# Trying to use an SSC-32 to trigger a cowlacious sound board



## GOT (Apr 17, 2007)

I have one of the older Cowlacious sound boards and an SSC-32. Using VSA, I would like to use a relay to trigger the board. I am new to relays. Which one should I buy and how do I hook it up?

By the way, this is what the Cowlacious sound board manual says about the trigger pins:* 

TRIGGER WIRES (Works only with units using the ISD ChipCorder
option.)
A set of trigger wires is provided for your convenience. The trigger
wires allow you to easily trigger the device using an effect timer, step
pad, motion detector, switch, etc. Just remove the RED jumper that is
attached to the trigger pins and replace it with the trigger wires plug.
Then connect the trigger wires to your triggering device. The triggering
device should provide a set of dry contacts that do not send any
voltage to Scary Terry’s triggering pins.


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## JeffHaas (Sep 7, 2010)

I just put together a small relay board that works with an Arduino, and I have one of the other Cowlacious boards, so I'm familiar with this. All the Cowlacious board needs is for something to close the contacts, you can put the trigger wires on and touch them together to see how it works. The relay will act as a pushbutton or step pad.

I used these pages as reference and built a small relay board with the relay, a transistor and a resistor:

http://halloweenjared.blogspot.com/2010/10/arduino-pir-and-mp3-oh-my.html
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/uploads/Learning/relays.pdf

I used a small, five volt relay from Jameco:
http://www.jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10001_10001_138431_-1

There's a cheaper model but this one incorporates the diode it needs in the chip (see the PDF schematic linked above), so it made things easier.

If you can set up VSA to switch 5V on/off then I think you've got what you need. Not sure if the VSA setup would need the transistor and resistor, those may just be what the Arduino needs to properly deal with a relay.

There also seems to be some useful info at the Garage of Evil:
http://www.garageofevilnetwork.com/profiles/blogs/10-talking-skull-relay


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