Tiny Solenoid

X-No-Archive

Hey, I'm new here and I hope I'm posting in the most relevant group.

I'm looking for a way to create a tiny vibration. I'm guessing that the easiest way to do this is with a little solenoid that I activate at the frequency of my choosing. I've never used a solenoid though, and am pretty new to electronics so I am kind of lost.

I looked on mouser and digikey, but most of what I saw was fairly high voltage and way out of my price range. I'm looking for something about the size of a pencil eraser that only needs 3 volts and costs as little as possible.

Can anybody point me in the right direction? Maybe I'm searching for the wrong thing...

Thanks Sam

Reply to
Sam
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How tiny a vibration? What does it have to move? Over what range of frequencies?

You might look at small speakers, perhaps in-ear headphones, for a small and cheap 'actuator'. You won't get much force or amplitude from one, but they do make tiny vibrations and work with low-voltage inputs.

Tim

--
Did I really still have that sig?
Reply to
Tim Auton

How about a teensy DC motor with an imbalanced weight on its rotor?

Reply to
Greg Neill

A solenoid may not be what you want. Solenoids will produce pull in when driven regardless of polarity and are not usually used in that manner.While some vibration may occur they will be very inefficient at producing it. What frequency do you want to vibrate? Most vibrators like those used in cell phones and sex toys use an eccentric weight on a small motor and vibrate at the rate the motor runs. They are efficient. Check Mouser and Jameco for "vibrating motors." Jameco has a whole bunch of them both 1.5 and 3VDC. Bob

Reply to
Bob Eld

Putting this in the BODY of your post has ZERO effect.

That's the 1st thing that came to my mind http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:4L7VvXe6KuMJ:

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but without any real specs, it's just a SWAG.

Reply to
JeffM

X-No-Archive

Thank you for your kind replies. I found a motor on Jameco that looks perfect for my needs. I'm glad I just asked instead of trying to figure something out with a bouncing solenoid.

No need to be snotty Jeff. Especially when you're wrong.

Check out

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I'll quote from it, "Any post that contains the text "X-No-Archive" in either the header or the first line of the message (with no additional text included on that line) will be displayed on Google Groups for only seven days and won't be searchable after it's removed."

So putting X-No-Archive in the first line of my post had exactly the effect that I wanted it to.

Reply to
jsuntane

X-No-Archive

Sorry about that last message being under someone else's account. I was on a library computer and submitted it before realizing that someone had left themselves logged in.

Thank you for your kind replies. I found a motor on Jameco that looks perfect for my needs. I'm glad I just asked instead of trying to figure something out with a bouncing solenoid.

No need to be snotty Jeff. Especially when you're wrong.

Check out

formatting link

I'll quote from it, "Any post that contains the text "X-No-Archive" in either the header or the first line of the message (with no additional text included on that line) will be displayed on Google Groups for only seven days and won't be searchable after it's removed."

So putting X-No-Archive in the first line of my post had exactly the effect that I wanted it to.

Reply to
Sam

was

figure

Look who's being snotty now.

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only

But why???? The whole purpose of this is to build a repository of information that others may find useful in the future. By doing it "your way", you are depriving future archive readers of the context of your post. Why wouldn't you want to give that tiny thing back to the very people that you expect to help you now? Are you just that selfish?

Reply to
Anthony Fremont

I acknowledge my error. I'm used to seeing Google flag these things in bold. This must be the 1st time I've seen it used by someone posting from Google.

You should realize that this isn't Google Groups; this is Usenet and Google Groups is but one way to access Usenet. [1] There other repositories out there which WILL archive it. . . I agree with Fremont's commentary on selfishness. . . [1] At this point, many will say the inferior way.

Reply to
JeffM

X-No-Archive

Believe me, I understand quite well what usenet is and what google is. Google might not be the best way to post on usenet, but it certainly is one of the cheapest.

I'm sorry if I appeared snotty, I was just a little put off by the fact that I was told I didn't know what I was doing when I knew that I did. And "" is snotty too Fremont. So here's my most honest, non-snotty reply:

I'm not trying to stop my posts from being archived everywhere, just specifically not on google. I know exactly what I'm doing and I don't see how this is selfish at all, the entire text of my question was quoted in another message. Any person who is searching for a phrase or word found in my question will still find Bob's and Tim's posts which contain inciteful replies. The only thing that I've changed is that someone searching specifically for posts where I'm the author won't find the thread. Maybe when I'm applying to a job I might not want my future employer finding a string of posts where I say I've never worked with solenoids and ask how to stop an overflowing toilet. Maybe that's a little selfish, but I don't think it's unreasonable. Please don't reply to this, this post has gone on far too long already. I'm sorry if I ruffled anybody, I just wanted to ask a basic electronics question on sci.electronics.basics.

Reply to
Sam

"Sam"

** Most replies on usenet are of the "inciteful" kind.

Shame how few contain any insight.

....... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Isn't it supposed to be x-no-archive: yes?

Reply to
Stone Trolled Steve Austin

Shhh......he already knows what he's doing. ;-)

Reply to
Anthony Fremont

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