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The-Music-Makers / robotic-recorder-player

This project is an open source hardware project that is intended to be an automated way to play a recorder instrument.
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Balancing heat and speed #52

Open Kyle-Fogarty opened 2 years ago

Kyle-Fogarty commented 2 years ago

In experimenting with the current system we found that the solenoids can become very warm when operating. The amount of heat produced can of course be reduced by limiting the potential difference over the solenoid, but this has consequences on the speed and response of actuation. Ideally, we would like to engineer a solution that gives the best possible response, without getting too hot. One suggested solution is to make use of pulse width modulation (PWM) to reduce the amount of time current is supplied to the solenoid, and hence reduce the power and hopefully heat.

bennett-j commented 2 years ago

To add to this, a possible solution may be using 12V initially to actuate the solenoid with good speed of response, then reducing to a holding voltage that keeps the finger pressed without overheating. PWM may be a good way to achieve this.

bennett-j commented 2 years ago

Note, the system is currently run at about 8V which gives a reasonably fast response without overheating.