Noob in the field -- problems making a solenoid....

[Anugrah_kora]

Hello.
Me and my friends planned to make a solenoid. We used 22 gauge insulated wire and we used an old laptop charger (19v 3.3A) as the power supply. Earlier we used a power supply of 1A and it wasn't enough. When we connected everything and switched on,we saw the solenoid behaving weirdly . We found out that it was changing the direction of the current flow causing it to act like this. I don't know if it is the charger..
Please can someone help me?

 

[scottdave]

Could it be that the power supply has some circuitry which prevents shorting the output? Maybe you need to put a resistor in series with your solenoid.

 

[Anugrah_kora]

Could it be that the power supply has some circuitry which prevents shorting the output? Maybe you need to put a resistor in series with your solenoid.

Tried adding a 1.5ohms resistor in series but the solenoid ceased to function.. :(

 

[Windadct]

What is the DC resistance of your solenoid? Based on your data the charger needs to have at least 19/3.3 = 6 Ohms load - or 120 feet of 22 Ga ( 22 ga = 0.05 Ohms per foot)...