I have an Arduino Mega and I want to hook up and independently control ten of these 5V solenoids:
I believe I will need external power for the solenoids and maybe transistors?
But clearly my knowledge is quite lacking and it would be awesome if someone could slap together a diagram or a breadboard plan to show exactly what I would need and how to put it together for this basic project.
They would be running for hours at a time with some of them extended for 5-10 second periods, so they may need to be cooled, I'm not sure how hot they get.
You def need external power and transistors (or solid state relays: something which can switch the high current) and also the so-called flyback diode, backwards across the solenoid.
If you want to learn are you going to ask someone else to do it for you ? (just a question)
it would be awesome if someone could slap together a diagram or a breadboard plan to show exactly what I would need and how to put it together for this basic project.
Well... I didn't say I did want to learn, someone else doing it for me is pretty much what I asked for XD
I'm sure that makes me seem lazy, but the electronics and voltage/current calculations are not the fun bit for me, it's what I intend to do with the little machine - the bit that comes after that interests me.
Had I the appropriately knowledgeable friend to help me with this project I would ask them, but as I do not, I must turn to the famous generosity of the Internet.
The datasheet for the solenoids and the previously linked tutorial contain all the information you need.
I am sure you can draw a schematic for ten of these on a piece of paper using the schematic in the tutorial. Fun or not, that is what you need to do. This is a help forum, not a schematic drawing service. There is no reason why you can't do it yourself. Is this a homework assignment ?