Gravitrax Solenoid Cannon - Electrial circuit for the power supply

If you wanna throw a dime in my hat:
paypal.me/Meik...
ffleurey modeled this awesome Gravitrax element and shared it on Thingiverse so other 3D printer owners can print it out:
www.thingivers...
Unfortunately, ffleurey does not explain how he built the electrical circuit. Since the recommended solenoid threatens to die at higher voltages, and it has not enough force at the specified voltage, I designed a simple circuit that solves this problem.

[@christiantreutler707]

Works. Built it with similar components as you described! Thank you very much for the inspiration!

[@michaegi4717]

Hi I just found this chanal. I see here alot of interesting videos. Thank you for those videos. This project is really cool. At the moment I design and build a DIY Pinball machine. I'm learning a lot during this project. The solenoids draw alot of current for a short amount of time. I use very big capacitors for this. Otherwise the rated voltage do barely anything... but be aware that regular switches wear out quite fast if the need to switch high currents. Therefore I use MOSFET to switch them and the micro switch just triggers the gate of the MOSFET.

[@MakerMeik]

Thanks for the tip about the switches, that's good to know! :-)

[@diemurmelcrew963]

cool component

[@GravitraxGuys]

cool video!!

[@ralphcrutzen]

Thank you very much for this explanation; just what I was looking for! I'd like to replace the switch with an Arduino or ESP, so the solenoid can fire automatically at constant time intervals. I'm not certain, but I think I should use two transistors for this: one to make to connection to the capacitor to load it and one to direct the current from the capacitor to the solenoid. Or is there a better way to do this? And another question: in other tutorials about solenoids a diode is used in parallel with the solenoid. Why is it not used here?

[@ralphcrutzen]

Never mind my first question. I used a SPDT relay. Works great!

[@MakerMeik]

With motors or solenoid valves you have the effect that the movement of the motor or the valve generates a current, even if your actual power supply is switched off. That is the principle of a dynamo. Unfortunately, depending on the direction of movement, even the direction of the positive terminal and GND can change and destroy your circuit. With a diode you can prevent this, so that the current runs only in the intended direction. So that would certainly be an improvement to my circuit, but so far it still works without problems, fortunately.

[@ecuadorianme]

@@MakerMeik what value for would you use? I want to follow the route with the spdt relay. Would you connect the solenoid across the leads of the solenoid?

[@GraviTraxGarage]

cool!

[@MarbleMasters]

Cooler live Hack ! Abo ist da schau doch auch mal bei mir vorbei