Using a Capacitor to Provide Energy to Solenoids

richard.cs

Joined Mar 3, 2012
162
I have plans to add a reverse biased diode to each solenoid and have already picked out a diode for this.
You realise this will affect the release time of the solenoids? If that matters to you then you'll need to have higher voltage transistor drivers and put some resistance in series with the flyback diode. Or maybe your application doesn't care if the realease time is a few hundred milliseconds.
 

John P

Joined Oct 14, 2008
2,025
... I want to put some capacitors in my system to provide the extra current needed to power the solenoids while they are on (about 5 millisecond "on" time with 100ms in between actuation), worst case scenario.
I hate to say "This will never work", but have you tested this setup? I am very skeptical that you can get the current flowing in a solenoid (overcoming the inductance, I mean) and then have the solenoid start to move and accomplish any mechanical task, all in 5msec.

One creative suggestion is to run the solenoids on a higher voltage than they're rated for, in order to build up current faster. With a short period of actuation, they'll never heat up very much so this should be OK.
 
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