Electrical Solenoid Actuators

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by Mr V

I think the GDC is a little more sophisticated than that. 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. Solenoids have a wattage rating based on the heat they can dissipate that is independent of the voltage used to power them.

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.

There was an update about the actuators being @12V DC.

6873K4 from McMaster -Carr is a less than 10 watt continuous duty push/pull solenoid, however only 0.31" stroke, making difficult depending on the width of the gears.