I am looking for a relay that can be triggered with 1 volt and handle 12-16 volts DC this is for a Model Railroad Project.
Hi ocnperry,
Welcome to the TechForum.
First off, few if any solid state relays (SSRs) can be triggered directly with a 1V signal. A number of them will happily operate with a 1.5V or greater input. These typically use an internal infrared LED on the input to trigger a photo-sensitive transistor on the output side.
If you really need one to work with no more than 1V input, one might be able to use external circuitry to raise the input voltage to a level that would be capable of triggering an SSR.
The other thing you didn’t mention is how much current the relay will be required to handle, and any other requirements, such as mounting type, and so forth.
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As David mentioned there are some SSR options that may be of interest to you. The internal LED’s typical forward voltage 0.9-1.5v. Please check some options here if they may be able to handle your load current.
Solid State Relays (SSR) | Electronic Components Distributor DigiKey
Thanks for the replies. This is for a model railroad car. I am trying to turn on and off a compact cheap MP3 player I took apart to add custom sound file to a railcar. I am using a DCC soundtraxx decoder. I measured the voltage at the aux wire. That is where I came up with the one volt. I am old school and I am used to old school cube relays. The decoder manufacturer sent me a diagram using RadioShack parts. Trying to cross reference those parts took me down the path of solid state. Clearly I am in over my head.