Re: AVR driving solenoids

Arlet <usenet+5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in sci.electronics.design:

anno4...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Rene Tschaggelar <none@xxxxxxxx> wrote in sci.electronics.design:
anno4000@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

For a one-off project I'd like to switch about 30 solenoids (12 V, 1 A)
with pulses between 20 and 50 ms duration (duty cycle < 10%) generated
by an AVR processor.
[snip]

So I've been looking for alternatives but come up empty so far. Any
tips?


You didn't look really far for alternatives.
Since a solenoid doesn't need galvanic isolation, you could as well
use bipolar NPNs or N-Mosfets

Right, that's where I was coming from. I had some problems with a
BC141-16 in preliminary tests (probably due to too little beta). Also,
the idea of keeping away the 12 V (or more) driving the solenoids from
the logic and other equipment attached to that seems attractive, though
also not strictly necessary. That's why I was looking into optocouplers
in the first place. I'll be back to transistors when that doesn't pan
out.

If you're worried about damage, you could take a look at the BTS711
part. It's a quad 1.9A high side switch. It can switch 12V inductive
loads, controlled by uP, and has all kinds of protection circuitry,
including short circuit and overvoltage.

Ah, thanks. That looks much like the kind of thing I was hoping for.

Anno
.

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