Hello! it's been some time since my initial post about a solenoid driver circuit. I finished it up recently, and with a couple of small ammendment things were working great. Or so I thought.


To explain, the purpose of this circuit is to drive a solenoid in a plastic gun shell, like the Arcade games Point Blank and Time Crisis. There is a sensor in the shell along with a solenoid, exactly like the original arcade guns. This one though, routes to a Playstation 2 Guncon 2 PCB. The sensor circuit is wired into the guncon board, and then my tiny solenoid driver PCB is also wired in for GND, 5v and the trigger drives the timing on the TLC555.

Now, the issue at hand is, that while it works, with the 24v supply to the solenoid turned on, it starts missing shots and the aim goes skewiff. It's semi-playable, but it's much less accurate than it is with the solenoid deactivated.

I have a TVS diode across the coil, close to the solenoid, the guncon and solenoid boards are about 6ft of wire away.

What I think is happening is that because the guncon board is sharing the ground with the other two devices, the voltage spike is upsetting it. So my proposed next step is to try using an optocoupler to read the trigger from the board and keep it electronically isolated. the only downside is, I'm going to have to shell out a load for 100 pieces from RS plus postage, and I couldn't find any cheap ones on ebay (although I haven't looked for many different ones) so I wanted to a) be sure this is a sane idea, and b) ask if there was anything else to try first.

Any advice?

 

Hello! it's been some time since my initial post about a solenoid driver circuit. I finished it up recently, and with a couple of small ammendment things were working great. Or so I thought.


To explain, the purpose of this circuit is to drive a solenoid in a plastic gun shell, like the Arcade games Point Blank and Time Crisis. There is a sensor in the shell along with a solenoid, exactly like the original arcade guns. This one though, routes to a Playstation 2 Guncon 2 PCB. The sensor circuit is wired into the guncon board, and then my tiny solenoid driver PCB is also wired in for GND, 5v and the trigger drives the timing on the TLC555.

Now, the issue at hand is, that while it works, with the 24v supply to the solenoid turned on, it starts missing shots and the aim goes skewiff. It's semi-playable, but it's much less accurate than it is with the solenoid deactivated.

I have a TVS diode across the coil, close to the solenoid, the guncon and solenoid boards are about 6ft of wire away.

What I think is happening is that because the guncon board is sharing the ground with the other two devices, the voltage spike is upsetting it. So my proposed next step is to try using an optocoupler to read the trigger from the board and keep it electronically isolated. the only downside is, I'm going to have to shell out a load for 100 pieces from RS plus postage, and I couldn't find any cheap ones on ebay (although I haven't looked for many different ones) so I wanted to a) be sure this is a sane idea, and b) ask if there was anything else to try first.

Any advice?

Post a schematic of your current circuit design.

 

This is the design, although the sensor isn't connected to this board at all now, and the solenoid goes to the bottom pad, and then the MOSFET source. the guncon is connected via the 4 pads just above the TLC555

 

and here's the schematic, but I'm not amazing at Kicad tbh.

 

Your idea is sane but,
why do you have to buy 100 pieces.
What country are you located?

 

Your idea is sane but,
why do you have to buy 100 pieces.
What country are you located?

yeah that was a false alarm - I was looking for specific model numbers. found a different one on ebay for £4 and free shipping for a ten piece! I love RS components, but the shipping and handling often make me hedge a small order until I need more things :/

 

I'm not amazing at Kicad

Yes, R4 is shorted on the schematic.

 

Yes, R4 is shorted on the schematic.

it is?! Jeeze I can't even read that. Funnily enough, in the real circuit, the solenoid would only fire correctly when the pins on r1 and r4 connected to pins 2 and 3 were bridged by my thumb adding a 1m resistor between them got it working. well, I have a lot to learn!

 

View attachment 372472

and here's the schematic, but I'm not amazing at Kicad tbh.

ok…can you explain the issue a little clearer?

Your comments imply the 555 is not triggering reliably, but how does it interact with the operators mechanical trigger?

and the aim goes skewiff

And..what is skewiff??

 

it is?! Jeeze I can't even read that.

The dots on each side of the resistor and the line running through the resistor are what gives it away.