The Light and Reliable Solenoid

[El Mug]

Hi people,

Last year we used a Kliktronic soleniod for shifting, but is too heavy and is not so reliable. We would like to know what other electronic shifting systems you can find out there and which ones are the bests.

Thanks

Equipo F-SAE USB
http//www.formulasae.grupos.usb.ve/
Caracas, Venezuela

[Anthony]

http://thibs.menloschool.org/~celidave/FSAE/clutch%20actuation.pdf

We found this technical document on a nice cam/lobe system. We're trying to implement on this years car. Hope it helps.

[Charlie]

That's a very interesting setup in that paper; however they don't offer any real data on performance of the final product. They call it a 100ms shifter, but then they only say it has 'approached' 100ms in actual testing, and don't say how it was quantified either (peak to peak accel, or ? ). I'd be interested to see the final result.

-Charlie Ping
Auburn University FSAE (http://eng.auburn.edu/organizations/SAE/AUFSAE)
5th Overall Detroit 2003
? Overall Aussie 2003. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Chris Boyden]

How much did the Kliktronics weigh?
We're developing an electric solenoid shifter, and I'm approaching 4 pounds, which kinda of hurts me, and keeps me up at night http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif
The Klicktronics website says that it'll do a 1" throw in either direction, but the forces seem low, like ~15 pounds initial and ~40 pounds holding. The crude measurements that I"ve made indicate about a 25 lb initial force required on the shift lever (1" lever, 0.3" throw) for a Honda F4i and ~20 lb initial force on a Yamaha R6.

Anyway, try solenoidcity.com. The low profile solenoids seem to provide the highest force to weight ratio.

[Andres]

The Kliktronic weight rounds the 2,5 kg. It has enough force to shift, but needs real care on the mounting cause it is sentitive to any aligning error, the solenoid arm needs to mainting 90 degrees between it and the lever connected to the shifting mechanism. Whith a arm of 8 cm. and the 90 degrees it may do the job right

Equipo F-SAE USB
Universidad Simón BolÃ*var
VENEZUELA
www.formulasae.grupos.usb.ve (http://www.formulasae.grupos.usb.ve)

[Chris Boyden]

Andres, thanks for the weight.

I think one of the biggest problems we've come across with a standalone solenoid is binding due to misalignment. The single linear bushing is really sensitive to sideload. So, the design that we came up with puts two bearings on the actuator shaft, but mounting and alignment will be critical for smooth operation.