pneumatics
 

is it legal for an air cylinder to be manually powered by a motor in order to build up pressure?

not sure howya would do that, but the answer is no.

Cory

why would it be illegal. all it would do is push the shaft into the air cylinder

ask on the FRC forumes

Rule M11 states

Energy stored by FIRST Robotics Competition robots, i.e., stored at the start of the match must come solely from:...

Compressed air stored in the pnuematic system, but only supplied by the pump included in the kit and stored at a maximum pressure of 120 PSI

There you have it, air pressure can only be made through the pump int he kit.

Re: pneumatics
 

I think you would need a one way valve for that to work. Even if you could make it, I'm not sure if they would allow it though. They do allow creating a vacumn by manually extending or retracting a cylinder with a motor.

Unfortunately, you're never going to be able to get more than 60psi using the kit parts. The regulator they gave us is a "relieving" regulator, meaning it won't allow the working pressure to go above 60psi even if you compress a pressurized cylinder. Since FIRST doesn't provide one-way valves, there would be no way to isolate the cylinder from the regulator either.

"They do allow creating a vacumn by manually extending or retracting a cylinder with a motor."

is there a rule to show me this? Because this is exactly what I wanted to hear.

It was in a team update some time ago. Check hyperrules or the first website.