valve voltage

[attractorlu]

Hi, Josh
Since the supporting power in Lee valve is 12V, if I want to use Arduino to control the valve, I need to use a relay to transfer the voltage. As you know, turning on/off a relay can make some sound; if I need to do ephys, this relay will bring some noise in the recording. I am wondering if I use bpod, how B pod does this work. The introduction said the valve could be driven by an Infineon ISO1H811GAUMA1 isolated solenoid driver IC. Is it the key?
Thank you,
Lu

[Josh]

Hello Lu,

Driving the Lee valves can be done silently with a MOSFET + flyback diode as shown in the 'Basic Transistor / Fast Response' example here. The 'Control Signal' is an Arduino pin.

The state machine uses the Infineon high side driver IC you referenced. It interfaces Arduino pins with valves, but with galvanic isolation of the control signals. Especially when used with larger valves, isolation reduces the likelihood of interference between valve transients and high speed digital logic on the state machine board.

I hope this helps,

-Josh