Home Automation Project

Hello all,

I am looking to start playing around with home automation projects. My first project I'd like to do is toggle lights (mains power) with my microcontroller (PIC 18F4550).

I'm not very experienced with circuits though, so I am having trouble getting started and would appreciate some help. My plan was to (carefully) wire a solid state relay in series with the light switch and provide an input voltage with the microcontroller. I am thinking about using the CPC1030N, an optocoupler/transistor combo (data sheet: https://www.dipmicro.com/?datasheet=CPC1030N.pdf ). Then maybe I will add in RX capabilities.

My questions are:
Does this seem like enough to do what I want? It seems like a very simple solution.
How do I find out if the CPC1030N can directly drive a load? It looks like it can from the data sheet, but I have heard of optocoupler/triac chips only working as a trigger and not actually being able to support driving AC loads, so I want to make sure.

thank you!

I can sugest something like that I used successfully :
( note that TRIACs are superdimensioned, due target load was big motors )

**broken link removed**
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andre_teprom said:

I can sugest something like that I used successfully :
( note that TRIACs are superdimensioned, due target load was big motors )

**broken link removed**
+++

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Andre. I'm having some trouble understanding the schematic though. Is it in portuguese? It looks like the load being driven in series with the AC line is on the left, and the input signal off the right of the page? also, I'm not sure I'm familiar with "superdimensioning"