Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

We use the FESTO solenoids mainly because they give them to us for free. We have never had any issues with the solenoids.

-Mihir Iyer

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

This year Code Orange used a 6 station SMC base mount with 2 24V double solenoids and 3 24V single solenoids. (and a blank station) They worked perfectly the entire season, not a single problem whatsoever.

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

Mr Sanders, have you personally seen any problem with the electrical connection in the 12 volt VUVG valve here? I thank you for your response and look forward to hearing your opinion
http://www.andymark.com/product-p/am-2304.htm

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

Our experience with festos have been that they are full of leaks and have poor connections.

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

Did you know you can tighten them with an Allen Key? I didn't, and it caused me a lot of grief*.


*Thanks Nick Lawrence!

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

I have noticed that too. The pins in the sub base (VAVE-L1-1VH3-LP) do not make a secure connection with the holes in the connecting wire (NEBV-H1G2-KN-0.5-N-LE2). as well as the fittings you screw in (QSM-M7-1/4-I-U-M) are prone to unsrewing themselfs during matches and causing big air leaks.

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

We used a lot of pneumatic devices this year and as a result needed two pneumatic modules in our cRIO and therefore two pneumatic breakouts. We powered the first at 24V and the second at 12V and used a combination of 24V and 12V SMC solenoids mounted on two manifolds (4 single-acting & 1 double acting 24v -- 4 double acting 12V). Almost all were new, but a couple of recycled 12V SMCs were also pressed into service.

If you do this (use two solenoid voltages), you need to be very, very careful wiring!

All of the SMC solenoids performed flawlessly through (2) district event, a district championship and the FRC Championship. 44 qualification and 27 elimination matches in all.

We're pretty satisfied with the performance of the SMC solenoids. We've no real experience with the Festos, so I have absolutely nothing bad to say about them.

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

We have used Festo valves exclusively for the last four years (OK we didn't use pnuematics this year) and have never had a problem with connectors or leaks.

OH BTW my Dad retired from SMC.

Re: Festo? Or SMC
 

Just a friendly reminder: if you are using non-KOP valves, bring the proper documentation with you to show the inspector that your components are legal per the current year's manual. Using previous-year KOP valves or valves that were legal in the past does not guarantee that they will pass inspection.