Measuring Soleniod Piston output voltage.

Status
Not open for further replies.

jbonest

Member
Location
chicago,IL,USA
I am working on this project involving a solenoid. Not the push pull type One involving the electromagnetic field of the piston. I want to capture this in a coil I am making with leds in series. It says that is a 230 VAC solenoid . I have a couple questions .

-How can I measure the voltage the piston is giving off?
-Could there be a rectifiers inside the plastic casing?
- How many turns do I make? I have two unknown , N (number of turns) and L (induction value)
any help with this would be wonderful

Thank you
 

gar

Senior Member
Location
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Occupation
EE
160517-1509 EDT

You are listed as a student. And you listed a code year. Therefore, I assume you are studying to become an electrician.

First, you need to define what is a solenoid. A quick Internet search produced https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solenoid . The word solenoid can have different meanings.

From what you indicated in your question I am not clear on what is your question. Before pursuing what you want to work with I will present some basics.

A changing magnetic field relative to a wire will induce a voltage in the wire. This changing field can be produced by moving a magnetic field relative to a fixed position conductor (lay a wire on a table, connect the wire to a very sensitive DC meter, move a very strong hardware store magnet to the wire, and you may see a short duration small voltage spike --- I used a Beckman DVM that resolves 10 microvolts and saw a peak of 60 micro-V), or the magnetic field can be fixed and wire moved (a DC generator). The induced voltage can be described by the equation v = K*N*dPhi/dt where v is the instataneous voltage with respect to time, K is some constant, N is the number of turns linking the magnetic field, and dPhi/dt is the rate of change of magnetic flux with respect to time (speed). The faster the change the greater is the induced voltage.

I have a 30 turn coil wound on a 18" square wood frame. Making quick motions in the earth's magnetic field I can produce possibly 1 or 2 millivolts into a Fluke 27 meter.

With a small 1500 turn air core coil and an LED across the coil I could not produce enough magnetic coupling from my magnets to produce any light.

You need good magnetic coupling, many turns in your coil, and a rapid change of magnetic flux to provide any LED light.

A solenoid actuator designed to produce motion of a plunger will have good magnetic coupling, and a moderate number of turns. The plunger is not usually a permanent magnet and thus does not produce a very strong magnetic field, probably near none. Voltage is only produced when the magnetic field is changing. Voltage does not come from a solenoid plunger, but would come from the coil if you were trying to make the solenoid a generator.

Using the above as background can you clarify your question?

.
 

templdl

Senior Member
Location
Wisconsin
I am working on this project involving a solenoid. Not the push pull type One involving the electromagnetic field of the piston. I want to capture this in a coil I am making with leds in series. It says that is a 230 VAC solenoid . I have a couple questions .

-How can I measure the voltage the piston is giving off?
-Could there be a rectifiers inside the plastic casing?
- How many turns do I make? I have two unknown , N (number of turns) and L (induction value)
any help with this would be wonderful

Thank you

The term "piston" in regard to a solenoid is quite interesting. The moving portion of a solenoid is commonly refered to as an armature, a slug of iron type metal. If the coill is de-energized and the armature is moved back and forth inside the coil one would expect that it would act like a generstor and induce voltage in the coil. But, being that the armature is not magnetized very little if any voltage will be induced in the coil as the armature is moved back and forth. Please note that is a wild guess at what you are asking.
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
From what I gather reading his post, he is attempting to adapt a simple solenoid into a combination solenoid transformer to power one or more LED's.
:?
 

Ingenieur

Senior Member
Location
Earth
It sounds like a transformer
solenoid around an iron core
another coil with leds in series as a load

better be careful with the 230
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top