110~230V AC Voltage Range Operation

[nodee]

Hi All,

Im trying to figure out how some appliances work from a range of 100~230vac, obviously this covers both the 110V and 230V standard mains supplies so how in terms of the circuit is this achieved?

Im hoping to run a solenoid that will work from either 110 or 230V AC, but am a bit lost on how this will work, any ideas to get me going?


Thanks,
Nodee

 

[FvM]

Appliances with wide supply range are mostly powered by SMPS (switched mode power supplies) in flyback mode, that can easily span the range. Automated switching with relays or triacs/solid state relays can be found in rare cases.

 

[nodee]

Ive been doing some looking around, could I use phase control operation with a triac+diac setup and reduce/increase the phase for 230/110V?

The solenoid when connected to 110V draws around 450mA, if I use 230V (roughly double V) and half the time the solenoid is on for via the traic is that likely to give a average of about 450mA at 230V?

Thinking of using a PIC and MOC3022 to fire the Triac, if the PIC also senses the line voltage coming in I could adjust the triac firing time accordingly?

Thanks,
nodee

 

[grizedale]

Just use a voltage doubler rectifier.........either make the link a manual switch, or do it via a relay switched via a controller depending on the Vin.