Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

Who is planning on using pneumatic, aka 2" bore cyclinder 170 lb retracting force, etc..., to lift their robot off the ground at the end?

I can't convince my team to do it even though I have a very clever way to make it work.

Any ideas on how you'll do it would be nice.

edit: I will be willing to share my idea considering that you aren't attending LSR (Lone star) and aren't currently qualified for national or when my team decides to not use if for sure. This method may seem controversial when used but is legal and will probably not be used by any other team, unless I can convince mine.

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

we aren't doing this, but it would work. Attach a hook or some other way to attach to the bar on the end. Drive up to the platform. Stick the pnuematic up on a rigid arm. Drive so this is touching the bar. retract pneumatic. Make sure that you will acutally be hanging at this point. You also might want to have some sorrt of passive latch to hold you once you have retracted the pneumatic (like a gate latch), although the cylinder should hold you.

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

This has certainly been mentioned at our design meetings. It will work if you can maintain at least ~50PSI in your pneumatic system throughout.

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

We kicked around using 2" cylinder, cable ,and pullies, and pushing out. It may or may not happen. In our case time and weight will always be the deciding factors.

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

We are going to attempt to lift ourself with pneumatics on top of the ramp, then grab onto the pole. At this point, we would lower our pneumatics, and stay up. Much easier to lift the robot that way :)

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

we kicked the idea arround at the start of the season but have decided to go a different route.... what we were thinking was to make and arm where the pneumatic was integrated as a section of the arm...the arm would be hindged and when the cylinder is open the arm reaches over 10 ft and when it closes we hang.


another way that 1405 was thinking about but changed it was using a cabel through the center of the arm and that cabel is attched to the cylinder so it pulls the arm up and hooks on....


i'm not sure if that was clear but it is what we were thinking about

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

:] We are planning to use a 24" throw, 2" bore pneumatic cylinder to hoist our beast. As of Saturday we have achieved lift-off. Pretty exciting to us rookies!

Bill
Team 1247

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

How well does it work. Do you have to run the compressor the whole time or can you charge to 120 psi and do it without the compressor?

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

Compressor! What compressor! Did your team get one? We didn't, we will have twenty kids blowing into little hoses. Look for us, we'll be the team that always looks a little dizzy...

No, seriously our compressor runs periodically as needed and we have it programmed so that the low end setting can be overridden at the joystick. So far we have always had plenty of air. Our system works like a champ! One cylinder to raise an arm, the other cylinder extends out to grab the bar and ... Voila! We are off the ground. Fairly little battery drain or heat buildup either. We can hardly wait to compete!

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

Our team uses a 2" bore 10" throw lifting pistol. The piston is connect to extrusions which extend to the top of the bar using a pully system. Then the piston goes to work lifting all 129.3 pounds off the ground.

PS- Our robot uses a total 7 pistons (a far cry from last years 3 piston robot)

Whats next? Using pistons for the drive train.

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

our robot is using a scissor lift with pneumatic pistons on the side. we had to get the scissors aligned correctly :rolleyes: but it holds itself off the ground after attaching. we run our compressor with a button, so it doesnt drain the battery. now all we need to do is get it underweight

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

check us out. we use the 24" Cylinder to lift. http://www.sau53.org/net9/First/media.htm

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

We used two 13" stroke cylinders attached to a horizontal steel bar perpendicularly to pull ourselves up...

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

Same here.. And we do it very well!! It juist takes a bit longer than some because of the constraints with pneumatics and our compressor does get hot!

http://www.pbase.com/image/26627878

http://www.pbase.com/image/26627877

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

hey elgin, i dont know if you all heard about the rechargable circuit? basically, you go from your compressor, to a tee fitting, from the bottom part of the Tee, go to your double solenoid. where it comes out, go to the bottom fitting on your cylinder. then run your other tube from the fitting on the top of the cylinder, to the other fitting on that tee. the reslult is when it goes up, it will go slowly, but when it retracts, it gets 120psi, doubleing the pressure...and its all LEGAL!!!


if you come to any of the off season events, be sure to stop by 134, we have a schematic of it.

Re: Hanging w/ pneumatics
 

Rule 54 in Section 5 - "The Robot", second bullet: "Working" air pressure on the robot must be no greater than 60 psi. All working air must come from the Norgen adjustable pressure regulator, and all other pneumatic components must be downstream from this regulator...

In other words, your system is blatantly illegal. First, you're wiring the compressor straight to your piston. Even if this is a slipup, and you meant after the regulator, your later statement that you retract with 120 psi would be blatantly illegal as well. All working air pressure must be below 60 psi.

As far as the topic of the post goes, we hang pneumatically with 80/20 slides. It works well, especially because we have the compressor on automatic. The piston's really air-hungry, but having the compressor on automatic solves that problem.