Hello,

Today I want to introduce new feature it's called: "Power driving mode", it's mode for driving some "action" modules which can be handy in some situations as it's purpose is to drive some modules without any additional external circuit.

But let's start from recalling how "action" modules are driven in "normal" mode, let's see below image:

In "normal mode" power Mos-Fet of port is open all the time, low current signal for driving module is delivered through "com" pin.

                                                And how it looks in Power driving mode:

In power driving mode "com" is not used(should not be connected) and driving of module can be done through on-board power transistor, so for example you can connect solenoid, or anything other, theoretically max current is approx. 5A(60W), but till this moment I tested max 3A in pulse.

how to enable:

I modified App "port configuration" screen to handle enabling of this mode, after choosing port function mode, checkbox where you can select it will appear:

                         Below you can find small demo with driving some random peripherals:

Advantage of using this mode:

You can drive simple "action" modules without external circuit, so for example till this moment I was using board small with Mos-Fet to open and close valve(solenoid) in response to state on "com" pin, but with power driving mode solenoid can be connected directly to "gnd" and "+12v" pins of port and driven just with toggling supply on this pins.

Disadvantage of this mode:

When you first think about it using such driving mode should be "best" way of handling such use case as driving solenoids, valves, etc. So maybe you can think, why even I bothered to create "normal" mode as first?

there's one valid reason for it, when you will take a look at solenoid driving board you can see button there which is used to "emergency/maintenance" opening of valve and I found it really handy to have such button, especially when I was experimenting with "liquid gun" module which was valve with syringe pressurized by springs and I needed way to fill this and it was really hard to do this when I had to control valve open/close from app. 

It's a little bit easier with "droplet module", but still it's handy to have possibility to emergency valve open for example for filling chamber of valve or just emptying it after use. Without supplying module all the time, there will be no possibility to open valve without using app.

so in some(or most) cases it's handy to had module supplied all the time.