I'm using a basic circuit to trigger a 12V Push-Pull solenoid using an Arduino UNO.
The circuit I'm using as a reference is this: http://bildr.org/2012/03/rfp30n06le-arduino/
It works perfectly with the 5V GPIO pin on the UNO, however swapping out the GROUND and GPIO pin to a Raspberry Pi's 3.3V GPIO doesn't trigger the solenoid.
I'm using this MOSFET:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GN ... UTF8&psc=1
I asked Adam (the creator of the circuit I'm following) as to why this isn't working, and he suggested that I use this MOSFET instead.
Adam's response about my issue:
Before I buy this MOSFET, I want to make sure that it would actually work with the 3.3V GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi.MOSFETs are triggered by voltage, so it isn’t surprising that it won't work with 3.3v because this was set up to use 5v. I checked the spec sheet and it looks like the MOSFET can trigger at as low of 2.5v but people on other forums are saying it won’t fully trigger at 3.3v.
I don’t have any experience at all with using MOSFETs with the pi, but I googled it and found this: https://www.adafruit.com/product/355 - Adafruit is claiming that this transistor would work for your needs
Can anyone here confirm that the IRLB8721PbF MOSFET sold by Adafruit will actually work with PI, assuming I just drop it into my circuit above?
----
A side question. Would it be possible to step-up the 3.3V GPIO signal to a 5V signal to trigger the MOSFET as an alternative solution?
I'm a complete beginner at this stuff, so any insight would be helpful! Thanks!