This is my first post here, so please bear with me.
I am trying to reproduce a movie prop, and need to have a small electric solenoid activate when a momentary button is pressed. I was originally going to simply wire the power, switch, and solenoid together, but then started looking around for circuit protection.
I found this thread: http://forum.highlyliquid.com/showthread.php?t=126 and obtained:
TIP122 NPN Transistor
1N4004 Rect Diode
12V 6W Push Solenoid
1k Resistor
Momentary Switch
When I wired up the circuit as shown in that thread, and applied my 12V power, the switch was doing nothing (the solenoid would activate). Every reference I can find using this circuit design has something like a "chip output" and not a simple switch. I am wondering if I have the switch connected to the correct places, or what could be going wrong. I've re-analyzed my circuit several times, ad putzed around with moving components to no avail. Any help, especially a working diagram would be greatly appreciated.
One other note; I'm assuming that since the solenoid is 12V at 6W, I only need to push 500mA into the circuit?
I am trying to reproduce a movie prop, and need to have a small electric solenoid activate when a momentary button is pressed. I was originally going to simply wire the power, switch, and solenoid together, but then started looking around for circuit protection.
I found this thread: http://forum.highlyliquid.com/showthread.php?t=126 and obtained:
TIP122 NPN Transistor
1N4004 Rect Diode
12V 6W Push Solenoid
1k Resistor
Momentary Switch
When I wired up the circuit as shown in that thread, and applied my 12V power, the switch was doing nothing (the solenoid would activate). Every reference I can find using this circuit design has something like a "chip output" and not a simple switch. I am wondering if I have the switch connected to the correct places, or what could be going wrong. I've re-analyzed my circuit several times, ad putzed around with moving components to no avail. Any help, especially a working diagram would be greatly appreciated.
One other note; I'm assuming that since the solenoid is 12V at 6W, I only need to push 500mA into the circuit?