Hello and Thanks in advance.
I am in a bind and need some help rather quickly and very inexpensive. I live in the mountains of Montana and am having issues with my fresh water storage tank freezing. I have come up with an idea to circulate the hot water into the tank when the water reaches 33F degrees and stop it using a solenoid when it reaches 35F degrees. The temperature range is not that important here.
I am completely new at electronics, but can program in "C" without any problem, so I wanted to use an Arduino to build my own mini computer to control the solenoid and monitor the temperature of the water tank.
I have already bought a Arduino Zero. I also know I need some sort of motor control, but don't know what to buy to handle the solenoid. If you search for ( JFSV00069 ) in google.com it will be the first link, if you want to see specs. Link also provided below.
I thought about buying a MRKZERO with a MRK Proto Shield to add the TPIC6B595 or TIP102 ( as described in the Solenoid Driver PDF ) to control the solenoid, but have no idea what else I will need as far as resistors, capacitors or other components to make it all work.
I have read through the Playground for controlling a solenoid, but don't fully understand it.
I have some experience in building and soldering components onto boards, as I have built several "OP AMPS", but the layout was provided and I didn't have to do any configuring.
I have reviewed the below links already, but it's still not sinking in completely to build one.
http://playground.arduino.cc/Learning/SolenoidTutorial
I know I am asking a lot from this, but I'm in a hurry and can't spend as much time as I would like to research the details.
Again... Thank you in advance. I hope someone can help me.
Thank you,
Daniel Nadler
Bozeman, MT