Hello all,
I've been having this little project on the shelf that seems to linger around without getting finished. So I thought I'd come here to ask some advice and help.
In short: I programmed and made a PCB for a 'remote activated random timer solenoid activation'. What the hell is that you say? Well, in short: I press a button on a cheap RF transmitter, a random timer (between 4 and 6 seconds) is started and once that timer finishes, it activates a solenoid magnet to drop a startgate (for sports).
However, I purchased some 12V solenoids and use a 4S Lipo battery to activate the circuit and solenoid. Plenty of power I thought. Well, the solenoid activation is so weak, that if I put a little bit of force on it, it won't retract/extract. First I used a 9V battery, but it was too weak. Allthough switching to the 4S Lipo changed nothing...
My guess is that there is not a big enough 'rise' in amps going through. Normally the traces on the PCB should be large enough to allow for the necessary amps to go through, however it might be that it rises to slow over the darlington NPN. What are your thoughts?
Kind regards,
Dries
I've been having this little project on the shelf that seems to linger around without getting finished. So I thought I'd come here to ask some advice and help.
In short: I programmed and made a PCB for a 'remote activated random timer solenoid activation'. What the hell is that you say? Well, in short: I press a button on a cheap RF transmitter, a random timer (between 4 and 6 seconds) is started and once that timer finishes, it activates a solenoid magnet to drop a startgate (for sports).
However, I purchased some 12V solenoids and use a 4S Lipo battery to activate the circuit and solenoid. Plenty of power I thought. Well, the solenoid activation is so weak, that if I put a little bit of force on it, it won't retract/extract. First I used a 9V battery, but it was too weak. Allthough switching to the 4S Lipo changed nothing...
My guess is that there is not a big enough 'rise' in amps going through. Normally the traces on the PCB should be large enough to allow for the necessary amps to go through, however it might be that it rises to slow over the darlington NPN. What are your thoughts?
Kind regards,
Dries