Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Has anyone used a compressor like those used with air tools to recharge robots in the pit? It could be connected with a quick release fitting to the pressure vent of the robot.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Pretty sure this is not legal, see rule R79 and R80:

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Not legal on the competition field. If you're practicing/testing, it's kind of a gray area, but I'd still avoid it.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Not legal at the competition on practice field, pits or competition playing field. You will be asked to remove from the pit area.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Agreed. Completely not legal at any competition. Leave it home.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

While I acknowledge that it is illegal to use a shop compressor to fill the pneumatics tanks for a competition match, I fail to find anywhere in the manual that states you can not bring a compressor, and use it in the pits or to fill your robots tanks for use on the practice field.

Please correct me quoting a rule from the manual if I am incorrect.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Here is the full rule which I believe answers your question.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Or more importantly, to blow off the robot before powering it up because your team, or the team in the next pt was cutting, grinding, filing, chopping, de-burring, trimming, stripping, or otherwise performing an activity likely to cause metal bits and pieces to be in the air and possibly land in or on your sensitive electronics.

They don't make you wear safety glasses for nothing.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

If a team brings a shop compressor, and is using it for tools and the like, and doing that in a safe manner, I have no issue with that.

Once you start using it to charge your robot's tanks, that's where the inspectors run into problems.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

The rule doesn't state that "shop compressors" are not allowed in the pits. Also filling your robots air tanks from a shop compressor for some time on the practice field would not fall under "non-compliance with any other applicable rules" from what I understand.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

R79 has your answer. There is no difference between the competition rules for the competition field or practice field in terms of the robot operation. You can modify your robot and test, but you cannot modify procedures in relation to the safety of operation.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

This would be an applicable rule
If you were to use a shop compressor, you would 1) be using an illegal compressor, or 2) you would be using more than one compressor which is also illegal.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

Please don't use compressed air to to blow off your robot in an FRC pit. As you said yourself, it can send small metal bits into the air. After which they will land in places you cannot control. Maybe in your robot's electrical system, maybe in another team's. You should be using a vacuum, not a blower, to remove small debris from your robot.

See also this post by Dave Lavery several years ago.

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

I agree -- I don't know of a rule that prohibits shop compressors in the pits. However, using one to fill your ROBOT's tanks, for any reason, would violate a number of rules -- airflow, one and only one compressor, and control of the compressor by the CRIO. I don't understand why anyone would think that a robot isn't a ROBOT just because it's not on the competition field.

As for the "I don't see any rule that says you can't" justification -- I don't see anything that says I can't use depleted uranium for ballast on my robot. :)

Re: Recharging Robot Pneumatics with Air Tool compressor
 

There are multiple issues with having shop compressors in the pits.

First, as inspectors we don't know what you're using it for. You could use it to charge your robot at any point - while this is clearly not legal for competition use, doing so for use on the practice field and in the pits also bypasses half the safety mechanisms on the robot - stored air is not under the control of the robot, it doesn't turn off when the robot is disabled or e-stopped, and it doesn't automatically stop at 120 PSI (many shop compressors can be adjusted to charge to greater than 120 PSI). So using it to charge the robot for non-competition uses at a match violates R8 by creating a potentially unsafe condition in the pits or practice field.

Second, many of the venues we run our competitions have limited available power. Shop compressors require significant startup current and could easily blow a breaker, cutting power to your pit and your neighbors.

Third, as already pointed out, shop compressors can very easily be used to create a dangerous situation by blowing metal chips around - those can easily find their way around safety glasses and into team's electronics.

Please, do us all a favor and leave the shop compressors in the shop. We don't want to see them at competition.