Hello there,
I'm from team 1257. After having played defense (and not much else) in the past district event, we are looking to attempt to implement a solution for launching the ball over the truss for the next competition, in roughly a week and a half. While I fully believe in my team's ability to do so, I do have a couple questions about pneumatics.
1) At competition, I was talking to teams and they said they had both a high pressure and a low pressure circuit going, at 120 and 60 psi respectively. How is this possible, if there is a pressure regulator at 60 psi that's required before all pistons? Furthermore, how can the tanks get up to 120 psi if there is a 60 psi regulator in the circuit? The way it appears in the FIRST setup (
http://frc-manual.usfirst.org/upload...Figure4-15.jpg) it doesn't look like there's a break between the tanks and the regulator ...
2) Is there a limit to the number of tanks that we are allowed to have? Also, are we allowed to place tanks after the regulator? I haven't found anything specifically mentioning either in the rules.
3)For a team new to pneumatics, and given the time constraints, I think a latch system to store energy, or any tampering with the pistons (removing fittings to make flow faster, etc), is out of the question. Furthermore, since a 2-3 stage setup would be needed to make a successful ram, would our only option become a trebuchet?
4) I found tanks from our old seasons which are only open on one end (threaded opening). All other tanks (metal or plastic) have threaded/push to connect openings on both sides. Are the one sided containers tanks, and, if they are, would they just be connected to other tanks at the one end, using a t-connector?
We have about 30 pounds free to work with on the robot right now. Would this be enough for a full pneumatic system? If I'm not mistaken, we would be looking at something like 2x 10" stroke 1" bore cylinders (I think that's how one specifies cylinders?), along with the older, more heavy-duty compressor, a few tanks, likely metal (we have new black plastic Clippard tanks but are hesitant to use them due to stories of the white ones fracturing), and a little bit of tubing, brass connectors, and a few electronics. I can't imagine this getting up beyond 30 pounds; that being said, is there anything blatantly obvious I'm forgetting?
That being said, I would appreciate if someone could either answer these questions (and anything else that you think a beginner to pneumatics should know). I would also appreciate any general tips/pointers, or really anything else.
Thank you for your time and for reading,
Hades
Edit: Slightly unrelated. Is there any use for rotational cylinders? I found one sitting in our stock of pneumatic components and I was wondering if it would be remotely useful for FIRST related things. If we're allowed to use it, I see it as possibly being useful for blocking the pistons to build up pressure, among other things. Do teams use them at all?