Open collector logic question

transistors

I have an instrument that I am trying to integrate some pumps with. It has 3 Open Drain pins,a ground, and a +5V pin.

I've successfully used 3 NPN transistors to act as a +5V switch to drive a relay when the Open Drain pins are high.

I have a problem when the instrument first turns on (or recovers from a power failure). It turns all 3 Open Drain pins high and turns on all 3 relays until it finishes initializing. I'd like to avoid this.

My idea is to use one of the Open Drain lines to act as a +5V supply when it is low (the initialized state) so that the other two lines will only be active when the instrument is fully initialized. How can I do that?

Best Answer

If they are open-drain lines during initialization and they are pulling high then try a 1k pull-down resistor so that the 1k resistor wins the battle (after all it's probably only fighting against a weak pull-up during initialization). You need to check this.

After the unit has initialized it can drive the line (and transistors) and operate correctly.

Are you putting a resistor in series with the base on each transistor. Something like 1k should be fine.