maximum_overdrive
Newbie level 2
A need a very small solenoid to pull on a metal pin with a stroke of only about 1 or 2 mm. It's not hard to push the pin with my fingers, but I little harder to come up with something electronic I can use.
I pulled a solenoid out of a clock, which has a small soft steel core. The solenoid had lots of turns of very fine wire, but about 180ohm DC resistance, and I couldnt put enough current through to develop the pull force I need. So I rewound it with heavier wire (less turns though) but I was still getting nowhere!
So now I am trying a small DC motor which drives a gear (out of a mini RC helicopter). This might work, but the motor and gear assembly is a bit too big to fit where I need. Ideally, I would like something with a low profile, no bigger than about 10mm by 10mm, and about 25mm long, which can apply a force axially.
Anyone got any bright ideas what I could use? I think it would be a lot of trial-and-error to do a linear solenoid, so i probably need something geared that will fit in a very small space.
I pulled a solenoid out of a clock, which has a small soft steel core. The solenoid had lots of turns of very fine wire, but about 180ohm DC resistance, and I couldnt put enough current through to develop the pull force I need. So I rewound it with heavier wire (less turns though) but I was still getting nowhere!
So now I am trying a small DC motor which drives a gear (out of a mini RC helicopter). This might work, but the motor and gear assembly is a bit too big to fit where I need. Ideally, I would like something with a low profile, no bigger than about 10mm by 10mm, and about 25mm long, which can apply a force axially.
Anyone got any bright ideas what I could use? I think it would be a lot of trial-and-error to do a linear solenoid, so i probably need something geared that will fit in a very small space.