177's Vacuum System
 

It just occurred to me that we never posted a white paper on how we created a vacuum system for the Bobcat 2004. We used vaccum to actuate the shifting mechanisms on our transmissions last year instead of pnuematics for those who didn't see our robot.

I wanted to see if people were interested in a white paper on how we did this. If your interested or have questions please reply. I'm going to try and take pictures at our meeting tonight.

Pete

Re: 177's Vacuum System
 

i've never heard of this before and would definitely be interested.

Re: 177's Vacuum System
 

roger that!, i dont fully understand wha it is soa attachment picture would help me determine if i wanna read the white paper

Re: 177's Vacuum System
 

Didn't have a camera to take a picture but I'll give a short description.

We created a vacuum generator consisting of a globe motor, a large pneumatic cylinder, and a crank made from a large sprocket. By driving the cylinder with a motor and putting check valves on it in the proper arrangement we created ~25 in of vacuum. This setup weighed less than half the weight of the compressor.

We originally planned to use vacuum to pick up the big balls so we decided to use this system for as many other functions as we could. In the end we only used it to shift after we abanded big balls.

Pete

Re: 177's Vacuum System
 

now i am intererested, there is very lil infromation on vacumms in the white pages, many teams did it to get the multiplier but for all us teams who didnt make one were still inthe dark soa paper like this would be helpful even to those who dont plan to make it like yours

Re: 177's Vacuum System
 

We experimented with making a vacuum last year but never found a reliable designee so I would be very interested in a white paper on your design.