Wiring Single Solenoid

[almsfan21]

How is the single soleniod wired? Our "inventory" guy lost the instructions..

[tdlrali]

Do you mean the gray, flat solenoids? You should have gotten connectors that plug into the solenoid. Use those to connect the solenoid to a relay.

[almsfan21]

Yes, I mean the gray ones (festo), is the connector black?

[Mark McLeod]

http://team358.org/files/pneumatic/F...TValveAssy.pdf

Yes, the connector is black.

[Andrew Bates]

We have wired our Solinoid correctly according to these directions, however it still will not switch which hole the air comes out of? Any ideas?

Our proggrammer insists that it is coded correctly.

[Mark McLeod]

Does the light on the Spike change color when you hit the switch?
What colors do you see, orange and green?

Does the light on the solenoid turn on and off as you hit the switch?

The code should be (on the relay of your choice):

relay1_fwd = 1;
relay1_rev = 0;

and

relay1_fwd - 0;
relay1_rev = 0;

[Andrew Bates]

Yes the light on the spike change from orange to green.

Yes the light on the solenoid turns on and off.

I can also feel movement inside the solenoid.

I can't check the code now but will forward it to our programmer.

Any other ideas?

[Jim E]

Try actuating the solenoid manually using the lever / pushbutton switch provided. If it works that way, then look at the programming.

[Andrew Bates]

It does work manually.

I guess that means it must be the programing?

[Chris Fultz]

you could also connect the leads to a battery and see if it switches state.
try it both ways to be sure.

[Mark McLeod]

At least 30 psi is required to operate the solenoid.

Double check that your air input is connected to the correct port (middle one on the side with three ports).

[Bryan Herbst]

If the spike's LEDs change when you hit the switch, the programming is probably fine.

I would double check the operating psi (it needs to be at least 30 psi), and double check that the tubing is hooked up properly.

When you say it doesn't work, can you feel air coming out one side of the solenoid, and it just doesn't switch sides, or is there no air at all?

[Robert Cawthon]

We had the same problem in that we wired it correctly and the programming was correct and the tubing was correct. What we found was that the Fesco solenoid just didn't work. To test this, we pulled one from last year's robot and plugged it in. It worked fine. If you have another one, or a team near you has one, you might try swapping yours out as a test.

[Andrew Bates]

Yeah what happened is they switched it out and went through about 2 more and found one that worked. I still wish I knew what was wrong...

[Robert Cawthon]

So do I. We have a Fesco that we can't use. We need to get another one.