Electrical Solenoid Actuators

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Mr V

I believe they purposely left out the @12v since it is unlikely that you would use a solenoid at 100% duty cycle in a FIRST robot.

Team Update #1 amended <R48J> to read as follows:

J. electrical solenoid actuators, no greater than 1 in. stroke and rated at no greater than 10 watts continuous duty at 12 V,

Originally Posted by Mr V

As far as using them to shift a 2sp gear box keep in mind that a solenoid is designed to either push or pull but not both. So using one you would only be able to shift once. Now if you had one where you could link the pintles, IE the pintle of a "pull" solenoid hooked to the back of a "push" solenoid, then you could use them to shift back and forth between gears.

You could easily use two solenoids and a "seesaw" arrangement to control gearbox shifting by pushing only. You could also use a single solenoid and just add a spring to pull it back when you remove power.