Hello all,
I must preface this by saying I know absolutely nothing about microcontrollers, circuit design, and only a limited amount of programming, so please bear with me...
I am in the process of building a switching device for a project I am working on and need a way to switch the polarity of an electromagnet. I am looking for a device (I'm assuming a microcontroller) that will allow me to control the polarity of the EM; the polarity can be switched by switching the current flowing through the EM. First off, does anyone know of a switch that can control control the polarity? I am also looking to program a device to do simple (for now) patterns and also random patterns. By simple, I mean 30 seconds (+) polarity, 30 seconds (-) polarity, repeating, etc. By random, I mean changing polarity at no less than 30 seconds, no more than 5 minutes. I know the programming will be very simple, but I don't know what kind of hardware I need to accomplish this. It needs to be something that I can interface with a computer to change these programs if need be. Thank you for your patience and suggestions! Mods, please move this if it's in the wrong place.