the inverter is automatically turned on. I can use relays to adapt to whatever kind of switch, button, or relay output would be coming from the outlet.

 

[CDRIVE]

The easiest and probably the cheapest method would be a microswitch mounted close to the receptacle that closes by virtue of the appliance plug pressing on it.

Chris

 

[DanksFreeman]

That's what I was thinking as well. Thank you for confirming this being the best way.

 

[CDRIVE]

I do have another idea that would be more elegant but definitely more complex. I'm heading out to my watering hole where I'll mull this over and sketch circuits on bar napkins. When I return home I'm usually much smarter!

Cheers!
Chris

 

[CDRIVE]

Like I said I always return from the watering hole a whole lot smarter. What I was going to propose was a 12V low current sensing circuit that would conduct when an appliance was plugged into the receptacle. This current was going to control a Changeover relay that would disconnect the sensing circuit from the receptacle and switch the receptacle to the 120VAC inverter rails. The problem with this is that no DC current will flow merely because something is plugged into the receptacle if the appliance power switch is off. This further means that I'd have to design a delay to insure that the inverter is fully up and running before it's powering to the load. Not an insurmountable issue but every little issue increases complexity.

Here's another simple suggestion. Mount a manual switch within reach of your 120VAC receptacle.

Chris