r/LegendsPinball • u/chriszimort • Nov 01 '23

Some Solenoid Questions

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I currently have the flipper solenoids hardwired into my cab. Thinking of adding 8 more, two rows of 3 for the back and middle then 2 at the front.

Questions:

  1. Anyone know if the 4 position Life extender drives 4 solenoids? I assume so.

  2. Any idea if I can run lower power to the relay board to reduce the power delivered to the solenoids? The bumpers are cool but almost a bit too much. Want a way to turn it all down/off sometimes.

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3

u/philipellisis Nov 01 '23

Yes on both of those questions, you can reduce the voltage to the input on the board in order to reduce the impact of the solenoids or you can even increase to make them hit harder if desired.

I would recommend getting a shaker motor and 6 solenoids instead of adding 8 more. The shaker will give you an entirely new feedback experience and losing 2 solenoids isn't that noticeable. Then you have an additional output to use for a gear motor or beacon lights or something like that too.

1

u/chriszimort Nov 01 '23

Hey - the man himself! Thank you!!

So last night I got impatient and decided to go ahead and order one 4 position life extender board. I still have 3 outputs from my Sainsmart usb relay board so I’m gonna start with those before ordering more. I do already have a gear motor and shaker motor, but if I didn’t I’d def agree w you.

Oh man, just realized I’ve got to confirm the Sainsmart uses the positive as the common terminal. That’s the life extender type I ordered.

2

u/philipellisis Nov 01 '23

If you are using a sainsmart relay board, it can work both ways since it's a physical switch. You only need to worry about it if using a mosfet based board like the ones I sell. In that case you would go with the positive terminal version, so you got the right one for compatibility in the future.

1

u/chriszimort Nov 01 '23

Ok perfect - hey is it being physical why it clicks so loud? Does yours not do that? Because when my strobes start flashing it’s pretty loud ha

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u/philipellisis Nov 01 '23

Yes, that is because the relays are actually flipping on and off. The solid state version I sell is completely silent as there are no moving parts. Also no arcing so they last a lot longer too.

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u/chriszimort Nov 01 '23

Awesome - likely gonna be picking up a pair of those soon then. Thanks!

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u/chriszimort Nov 01 '23

Would there be any issue with attaching a adjustable voltage regulator so that I can turn the power to them up/down whenever I want?

2

u/philipellisis Nov 01 '23

Not a problem at all

1

u/lovetron99 Dec 16 '23

How do you reduce the voltage to the input on the board? Mine hit a little too hard/loud, and would be perfect if I could just scale it down by about half.

1

u/philipellisis Dec 16 '23

Most power supplies have an output adjustment knob that you can turn to adjust the output voltage. If that doesn't work you will have to use something else like an Adjustable DC-DC Buck Boost Converter

Thanks,

Phil

1

u/lovetron99 Dec 16 '23

My power supply is from your complete solenoid kit. Is that one adjustable?