Solenoid Air Valve Problems

tatjr13 · Sat Oct 08, 2005 8:42 pm

I just made one of those sniper air cannons from plans on this website and it works great except for one thing. I got a DC solenoid valve its a Netafim inline 1" and i have it set to auto opposed to the manual open and closed switches. Anyway my valve i can open it by touching the 2 wires to a 9 volt battery and it works fine but to close it i have to switch the wires from being on positive or neg. of the battery to its opposite or deenergize as i've heard it called. This becomes a pain and not very sniper like so does anyone know of a switch of some kind i can use instead of switching the wires or something i'm doing wrong it would be much appreciated. BTW i plan on putting a momentary switch on it for the trigger.

boilingleadbath · Sun Oct 09, 2005 1:12 pm

"but to close it I have to switch the wires from being on positive or negitive side of the battery to it's opposite, or de-energize as I've heard it called."
Where did you hear this, and have you attempted to do have it seal without 'de-energizing'?

The best way, of course, to fix it is to "pnematical modify" your valve. (details found in the how-to section)

tatjr13 · Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:08 pm

I don't think I want to do that i want to keep it electric but what if I put like 2 momentary switches on the solenoid from 2 batteries. 1 rigged up positive on neg. and neg. on positive. The other positive on positive and neg. on neg. So could i use this to open and close it ????? push 1 to close the other to open

When i open it by pushing the momentary it opens but if i push it again it will sound like it is trying to open. the same with closing it

Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:36 pm

Did you even look at the topic on how to modify a sprinkler valve? Its alot eaiser I think.

tatjr13 · Sun Oct 09, 2005 5:41 pm

Yah but i don't have a rainbird or the other one and i already have the electronics rigged i just want to know if there is a way to do it how i want

boilingleadbath · Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:34 pm

"sounds like it's trying to open"
Dude! Of course it is, that's how soleniods work. They don't open with one bit of current and close with another - the ones on sprinklers are spring loaded linear motors, essentialy. Apply current, they'll open; stop the current, and they'll be forced shut again.
Now, untill you acctually try to pressurize it without doing your silly polarity switching exercize...

Anyway, you can modify more valves than just rainbirds and whatever the other was. You could post a picture of the valve, I geuss, if you need help on an individual basis.

tatjr13 · Tue Oct 11, 2005 4:21 pm

That's the problem i've fired it and it didn't force shut. The only way for me to get it to close is to switch the wires on the battery. It won't close if you just stop the current.

boilingleadbath · Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:10 pm

Well, that's weird...
Anyway; yes, you could have a system with 2 momentaries, but you don't need 2 batteries for it. Personaly, I think this system is a poor way of fixing a problem, but I'll shut up and stop telling you to mod your valve.

saladtossser · Tue Oct 11, 2005 6:53 pm

there are switches that can do ur purpose, look for dpdt switchs

Solenoid Air Valve Problems

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