Pneumatics trade at Nats
 

Team 449 is looking for a small pneumatics cylinder, with the shortest stroke you can find. We are willing to trade a really big cylinder for it. I think you'll get the best deal, you give us a tiny cylinder, we'll give you a big one. Or a medium sized one, if that's what you really want.

Anyway we just want to know who to talk to when we get to Atlanta to trade for a small cylinder. Post if you have an extra one.

Re: Pneumatics trade at Nats
 

We do have a lot of cylinders, about 5 that are 3/4 bore, and others that are about 3" throw. What size are you really looking for? I can't get to the cylinders right now, but we do have some that could be very helpful to you.

To elaborate...
 

I guess I can be a little more specific. We're looking for medium bore, smallest stroke. The important thing is the smalls stroke, around 2 to 4 inches. The bore should be about 1.5 inches.

This cylinder will be attached to a skid which will push down to lift up two wheels of the robot to get rid of traction while turning. We're using the pnuematic tires, and they grip so much that we bounce when turning. Our drivers have come up with some creative techniques to work around this, and this system may not be used at all, but I'd like to keep the option open.

Thanks for your help.

Re: To elaborate...
 

there are several threads and one whitepaper about this problem. We wrapped zip ties around the wheels radially and scored them for extra forward traction. This worked fine until Annapolis when a judge (apparently not the real one but a volunteer of some sort) told us we had to take them off (we found something else to wrap them with, though not as good). Subsequently, we witnessed several teams play with zip ties on their wheels so i guess its back to legal.

Re: To elaborate...
 

We have the problem of too much traction. At the Chesapeake regional we spent 20 minutes putting zip ties on the wheels to reduce the sideways traction. Then we took it to inspection, where one of the inspectors said zip ties tear up the carpet and made us spend another 20 minutes taking them all off. Frustrating.

Re: Pneumatics trade at Nats
 

We have some medium bore, 2 or 3 in. stroke cylinders from the first year our team was competing. They are past pneumatics so they should be ok. They are SMC and they have the thread on the rear of the cylinder. You could drill a big hole in something and just attach the back of the cylinder to it. They still work fine (we used them for the pneumatic mock-up this year).