Using DTMF to drive solenoids

Jul 25, 2005 3 Replies
E

Dear All,



I am new to DTMF as well as to this group so forgive me in case of "stupid" questions...



I am looking for hardware to control 16 solenoids using DTMF tones. In fact I am building an instrument consisting of 16 automated castagnettes.



My goal is to find a solution as simple as possible to drive the castagnettes.



My basic idea is:



1) Use a MP3 player to store a "song" consisting out of differtent DTMF tones
2) Use a simple DTMF receiver connected to the MP3 player to detect the DTMF tones (e.g. MT8870D / MT8870D-1 Integrated DTMF receiver)
3) Use simple electronics connected to the DTMF receiver to drive 16 solenoids. (Solenoids: 12VAC or 12VDC)


Does anyone of you know a simple approach to do this? I know just enough about electronics to build a simple schematic.



I really hope anyone of you can give me some help!



Best regards, Eibert Draisma.


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S

--Sill me; what is DTMF? --I'm using solenoids as well, via Stamp, but to control a (fairly primitive) tap-dancing robot.

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E

Hi John,

*** This is an email I sent you because I guessed it's not possible to post pictures to this newsgroup. Did you receive it? ***

Thanks for your help so far!

Actually I am not going to drive castagnets; I am going to drive "crab-arms"! Together with my girlfriend I am building a synthetic "plant" equipped with 16 crab-arms. The plant should be able to give a concert every once in a while. The attached picture shows a small test-model we built; we emptied the crab-arm and equipped it with a solenoid from a pinball machine. (This "prototype" is push-button operated but it works really well.)

My knowledge of electronics is quite basic but I can understand your schematic fairly good. I will try to find suitable solenoids.

Do you have any other useful remarks before we build the schematic? Of course we'll keep you posted concerning the result!

Thanks aga>

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