toilet flush

Harrytherid said:
Dear oh dear, what have I done. Did the wiring a s suggested but with a manual switch, ie a wire to touch battery terminal to liven up. The solenoid began to smoke immediately and I am pretty sure it is now dead. The original wires had a pair of spade connectors to connect to the solenoid with a resistor between them, black about 4mm dia with a grey end 1mm wide approx, resistance now about 415 ohms. Where do I go from here, eh?
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whoops

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Geek said:
but the solenoid valve won't open when a DC current pushes it in the closed direction.
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Actually DC solenoids aren't polarity sensitive and will open whichever way they are wired. Seems counter intuitive I know but when you think about it they work on AC soooo.
 
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Not counter intuitive at all, Merl, except I wondered if the magnetic flux might be reversed, ie north pole becomes south but that only matters if the core is a magnet too rather than soft iron which it probably is and is not a permanent magnet. Anyway, thinking about it in bed last night, I wondered why the original designers made that have an electric valve at all. a simple push button valve (drinking fountain style) would be free from potential electrical problems so I shall start looking for one and have no more electrical woes. I shall keep you posted on the results of my researches. I might even make one, what fun, eh?
 
Harrytherid said:
Not counter intuitive at all, Merl, except I wondered if the magnetic flux might be reversed, ie north pole becomes south but that only matters if the core is a magnet too rather than soft iron which it probably is and is not a permanent magnet. Anyway, thinking about it in bed last night, I wondered why the original designers made that have an electric valve at all. a simple push button valve (drinking fountain style) would be free from potential electrical problems so I shall start looking for one and have no more electrical woes. I shall keep you posted on the results of my researches. I might even make one, what fun, eh?
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Most bathrooms have a shower head, a quick squirt from that is all that's required really.
Have you tried it again with the diode removed?
 
No our shower is a little too far from the toilet and no I have not tried it with the diode removed. Since I had the idea of a mechanical version I gave up on the electrics and the solenoid. I have ordered a manually operated tap, £7 for 4 of them including postage and should not need too much modifying to make it work. We shall see Merl eh?. In the mean time we shall resort to a squirt bottle and the nearby basin to fill it.
 
MERL said:
Actually DC solenoids aren't polarity sensitive and will open whichever way they are wired. Seems counter intuitive I know but when you think about it they work on AC soooo.
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They can work either way round, but in my experience they work much better one way round than the other. I'm not sure why.
 
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