Quote:
Originally Posted by Marc S.
So you can increase the psi and the size of the solenoid, but this will always be the main limiting factor.
The solution is to precharge the cylinder before firing it, and only plumb it in the firing direction (leaving the vent wide open).
I'm sure you could improve upon this idea, but it's at least a starting point.
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Marc S. was very close to the idea that my team 1108 used to win the Crossroads regional.
If you only retract the piston partially, you leave a reservior right in the cylinder to fill with air. Fill that to 60 psi while you hold down the catapult (we use an electromagnet) and then let go.
Also, yes, you don't want anything at all on the outputs of the cylinders. We simply use gravity to retract.
Of special note, the two robots that finished Crossroads as top seeds both ended up in the finals were both fully pneumatic.
Our 1108 has the system described above, where 1024, Kil-A-Bytes, has a circle of six very small diameter cylinders with very big valves and they shoot very well too, without a failure as far as I know.
I'd be curious to know how many other robots out there are full-pneumatic and how they've done.