Quote:
Originally Posted by jspatz1
Many would argue whether SMC are the "best" solenoid valves. There are many industrial brands and all claim superiority, and all have their own loyal users. Many brands have similar manifold mounting. SMC is certainly a common, well regarded brand. They are familiar to many FRC teams because they were included in the KOP a few times in the past, and now are sold by Vex. SMC's main advantage for FRC is that the SY3000 series is recognized by everyone to be legal (Cv) and well known by inspectors, so they usually don't require documentation proof that they are legal. The same is true for the Festo valves more recently in the KOP. Some might say the body-ported style of the Festo in the KOP reduces weight, parts, and volume over a manifold style. Both these brands and others offer body-ported and manifold systems, and there are many dozens of valve choices that would be legal for FRC. These are just two examples that are familiar from being the KOP.
SY3140-XX-XX is a single sol. that would fit on the Vex Pro manifold. The next two digits are voltage (5=24v, 6=12v) and connection style (G,H=hard wired, L,M= connectors.)
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To elaborate a bit more on "best". They were in the KOP, and the are pretty close in CV to what FIRST allows. They were in the kit, so older teams have them, which made them popular. Other teams used them after seeing how clean they are on the manifold.
Almost every manufacturer has a similar manifold mount solenoid in the size we need, but the fact that we already so many SMC valves makes changing not desirable. In summary, not "best", but convenient and certainly plenty good enough.