Control of a DC solenoid

[leannee]

Hi Wayne.C,

The accuracy of the pulsewidth specified is not crucial for our application.  We are using the solenoid to depress the top of a hand lotion pump top, so if the solenoid is powered for +/-0.5 seconds from our specification, I don't forsee than being an issue.  Are we talking about more of a deviation than 0.5 sec?    

Thanks!

[Wayne.C]

leannee,

I would hope that error would be no more than a couple of milliseconds.  You will need to test this to verify. 

[OliviaC]

Hi leannee,

Are you looking for a constant 5V signal? Right now your simulated signal is a square wave with a 50% duty cycle. If you want a constant 5V signal over the 2 minutes, you need to select DC in the express vi.

[leannee]

Hello Olivia,

I do want a constant 5V signal, but I only want it to ocurr once in the timed sequence I'm going to incorporate it into and I only want it to last for 2 seconds.  That's why I thought just sending a 0.5 Hz. square wave only once would be sufficient for those requirements .  Is that not true?

Thanks,

Leanne 

[DianeS]

Hi Leanne,

Since what you want to do is extremely simple, and since it has to be software-timed anyway (the 6008 doesn't support hardware timing for analog output), why not just do something like this?  While it may not be particularly "cool", it will work just fine for what you want to do.

Diane

P.S.  Please do look at the DAQmx shipping examples, as suggested in an earlier post in this thread and also as I suggested in a previous thread with you.  You should gain a considerably better understanding of DAQ programming, which will probably prove useful.  🙂

[leannee]

Dear DianeS,

Thank you for your help!  The shipping examples are a little confusing to understand and I can never get them to function.  However, they do help in my understanding of how things should fit together in the block diagram.  

Take Care,

Leanne