Some nice creative thinking going on that's for sure. You basically turned your push pull plunger into a relay. Yes, sometimes its fun just to do something outside the box.
The other thing that happens is people like me, with an electronics background, will often do it totally different than somebody with no electronics background. They both work, just different thought processes to get there.
@badrobot, something to watch out for is a pulse (voltage spike) will be created when the plunger turns off. The collapsing magnetic field will generate a voltage spike in the coil. It may or may not be an issue depending on what your using to turn the coil on and off. Adding a diode is an easy fix though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_diode
What voltage are you using to drive the plunger? If it's lower than what its rated for it will make it weak. For example if its built for a 12V signal and you use 5V, it will be running at less than half the voltage it was designed for. The higher the voltage the stronger the magnetic field generated and the more force the plunger has.
About the "pulse", good thing you mentioned, the solenoid is only 4.5v by rating but I am using a regular 5v, 0.5A charger to power it. Will it cause any issue?
This is why I didn't put it inside the PC yet.
The solenoid plunger is separated from switch contact points using a molten plastic (from 3D pen). So it is well insulated
The main thing here is the automation. I already have a smart plug that can communicate with Google Assistant. I also have an app that I can use to setup the flow. I just needed a mechanical device to drive with it. I have no coding knowledge to integrate a switch with Google. :)Some nice creative thinking going on that's for sure. You basically turned your push pull plunger into a relay. Yes, sometimes its fun just to do something outside the box.
The other thing that happens is people like me, with an electronics background, will often do it totally different than somebody with no electronics background. They both work, just different thought processes to get there.
This might interest you Jack, https://shop.pimoroni.com/collection...ide-input-shim I do believe you have some projects with different voltage power supplies. For your LCD displays etc. This might let you run the Pi and the display off of the same power supply.
Hard to say, switching power supply? The thing is the pulse will be the opposite polarity to the normal voltage. I think I'd add the diode just to be safe. Make sure you get the polarity correct, put it in backwards and it will short out your power supply. You want it reverse biased so its not conducting under normal circumstances.
It's what ever works for you and what your comfortable using. The electronics part would be easy peasy for me. The coding part, well maybe? I've come a long way in my use of Python, still have a long way to go to be really competent in it though.
EDIT: If I ever get an AIY board I'll be more than happy to share my code.
