Morlok MK3 and capacitor

[XEMON]

Hello all who got Morlok project going,

Dumb question here ... Where do you put the capacitor to drive those fat solenoid?

I'm powering the whole thing with one of those little lipo and it doesn't have the "houph" to get it going under load...

Thanks,
X

[Siress]

C9 on the PCB. "[4]" per the board diagram here: http://northarc.com/morlock/board_wiring.html

[XEMON]

C9 on the PCB. "[4]" per the board diagram here: http://northarc.com/morlock/board_wiring.html

Well ... Not quite 😅
C9 doesn't do it ... And curt confirmed it goes somewhere else ... But where?
I'm trying to find out how everyone does it so I can get the blue cocker going 😁

[Siress]

I expect he'd have update his docs, then, because they still state:

Extra Capacitor

Included in the Morlock kit is a large capacitor that is NOT attached to the board. This is C9, with + marked on the bottom. It's job is to stablize incoming power and provide extra "oomph" to large colenoid markers that need it. Some do some don't.
If your marker has trouble actuating the solenoid or the board "resets itself" every time it fires, you need it.

Where did Curt confirm it goes somewhere else?

[XEMON]

I know what the doc say, he confirmed via email to me.
The board run the solenoid without air, but once there eis pressure it doesn't have enough power ...

[Siress]

Huh. Well... I don't know if this is accurate for MK3, but in previous Morlock generations the capacitor for pancake solenoid setups were just wired in parallel with the battery. Have you tried that?

I'd be worried about interfering with the charging circuit for the lipo, but maybe it's fine... I dunno.

[Roger7pball]

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/c...aps#post286842

Post #15

For an Autococker you need a little more energetic capacitor.

But I was running a 9v not a LiPo which might be more difficult.

[XEMON]

Ok, so you left it in C9, but used a 2200uf instead of the 680uf supplied?

[Roger7pball]

Yep. If you need even more ooomph you can put a capacitor in parallel with the output (negative to any ground and positive to pin on header).

[curt]

hey, sorry. Yeah that capacitor can go either across the mains (the provided place) OR as a supplement to the voltage booster. I couldn't figure out an easy way to add that in, but basically you just put it across the output here and here:

http://northarc.com/morlock/boost_cap.html

This will give a much larger OOMPH to the output voltage at the cost of slight charge-lag. On the order of a few milliseconds, not noticeable I promise, as long as you use 470uF or so. There is a 22uF there already that just doesn't have the horsepower for really large + high voltage solenoids.

-Curt

[XEMON]

Bought the caps you linked.
I'll give it a go and report back 👍