“The solenoid is fine, and I like the fact that the pin is captive. The termination on the wires is good too, but the leads are a little short. The biggest issue is that the holes on the side of the solenoid body are not tapped, so mounting it is harder than it could be.”
“I recently bought one of these small solenoids. I also bought the bigger brother 12v version, but in the event the 5v model was just the job and provided sufficient output for the job for which I wanted to use it. I am experimenting with controlling a glockenspiel from Sonic Pi, using the solenoid, and a lego hammer to hit the keys. Having ascertained that the solenoid works, I am about to order some more to continue the project. I also bought some Adafruit TIP120 transistors, which drove the solenoid very well, but I an now going to try out the Adafruit ULN2803 8 channel darlington pair as a cheaper smaller alternative (also sold by ThePiHut)”
