Make your holiday display dance this year with Circuit Playground and a relay-controlled power supply. Plug your 120v (or lower) inflatable tentacles, skeletons, reindeer, or monsters into the outlets on a relay controller, connect your Circuit Playground Express, and use Microsoft MakeCode to create a custom timer that turns the outlets on and off at your bidding. Tweak the timing to get them dancing, or create a random timer for organic-looking motion.
This relay controller has one plug that's always on (for powering your Circuit Playground Express via a 5V supply).
The other plugs are where it gets interesting. There are two plugs that are normally OFF and one that is normally ON. Activating the relay with the Circuit Playground turns the "on" plug to OFF, and the two "off" plugs to ON. Simple and elegant, yes?
There is only one relay in this power supply, so even though we have 3 plugs, we only have two states: the two plugs on the left will be on while the top plug on the right will be off, or vice versa.
You'll Also Need
- A small flat-head screwdriver
- A small Phillips-head screwdriver OR soldering iron (if you're not using the bolt-on kit)
- Decor: Inflatables, lights, or anything else you'd like to toggle on and off
Adafruit has a precision screwdriver kit that will work great for all your tiny screw needs.
A Note about On/Off Switched Devices
This power relay turns its outlets on and off -- that's all it does. We were trying this with various things around the house, and discovered that a lot of modern electronic devices don't come on automatically when their power plug is activated. If it's got an on/off switch, it often requires a button press to come to life, and this relay won't press the "on" button for you, it'll simply feed power. So keep that in mind when you're planning your project.
Power Switch Relay Features:
- A single input signal to switch four outlets: 1 always on + 1 normally on + 2 normally off.
- Universal control voltage 3-60VDC or 12-120VAC, or connect directly to a 12V, 48VDC, or even 120VAC circuit.
- Optical isolation, relay, hysteresis and de-bounce protection for added safety.
- A large MOV used to clamp surges for clean 90-140 AVC power.
- Durable SPDT control relay rated at 30/40A. More than 400k operations at 12A or 2million+ at 5A.
- A 12A thermal safety circuit breaker switch prevents overloads.
- Standard 19" C13 detachable cord included.
- Mounting tabs
- This power relay is professionally built and tested.
Page last edited October 28, 2025
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