/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>132676
AC into a DC solenoid will just cause it to vibrate.

Increasing your voltage through a transformer or buck booster will decrease the current. It won't supply any extra power to the solenoid. The only time you'd want to do this is if you're using a thin wire solenoid that needs high voltage low current to not burn up.

To increase the power to the solenoid add a capacitor across the battery as shown. It won't increase the power continuously, but it will supply a kick when the switch is closed. The cap charges up from the battery when the switch is open then quickly dumps its stored power into the solenoid when the switch is closed.

>>127678
If you do this the LEDs in parallel will burn out when the transistor outputs enough power to run the LEDs in series, and also the LEDs in series will not light up. Also connecting LEDs in parallel like that without load balancing resistors is never a good idea.

There are some chips designed for this sort of application like the LM3915. However if you want to do something simpler without a dedicated chip Pic related.