Isolator Bricklet

Features

  • Galvanically isolates the power and data lines
  • Can be used between any Brick and any Bricklet with a 7 pole connector

Description

The Isolator Bricklet can galvanically isolate the power and data lines between any Brick and any Bricklet with a 7 pole connector.

Any Bricklet that does analog/digital input/output may benefit from galvanic isolation, for example:

The Isolator Bricklet has two 7 pole Bricklet connectors. It is connected to a Brick with a 7p-7p Bricklet cable on one side and to a Bricklet with a 7p-7p Bricklet cable on the other side.

Technical Specifications

Property Value
Current Consumption 280mW (56mA at 5V)
   
Isolation Voltage Power Supply 3kV (1s), 60V (continuous)*
Isolation Voltage Data 2.5kV (ESD), 600V (60s), 200V (continuous)*
   
Dimensions (W x D x H) 30 x 40 x 15 (1.18 x 1.58 x 0.59")
Weight 7.1g

* See datasheet of MAX14850 for details of data isolation and of CRE1S0505S3C for details of power isolation.

Resources

Example

Below you can see an Isolator Bricklet that is connected to a Master Brick on one side and to a Voltage/Current Bricklet 2.0 on the other side.

Isolator Bricklet with connected Master Brick and Voltage/Current Bricklet 2.0

The Voltage/Current Bricklet 2.0 is now galvanically isolated from the Master Brick and thus from the USB port or other Bricks/Bricklets that may be connected to the Master Brick.

You can now use this Voltage/Current Bricklet 2.0 to measure the voltage and current without having to pay attention to the ground potential. As an example, you could connect it to any cell of a multi cell battery. Even if the battery is powering the Master Brick!

Test your Isolator Bricklet

To test a Isolator Bricklet you need to have Brick Daemon and Brick Viewer installed. Brick Daemon acts as a proxy between the USB interface of the Bricks and the API bindings. Brick Viewer connects to Brick Daemon. It helps to figure out basic information about the connected Bricks and Bricklets and allows to test them.

Connect the Isolator Bricklet to a Brick with a Bricklet Cable and the Bricklet that you want to isolate to the Isolator Bricklet.

If you connect the Brick to the PC over USB, you should see a new tab named "Isolator Bricklet" in the Brick Viewer after a moment. Select this tab. If everything went as expected you can now see the Isolator Bricklet as well as the isolated Bricklet in Brick Viewer.

Isolator Bricklet in Brick Viewer

After this test you can go on with writing your own application. See the Programming Interface section for the API of the Isolator Bricklet and examples in different programming languages.

Case

A laser-cut case for the Isolator Bricklet is available.

Case for Isolator Bricklet

The assembly is easiest if you follow the following steps:

  • Screw spacers to the Bricklet,
  • screw bottom plate to bottom spacers,
  • build up side plates,
  • plug side plates into bottom plate and
  • screw top plate to top spacers.

Below you can see an exploded assembly drawing of the Isolator Bricklet case:

Exploded assembly drawing for Isolator Bricklet

Hint: There is a protective film on both sides of the plates, you have to remove it before assembly.

Programming Interface

See Programming Interface for a detailed description.

Language API Examples Installation
C/C++ API Examples Installation
C/C++ for Microcontrollers API Examples Installation
C# API Examples Installation
Delphi/Lazarus API Examples Installation
Go API Examples Installation
Java API Examples Installation
JavaScript API Examples Installation
LabVIEW API Examples Installation
Mathematica API Examples Installation
MATLAB/Octave API Examples Installation
MQTT API Examples Installation
openHAB API Examples Installation
Perl API Examples Installation
PHP API Examples Installation
Python API Examples Installation
Ruby API Examples Installation
Rust API Examples Installation
Shell API Examples Installation
Visual Basic .NET API Examples Installation
TCP/IP API    
Modbus API