Thread: Pneumatic/Soleniod isues

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I am hoping somebody here can tell me where I am making my dumb mistake.

I have bought two 4 way solenoid at different times and can not get them to work correctly. When I hook up the air I get air out of port a. I apply power to the solenoid and expect the solenoid to switch the air flow to part b. The solenoids are STC 4v100-1/8. I have tried wiring the solenoid wire to the male plug both ways and get no change in effect. I read that the solenoid does not work with less then 20psi so I set the compressor output to 30psi and tried again with no success. Is there something that I am missing? This really looks like it should be "put tube a in adapter b" type of thing. I have worked with 2way and 3way solenoids before and never seen anything like this before. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Is the coil AC or DC? I would check to see if the coil is good to begin with and you have the correct voltage and correct coil. I have seen some valves that won't work unless there is something connected to the outlet ports. Is there a manual override button or switch that may be engaged? One other thing you might want to look at is the spool, will it move freely, if it's stuck you will only get air out of the port where it is stuck. You can remedy this by disassembling the valve and cleaning it and lubricating the spool. I use Lubriplate lithium grease. Use it sparingly so you don't get it gummed up. Hope this helps.

Pictures of your set up?

I have bought two 4 way solenoid at different times and can not get them to work correctly. When I hook up the air I get air out of port a. I apply power to the solenoid and expect the solenoid to switch the air flow to part b.

It doesn't work that way. STC and MAC valves need to be hooked to a double acting cylinder or port openings. It will work.

Remeber P is the input and R is the exhaust. You could have these reversed.

I found that the volume of air going into the solenoid was not enough. I removed the 1/4 tube and put a quick connect and hooked it up to the compressor feed line. This seems to have fixed the issue.