Tick tock sound series#

A simple way to achieve that is to power the coil through a parallel R-C circuit. For small relays - say 2cm^3 or less - the sound is quite similar on either opening or closing, so indeed 0.5Hz square wave drive will give proper results.įor maximum coil life, the drive current waveform should have a peak value high enough to produce a satisfying click, and a hold value that's a couple times lower than the peak, to minimize the coil dissipation.

Some relays sound fairly similar upon both opening and closing, some have a distinctive tick and tock sounds. They sounded just as good, and there was nothing obvious that would indicate that they were ready to fall apart.Īnd finally, the sound a relay makes depends on size and specific mechanical design.

Tick tock sound series#

As an anecdote, I have tested NEC's now-obsolete MR62 series relays, rated IIRC for a million contact actuations, and got tired of the clicking after they were past a billion cycles. My experience is that without the contacts loaded, most relays will last an extremely long time - orders of magnitude longer than the contact life. Other answers suggest that the mechanical life may be, say, 2x the contact life at rated load. It does not mean that the relay will mechanically fall apart anytime soon! The 'relay life' specification is usually called 'contact life' and only applies to contact resistance staying below the maximum limiting value given in the datasheet.

Sometimes, relay manufacturers specify the mechanical life of the relay as a separate line in the specs, but it's not very common. If you want to use a relay as a clicker, you should test it, since the way you plan to use it is not within any specifications usually.