Electronic – Wires from car battery to solenoid catching fire after connecting a second solenoid

avrmosfetsolenoid

I have two solenoids connected to my AVR and car battery:

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

But when I start switching them the circuit burns up (literally there was fire).

The lines connected to the solenoid is what caught fire. The switching frequency is probably like 1 or 2 Hz.

Here is some data on the solenoids (I unfortunately cannot find a part number on them any where):

  • Switch at 12V
  • .58 Amps running
  • 2.94 Amps switching
  • 16V spikes when switching

What did I do wrong here?

FYI: We were able to get this to work (without fire) with just a single solenoid, but adding the second causes these issues.

Best Answer

Wires overheat because of over current.

Get out your multi-meter and measure the current in the wire.

(BTW, you mention 16 volt spikes, yet you say you don’t have an oscilloscope. Hmmm ? )

If the solenoid doesn’t fully engage (pull in), then you may be drawing a continuous current of 2.94 amps. Use a wire size able to handle 6 amps (both solenoids) continuous and the wires won’t catch on fire. Then you can find other problems.

EDIT 1 : You also should change diode to a diode that can handle a PEAK forward current of at least 3 amps. (per suggestion by @soosai steven). The 1N4148 is rated at 400mA recurrent peak forward current.