Thread: Beginner's Guide to Props and Pneumatics

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Oh wow- that's awesome. So I could run some 12v low amp controller to the solenoid all within my LED lighting system. Saweet! Thanks!

Yes you can. You can easily run plenty off of a 1A 12V power adapter. Remember also the power "draw" will also depend on how many activate at once. So if you have 5 solenoids and only 3 of them activate at the same time then the "draw" is less. This can be helpful if you have "timed" haunt props. Usually with a walkthrough activation.

I have a few 8 solid state relay boards that run on 12v 1A power supplies and they hold up very well. Sometimes I add a 120v relay board to them to allow me to use lights and any 120v source(fog machine, strobe..etc). This also reduces the stress of the solid state relays. Most can handle 500ma but a AC relay can bump this up to 10-15A which makes things much easier. Although the wiring can be crazy I have come up with contained relay packs that you just plug into. This cleans things up alot making the board and wiring contained inside a box.

Most DC solenoids draw 5 watts on average

Oh man- do you have any pictures of that stuff? That sounds AWESOME!

Here is what I was talking about:

Originally Posted by Baron Samedi

What a great post!!
Technically accurate and written in plain language thats easy to understand without confusing "Techno-jargon"
This is going to be a great resource for many members and visitors alike.

larry..Any chance of making this a "sticky" so it doesn't get buried? I feel many of us will be referring to this often.

Skeletal Remains..Thanks for such a brilliant, informative post.

Wow - even though this is from 2009 - I REALLY appreciate all the info and insight. Sooo great that HF is a repository for all our haunt/prop dreams - pneumatic and otherwise!!