wiring solenoids
 

Does anyone know how to wire a double solenoid (from smc) to a spike, and then to a breaker panel? Thanks

Re: wiring solenoids
 

1)wire one side's positive (red) wire to the relay FWD output. With the ground wire to your ground.
2)Wire the other sides positive wire to relay REV. Wire ground to ground.
3)Switch relay with buttons
4)Voilla.. you have movage

Re: wiring solenoids
 

You can wire the double selenoids in that way, or you can wire it to 2 relays as my team did last year.

To wire it to 2 relays, wire the postive/negatives on 1 side of the selenoid to the postive/negatives on the relay, and the other side of the relay, positive to a breaker and the negative to a ground. Wire the other side of the selenoid in the same way.

Both ways mentioned will work, it's just a matter of preference.

Re: wiring solenoids
 

If you want to avoid having a separate ground return wire, do it this way:

Connect the cathode of a 1N4001 or similar diode to one red lead. Connect the anode of another diode to the other red lead. Connect the anode of the first diode and the cathode of the second to the M+ terminal on a Spike, and connect both of the black leads to M-. This method has worked well for me.

Re: wiring solenoids
 

Is there a maximum PWM wire connecting the solenoid to the spike? We just fried ours, and want to step it up : ).

Thanks,
Charley.

Re: wiring solenoids
 

If your talking about how many solenoids can be wired to each spike, that number is one. All though (as the 2004 wiring diagram shows) you can wire upto 3 solenoids each through their own spike to 1; 30 amp fuse on the breaker.

Re: wiring solenoids
 

we have had great sucess with the diode method. however i was wondering if there was a way, using 1 standerd double solonoid valve and a piston, to stop the piston mid-stroke electronicly? our arm group wants me to do this in the wireing and i have no idea how to even begein.

Re: wiring solenoids
 

There is actually no way to stop a piston's throw electronically, it depends totally on air pressure. You can slow it down a great deal using the special valve fittings FIRST supplied.

Give this thread a read-through if you want to do multi-positioning pneumatics.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=23934

Re: wiring solenoids
 

that is an amazing thread.

Re: wiring solenoids
 

What my team mate (Charley) was saying is that we went to use our pneumatics and the wiring smoked. Literally, smoke was coming from the wires connecting the spike to the solenoid. We used really thin guage wire to connect our solenoid to our spike. We changed to a MUCH larger actuater today. Before today, pneumatics worked FANTASTIC. After the step-up in actuater size, we went to test it, and the wires between the spike and the solenoid fried. What gauge should we use, ideally?

Re: wiring solenoids
 

our team uses the 4 conductor 22 gauge wire that comes in the kit. i wired the red-white together and the black-ground together. this has worked perfectly. but if you were going for an ideal gague, i would say about 18, mabye 20. 16 is far to large