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#361
That's the deal with standard servos, you can have them move and stop anywhere in their rang of motion. You tell it to rotate to X degrees. Great for robotics. They have a set rotation speed though. And the continuous rotation ones are great for fine movement over a long distance. You tell them to rotate clockwise or counter clockwise etc. Really good control over how fast they rotate and stop on a dime so to speak. They don't move all that fast though, top speed is limited. That's why my rover uses motors in a servo body. They are easier to control, direction wise anyway. You just apply a DC voltage. With a servo you have to send a pulse width modulated signal to have it do anything. I only just started playing with one (normal servo) recently. It came in that free kit I got from Pimoroni.
Here is the Plan B.
Since the solenoid cannot push a switch, I made a momentary switch out of the solenoid itself.
Dry run....
That might work fine for you but could be finicky in the long run. You could use a micro switch instead of the switch you were using. Another possibility would be to use a relay since a relay is essentially an electrically controlled switch.
Yup. This project started out as a simple button pusher that will be driven by a smart wifi plug. But due to the unexpected size of the solenoid device (my bad for not checking) it is starting to evolve into something else. I do have a micro switch but the solenoid still does not create enough force to push it... haha...
It is actually working great so far. I made a Y-splitter jumper cable going to the motherboard so that I can still use the physical switch on the PC if I need to.
Lots of different ways to do it. A micro switch would likely have worked with that plunger. https://www.adafruit.com/?q=micro%20switch
I personally would have went with a solid-state relay. No moving parts. Cannot for the life of me find a link to one on Adafruit or Pimoroni though. I had one bookmarked at one time, can't find that link either.
There is also things like the automation pHat or hat, https://shop.pimoroni.com/search?typ...t&q=automation Those may conflict with the AIY board though.
Part of the fun of this project is creativity. The "chassis" of this project is actually from a disposable electric toothbrush (I just love re-purposing stuffs....lol). It is so perfect with one end holding the solenoid and the other end keeping all the wires together. So satisfying. :)
I just need to find a nice casing for it. Probably a toothbrush tube from dollar store? :)