I am making a clock project and am hoping to interoperate an alarm bell into it. I was wondering if anybody knew where I could start looking for solenoids to use as a striker for the alarm. I have 12V at my disposal and would require a medium switching frequency, ie enough to strike the bell a couple of times a second.
You need a lever with a metal ball at the end (or similar) to pull with the solenoid. The lenth of the actuator arm on the lever is determined by the stroke of the solenoid, so that fully de-energized the ball is x distance from the bell and energized the ball is in firm contact with the bell. You also need to control the pulse width of the solenoid pulse to control the sound . Narrow pulse-width gives maximum ringing , minimum dampening. Longer pulsewidth gives more dampening and less ringing.
He doesn't want a pleasant door chime. He wants a "GENERAL QUARTERS !!!!" /All Hell is Breaking Loose alarm bell .