Electrical – Zero Crossing Circuit Input Resistor

opto-isolatorresistorszero crossing

I'm building a dimmer, and got some questions about the resistor in the zero cross circuit.

circuit

My circuit is like the image above, and I'm wondering if in the case of 100V input the current is to small. I'm using smd resistors, with 1/8W and 300V max overload voltage. For the optocoupler I'm using Vishay H11AA1.

At 240 V, \$ I = \frac {V}{R} = \frac {240}{240k} = 1~mA\$.

Calculating the power on each resistor:

\$ P_{120K\Omega} = I^2R = (1mA)^2 120k = 0,12~W \$
(OK… the resistor has power of 0,125W.)

Otherwise, when 100V: \$ I = \frac {V}{R} = \frac {100}{240k} = 0,41~mA\$.

How can I calculate if 0,41 mA is OK for the zero detection?
These resistors affects the 10k pullup resistor?

Best Answer

Only you know the intent of the circuit, but I would say that for a dimmer you want to detect close to the actual zero crossing, say within 10V or so.

So with input voltage of 10V you need output current of about 300uA. Since CTR is minimum 0.20, that means an input current of 1.5mA. So a resistance of 10/0.0015 = 6.7K (total). Power dissipation would be about 7W at 220V. That's very high. Even at 100VAC it's still 1.5W total for the two resistors.

So I suggest you find a better optocoupler that responds reasonably quickly (not a darlington type) and has a CTR of 100% or more.