RLC Electronics Multipole RF Switches
For basic data see here on RLC's current site.
Note that most of the products appearing on the surplus market do not seem to conform
to the current RLC product identification designations.
| RLC Multipole RF Switches |
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| 4 Pole Relay Identifier Plate |
4 Pole Relay connector |
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| 6 Pole Relay Identifier Plate |
6 Pole Relay connector |
4 pole Relay Notes - S-3044 type
This is a 4 pole SMA RF switch, with a common SMA centre connector and 4 SMA connectors numbered J1 to J4 arranged
around it.
The ones I have use a 15 pin Bendix connector on the rear of the body. Inside the plug part of the connector, the
contacts are marked with letters - see photo above. In this version only 5 pins are active.
Pin G is the common for all four coils, and pins A to D select the individual coils. Pin A switches Common RF to J1,
pin B to J2, pin C to J3 and pin D to J4.
The operating coils are not polarity sensitive - application of a voltage between any of pins A-D and pin G will
operate the relay. Coil resistance is 190R, and at the rated 28V DC the hold current is approx 160mA. However,
these coils will operate reliably down to under 13V DC (although the switching velocity may be reduced), and once
operated will hold in down to approx 5V DC! At 13V the hold current is around 90mA and at 5V the hold current
is about 40mA.
The coils are non-latching - ie a connection to any output port is only present when a coil has a voltage applied
- there is no connection between Common and any of the output ports when no coil is active.
6 pole Relay Notes - S-3031 type
This is a 6 pole SMA RF switch, with a common SMA centre connector and 6 SMA connectors numbered J1 to J6 arranged
around it.
The ones shown have a 7 pin connector on the top - the relay is a MILstd device conforming to MIL3928 (whatever that is!)
In its miltary life its designation is 18-01. As removed from equipment, they commonly come with the mating connector
and a tail of wires - my experience is that there are generally more wires in the tail than active connections
to the relay! In the connector view shown the centre pin is the common wire, and the coil select is via the
remaining 6 pins, with J1 activated by the pin with the small 'L' by it. Moving round the connector clockwise from
there sucessively operates J2 through to J6.
The operating coils appear to be identical to those described above under the 4 pole notes.
On both my samples, the connector tail had numbered white wires, and in removal the common wire had been cut shorter,
making it easy to identify. The numbering of the wires appears to be in sequence with the order of contacts in the
relay, although the actual numbers on the wire varies from sample to sample.
Page Created 12.04.09
Page Last Updated 26 Aug 2010