operating a solenoid valve using duet
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Hi there, I wondered if it is possible to open and close a switch instead of turning an extruder stepper motor on and off? This would be in order to open and close a solenoid valve, to operate a compressed air driven paste extruder print head. Instead of starting and stopping the extruder, the control board would open and close a switch, in order to energise the coil in a 24v solenoid valve. This would operate in a similar way to the ceramic paste extruder developed by UnfoldLabs in Belgium, back in the early days of RepRap, Bits from Bytes etc c. 2009. I think they used a spare output on the Bits from Bytes controller board, but then had to manually change the g-code. Thanks, Peter
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@OwenD said in Driving a Relay through extruder stepper output:
What is your usage case?
If you're not FDM printing, but instead trying to control an external device via the relay (like say a welder), you could probably set the machine up in laser mode.
See M542
https://duet3d.dozuki.com/Wiki/Gcode#Section_M452_Select_Laser_Printer_Mode
I think Owens idea might fit the bill. You can configure the heater output to be a laser output which will energize the solenoid when you're moving with laser on. Silimarly with CNC mode and spinde output I guess.
Take care to ensure the output you use have a flyback diode to supress the emf from the solenoid, I think all recent Duets have diodes on the heater outputs but not the fan outputs.