OpenSprinkler Forums Hardware Questions OpenSprinkler Bee (OSBee) OSBEE hardware questions Reply To: OSBEE hardware questions

#40767

Ray
Keymaster

– “Can the H bridge operate with 3V?”
This question isn’t very clear. Do you mean if H bridge can be controlled with 3V logic signal? The answer is yes, and is what OSBee does. It uses a high-side switch (NPN transistor + P-channel MOSFET) to allow logic-level control signal.

– “Is the osbee capable of providing one ampere, or more, for the solenoids with 5v of arduino?”
The H-bridge itself is capable to driving up to 3 amp, however, OSBee is primarily designed for latching solenoid valves, which only require momentary high current to open or close. Its PCB traces are not designed to sustain high current over a long time.

– “Can it work with 9V latch solenoid? because the output voltage boster is 24V. I saw in the cpp file that the output voltage can be programable.”
Yes it can. First of all, the boost voltage is software adjustable — it defaults to 24V, but you can easily change it to 9V by lowering a parameter. Second, even if you don’t adjust the boost voltage, it works fine with 9V latching valve — the energy from the capacitor is dumped to the valve in a very short amount of time, so a moment of voltage higher than specification is totally fine.

– “Finally, if I use a 9V battery How many times I can activate and deactivate the solenoid? more or less. It is to estimate the battery life.”
If you exclude the power consumption of the Arduino itself, just activating/deactivating the solenoids require very little power, so I would imagine a 9V battery can open/close valves many hundred or thousands of times. However, Arduino is likely to be your major bottleneck in power consumption.