Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a big coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull from one end. This solenoid in particular is nice and strong, and has a slug with a slanted cut and a good mounting bracket. It's basically an electronic lock, designed for a basic cabinet or safe or...

Control the flow of fluid using the flow of electrons! This liquid valve would make a great addition to your robotic gardening project. There are two 1/2" (Nominal non-taped National Pipe) outlets. Normally, the valve is closed. When 12VDC is applied to the two terminals, the valve opens and water can push through. The valve has a gasket arrangement inside, so there is a minimum pressure requirement of 0.02 Mpa (3 PSI). Also, liquid can...

Control the flow of fluid using the flow of electrons! This liquid valve would make a great addition to your robotic gardening, aquarium, or pool project. There are two 1/2" (Nominal NPS) outlets. Normally, the valve is closed. When 12VDC is applied to the two terminals, the valve opens and water can flow. Unlike the plastic solenoid valve, this one does not have a gasket, so there is no minimum pressure requirement. However, they...

Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull (from one end) or push (from the other). This solenoid in particular is very small, with a 20mm long body and a 'captive' armature with a return spring. This means that when activated with ~5VDC, the...

Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a big coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull (from one end) or push (from the other) This solenoid in particular is fairly small, with a 30mm long body and a 'captive' armature with a return spring. This means that when activated with up to...

Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a big coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull from one end, or push from the other. This solenoid in particular is chunkier than our little 5V one, with a 27mm long body, 10mm long throw, and a 'captive' armature with a return spring. This...

Solenoids are basically electromagnets: they are made of a big coil of copper wire with an armature (a slug of metal) in the middle. When the coil is energized, the slug is pulled into the center of the coil. This makes the solenoid able to pull (from one end) or push (from the other) This solenoid in particular is nice and strong, with a 40mm long body and a 'captive' armature with a return spring. This means that when activated with up...

Bring in some muscle to your output pins with 8 mighty Darlingtons! This DIP chip contains 8 drivers that can sink 500mA from a 50V supply and has kickback diodes included inside for driving coils. This will let your little microcontroller or microcomputer power solenoids, DC motors (in one direction) and unipolar stepper motors. Please note, this is an 'open collector' driver - it can only be used to connect the load to ground and there...

Your project may be free-as-in-speech, but that doesn't mean it has to be free-as-in-beer. This handy coin validator/acceptor module is just like the ones you've seen in arcades. This model has the cool ability to accept up to 4 different coins! For example, you can program it for 4 different US coins, or European, or Japanese OR you can have it accept 4 coins from different countries - say a Chinese Yuan, Japanese Yen, American Quarter...

Your project may be free-as-in-speech, but that doesn't mean it has to be free-as-in-beer. This handy coin validator/acceptor module is just like the ones you've seen in arcades. First, program it with what coin you want it to accept, any coin from 10.8mm to 25.1mm in diameter can be used so you can use American, European, Japanese, Canadian, etc. coins as long as they fit. When a valid coin is inserted, the output line will pulse for...

Spin two DC motors, step one bi-polar or uni-polar stepper, or fire off two solenoids with 1.2A per channel using the TB6612. These are perhaps better known as "the drivers in our assembled Adafruit Motorshield or Motor HAT." We really like these dual H-bridges, so if you want to control motors without a shield or HAT these are easy to include on any solderless breadboard or perma-proto. We solder on TB6612 onto a breakout...

For winding custom coils, or very fine-pitch rework, we always reach for magnet wire . Magnet wire is very very thin (0.1mm diameter!) copper wire with a very thin layer of insulation. It's used for a range of electronics, hacking and making applications. Commonly these are used for winding transformers, inductors, motor or solenoid coils, speakers, hard disk head actuators, electromagnets, pickups, among other things. However, this wire is...

Run four solenoids, two DC motors or one bi-polar or uni-polar stepper with up to 600mA per channel using the L293D. These are perhaps better known as "the drivers in our Adafruit Motorshield". If you accidentally damaged the drivers in a shield, you can use one of these puppies to replace it. Or you can breadboard something on your own! Each chip contains two full H-bridges (four half H-bridges). That means you can drive four...

Transistors are powerful little electronic switches, and we really like these NPN transistors whenever we need to control medium-power electronics such as small motors, solenoids, or IR LEDs. We find them so handy, they come in a pack of 10! Each transistor is a general purpose amplifier, model PN2222 (same pinout as the 2N3904) and has a standard EBC pinout. They can switch up to 40V at peak currents of 1A (not continuously, just peak!), with a...

This here is a 10 pack of the classic 1N4001 power blocking diode. These are good for reverse polarity protection (put it between your DC power jack and circuitry to avoid a negative-voltage that would zap your delicate electronics), kickback protection (place across your solenoids, relays & DC motors to safely discharge the spikes generated by the coils), general rectification, and more! These diodes can safely pass 1A average current...

This is a really nice power supply. It's a switching DC supply so its small and light and efficient. It is thin so it fits in power strips without blocking other outlets. The output is regulated so you'll get a steady 12V up to 1000mA (1 Amp) of current draw. 5.5mm/2.1mm barrel jack, positive tip. This supply is designed to work anywhere in the world, 100V-240V AC wall power, you'll just need a low cost plug adapter. New! This...

STEMMA plug-and-play parts make your next project soldering-free! This is the STEMMA Non-Latching Mini Relay . It gives you power to control, and control over power. Put simply, you can now turn on and off lamps, fans, solenoids, and other small appliances that run on up to 250VAC or DC power using any microcontroller or microcomputer, with ease. No worrying about flyback diodes, level shifting, pin protection. The STEMMA board takes...

Make a portable power brick with plenty of juice! Use Alkaline AA's for a 12V 3000-4000mAh power supply, or rechargeable NiMH for 2000mAh 9.6V supply. Either one is good for running electronics that have a 5V voltage regulator (thus requiring a 7V+ supply) or perhaps some motors or solenoids. Perfect for portable Arduinos, motors, solenoids, 12V LED strips, etc. An On/Off switch lets you control the power right at the source without unplugging....

Run two solenoids, or a single DC motor with up to 800mA per channel using the super-simple L9110H H-bridge driver. This bridge chip is an 8 DIP package so it's easy to fit onto any breadboard or perfboard. Each chip contains one full H-bridges (two half H-bridges). That means you can drive 2 solenoids or a single DC motors bi-directionally. Just make sure they're good for under 800 mA since that's the limit of this chip. They do...

Transistors are powerful little electronic switches, and when our little NPN transistors aren't power enough for your project, we have been known to use these beefy TIP120 Darlington transistors. Great for whenever you need to control medium to high-power electronics such as motors, solenoids, or 1W+ LEDs. We find them so handy, they come in a pack of 3! Each transistor is a general purpose amplifier, model TIP120 and has a BCE pinout. They can...

A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the Power Relay FeatherWing . It gives you power to control, and control over power. Put simply, you can now turn on and off lamps, fans, solenoids, and other small appliances that run on up to 250VAC or DC power using any Feather board. Compared to our smaller Relay FeatherWings, this one can handle a beefy 1200 Watts! Works with all/any of our Feather boards,...

Ever wanted to feel like Magneto? Well, now you sort-of can! Bring the ferromagnetic objects in the world under your control with an Electromagnet The simplest way to make an electromagnet is to get a solenoid, pass some current through it, and then get a piece of soft iron inside the solenoid. When the current is switched off, the electromagnet is no longer, well, magnetic! What this means is that you just need to power this here electromagnet...

Sometimes we wonder if robotics engineers ever watch movies. If they did, they'd know that making robots into slaves always ends up in a robot rebellion. Why even go down that path? Here at Adafruit, we believe in making robots our  friends! So if you find yourself wanting a companion, consider the robot. They're fun to program, and you can get creative with decorations. With that in mind, we designed Crickit - That's our C...

A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the Latching Mini Relay FeatherWing . It gives you power to control, and control over power. Put simply, you can now turn on and off lamps, fans, solenoids, and other small appliances that run on up to 250VAC or DC power using any Feather board. Using our Feather Stacking Headers or Feather Female Headers you can connect a FeatherWing...

Transistors are powerful little electronic switches, and we really like these NPN and PNP transistors whenever we need to control medium-power electronics, such as small motors, solenoids, or IR LEDs. We find them so handy we threw together a mix-and-match bag of PN2222 and PN2907! You get 5 x NPN and 5 x PNP, very handy for your class B amplifier, high or low side control, LED strips, what-have-you. Each transistor is a general purpose...

A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the Non-Latching Mini Relay FeatherWing . It gives you power to control, and control over power. Put simply, you can now turn on and off lamps, fans, solenoids, and other small appliances that run on up to 250VAC or DC power using any Feather board. Using our Feather Stacking Headers or Feather Female Headers you can connect a...

Ever wanted to feel like Magneto? Well, now you sort-of can! Bring the ferromagnetic objects in the world under your control with an Electromagnet The simplest way to make an electromagnet is to get a solenoid, pass some current through it, and then get a piece of soft iron inside the solenoid. When the current is switched off, the electromagnet is no longer, well, magnetic! What this means is that you just need to power this here electromagnet...

Sometimes we wonder if robotics engineers ever watch movies. If they did, they'd know that making robots into slaves always ends up in a robot rebellion. Why even go down that path? Here at Adafruit, we believe in making robots our  friends! So if you find yourself wanting a companion, consider the robot. They're fun to program, and you can get creative with decorations. With that in mind, we designed the Adafruit Crickit HAT -...

Ever wanted to feel like Magneto? Well, now you sort-of can! Bring the ferromagnetic objects in the world under your control with an Electromagnet The simplest way to make an electromagnet is to get a solenoid, pass some current through it, and then get a piece of soft iron inside the solenoid. When the current is switched off, the electromagnet is no longer, well, magnetic! What this means is that you just need to power this here electromagnet...

Add lots more outputs to a microcontroller system with chainable shift registers. These chips take a serial input (SPI) of 1 byte (8 bits) and then output those digital bits onto 8 pins. You can chain them together so putting three in a row with the serial output of one plugged into the serial input of another to make 3 x 8 = 24 digital outputs. You can chain pretty much as many as you want. This makes it easy to control a lot of outputs like...

Ever wanted to feel like Magneto? Well, now you sort-of can! Bring the ferromagnetic objects in the world under your control with an Electromagnet The simplest way to make an electromagnet is to get a solenoid, pass some current through it, and then get a piece of soft iron inside the solenoid. When the current is switched off, the electromagnet is no longer, well, magnetic! What this means is that you just need to power this here electromagnet...

Transistors are powerful little electronic switches, and we really like these PNP transistors whenever we need to control medium-power electronics, such as small motors, solenoids, or IR LEDs. We find them so handy, they now come in a pack of 10! Each transistor is a general purpose amplifier, model PN2907, and has a standard EBC pinout. They can switch up to 60V at peak currents of 600 mA (not continuously, just peak!), with a DC gain of...

Sometimes we wonder if robotics engineers ever watch movies. If they did, they'd know that making robots into slaves always ends up in a robot rebellion. Why even go down that path? Here at Adafruit, we believe in making robots our  friends! So if you find yourself wanting a companion, consider the robot. They're fun to program, and you can get creative with decorations. With that in mind, we designed Crickit - That's our C...

Sometimes we wonder if robotics engineers ever watch movies. If they did, they'd know that making robots into slaves always ends up in a robot rebellion. Why even go down that path? Here at Adafruit, we believe in making robots our  friends! So if you find yourself wanting a companion, consider the robot. They're fun to program, and you can get creative with decorations. With that in mind, we designed  Crickit  -...

Wow did you hear about that new sequel coming out? No, no, not  The Matrix 4 – it's The Art of Electronics - X Chapters ! More delicious, practical electronic advice from the masters, Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill.  The Art of Electronics: The X Chapters expands on topics introduced in the best-selling third edition of The Art of Electronics , completing the broad discussions begun in the latter. In addition to covering...

The Explorer pHAT is the perfect prototyping side-kick for your Raspberry Pi. Based on Pimoroni's popular Explorer Hat Pro, this is a smaller cheaper version designed to fit perfectly on a Raspberry Pi Zero! A heap of useful input and output options have been added that will take your projects to the next level. Great for driving motors, using analog sensors, and interfacing with 5V sensors & systems Though...

Getting Started in Electronic - by Forrest M. Mims, III. is a complete electronics course in 128 pages! This famous electronics inventor teaches you the basics, takes you on a tour of analog and digital components, explains how they work, and shows how they are combined for various applications. Includes circuit assembly tips and 100 electronic circuits you can build and test. Forrest has written dozens of books, hundreds of articles, invented...

The Explorer HAT Pro is a terrific prototyping side-kick for your Raspberry Pi 2, B+, or A+! On the Explorer Pro from Pimoroni there are a heap of useful input and output options that will take your projects to the next level. Great for driving motors, using analog sensors, interfacing with 5V systems, and touch interfaces! Features : 4x buffered 5V tolerant inputs Hook up your Pi to accept input from 5V systems (like Arduino Uno/Leonardo or 5V...

Jam-packed with analog and digital inputs, outputs, and a relay, Pimoroni's automation:bit is the perfect micro:bit add-on for controlling smart home, automation or even small robotics projects. It gives you power to control and control over power, whether it's to turn on and off lamps, fans, solenoids, smart sprinkler systems, etc. Comes fully assembled, just plug your micro:bit into the slot and use the ready-to-go MakeCode...

Get your Particle (formally known as Spark) Photon moving with a PhoBot Robotics shield. No, this is not a robot that makes you a delicious bowl of Vietnamese soup.  Instead, it's a board from Simon Monk that's kind of like a Motorshield for your Spark Core or Particle Photon that makes controlling small robots easy! The board features bi-directional motor control using a TB6612 dual H-bridge, so it can control one...

Willkommen , Calliope Mini ! Developed in Germany for students in primary school and up, this heavenly star-shaped development board is a souped-up derivative of the micro:bit. The main chip on the Calliope is the same nRF51822 as the micro:bit so for many purposes, it can be programmed the same way. There are some big upgrades though! Things that are the same as the micro:bit Nordic nRF51822 Multi-protocol Bluetooth® 4.0 low energy / 2.4GHz...

Pickup a copy of Make: Bluetooth LE Projects for Arduino, RasPi, and Smartphones and then hit the ground running with these great bluetooth accessories. This pack DOES NOT include the book! (But you can pick it up in the Adafruit shop) This pack is perfect for somebody who is up for a little challenge and eager to dive further into the wonderful world of Bluetooth LE, and by picking up all of the parts in a pack you save 20%! This pack...

The Explorer HAT is a terrific prototyping side-kick for your Raspberry Pi 2, B+, or A+! On the Explorer from Pimoroni there are a heap of useful input and output options that will take your projects to the next level. Great for driving motors, using analog sensors, interfacing with 5V systems, and touch interfaces! Features: 4x buffered 5V tolerant inputs Hook up your Pi to accept input from 5V systems (like Arduino Uno/Leonardo or 5V...