(Topic ID: 119770)

Stupid Electrical Questions

By UvulaBob

9 years ago



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  • 2 posts
  • 2 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 9 years ago by wayout440
  • Topic is favorited by 2 Pinsiders

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High Power Solenoid Circuit 2.jpg
High Power Solenoid Circuit.jpg

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#1 9 years ago

I have some questions about the inner workings of pinball electrical components. First, though, a tool that I use to try to map this stuff out:

http://falstad.com/circuit/

The first question I've got is how the solenoid circuit works, on a component-by-component level. I understand that when "the computer" wants to fire a coil, it provides just enough voltage to a transistor to complete the coil's connection to ground for long enough to fire the coil. "The computer" then kills that voltage, which turns the coil off.

I can duplicate this kind of thing pretty easily in the circuit simulator, but when I look at a wiring diagram, I have no idea how it actually works. For example, let's look at page 3-8 on the Star Trek TNG manual.

High Power Solenoid Circuit.jpgHigh Power Solenoid Circuit.jpg

I've tried to re-create this circuit in the circuit simulator using the link at the bottom of the post.

It looks like this:

High Power Solenoid Circuit 2.jpgHigh Power Solenoid Circuit 2.jpg

I feel like there's a lot of stuff in this circuit that is unneeded. Why do I need the capacitor, resistor and ground connection right after the bridge rectifier? Why do I need the 50V line up top? Why do I need all those different NPN and PNP transistors?

Am I meddling in things outside of my understanding, or is there a way anyone can break some of this down for me? I'm tired of thinking of all of this stuff as a black box, and want to be able to intelligently diagnose issues without just poking at it, and I feel like this kind of thing is a good step.

If you want to re-create this circuit in the circuit simulator, use this link. Copy the text into the simulator's Import box and hit "import".

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=jKagsDBA

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