Developing Solenoid-Valve extruder for biomaterials, but signal and voltage are tricky to incorporate

Hi there,

I have been designing a 3D printer that's on the same infrastructure as Prusa i3 for bioprinting. However, I am not sure how to use my new extruder, which is a pressure-based solenoid valve.

Essentially, the valve is powered by a Spike and Hold, not a PID like Prusa i3 is. This spike and hold requires 24 V in the first millisecond and then 5 V for the hold voltage. As you already know, Arduino cannot exceed 24 V or else it will burn out the circuit. In addition, the Marlin software that powers this model is for PID.

My question is this: how can I redesign the printer for the solenoid signal without damaging the Arduino?

I've only just read your message, so I guess you have solved it already. If not, it's easy to do with a few electronic components.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Just sent you a PM. I can show you what I've diagramed here if necessary.