The "up to" figure is just that: A maximum rating, beyond which the board may be damaged.

Some of our competitors leave it at that. They pick the absolute maximum rating out of the data sheet for the component they are using, and quote that as what you can do with their product, with no additional qualifications.

We try to be better than that. Sure, we quote an "up to" headline figure, though even that is carefully tempered by consideration of the overall design of the board, and how you are likely to use it. But then we go the next step and give you some information on how far you can push the board without compromising long term reliability. That extra information is in the board's technical data.

If this leaves any unanswered question about using our boards in your product, feel free to ask us via our contacts page. Our support comes from the actual engineers who designed the product, not via a forum.

Relays very often drive mains (120/240V) loads. This can be dangerous!

There are design rules governing devices that connect to the mains. One such rule concerns the "tracking distance" between a mains connected terminal and the "safe" side, i.e. anything a human may touch. The rule in the US is 6mm, in Europe 8mm.

We have seen competitors' products advertised as 120V/240V rated, but clearly violating the 6mm rule. Such products could get you into a lot of trouble! If you are making a product that connects to the mains, you must take electrical safety into account.

The HIO16 adds 8 very heavy duty relays and 8 optoisolated inputs to your SPLat controller. It is easy to use, appearing simply as another 8 inputs and 8 outputs. No explicit initialization is required - it's plug & play.

The output relays have ratings up to 80A inrush, 20A running. They are UL rated for 2HP motor load at 240VAC. For electrical safety the relay contacts connections are located on top of the relays, well away from the control circuitry. The relays are UL and VDE listed/approved. See the documentation for more detail, including a link to the relay data.

The inputs are optically isolated to 5kVAC. To turn on an input you apply anything between 24V and 240V, AC or DC, to the input terminals. See the documentation for more detail.