[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by Nick.kremer

Here are some ideas that either didn't help us or didn't apply in our situation, but may benefit you:

1. Adding more pistons.
2. Increasing piston bore.
3. Assisting the pistons (ex: surgical tubing, spring, ect)

Hope this helps,
-Nick

Increasing the diameter of your cylinders will most likely REDUCE the "power" of your shot, because it will slow the full activation of the cylinder (bigger cylinder - more to fill). If you need a certain amount of surface area to generate enough lift, then the fastest way to activate that would be increasing the number of cylinders - each with their own solenoid - and DECREASING the size of each cylinder, so they each fill quickly.

We used three .75" diameter by 12 stroke cylinders. The solenoids we are using are from McMaster Carr, and have about three times the flow rate as the standard KOP solenoids. Our shot can cross the truss and reach the human player from the center of the white line.

Two more things...(1) if you are using the cylinders in a direct pushing action, like us - we found that it was essential to have the ball resting on the plungers of the cylinders before the shot rather than have a space between the ends of the cylinders and the ball. Apparently the impact with the ball disrupted the action enough to dissipate some of the power transfer...so "push" don't "punch". and (2) don't try to fix multiple cylinder rods together into one plunger...it is nearly impossible to gang them together without introducing some friction on at least one of the rods, thus reducing power. We made a loose gathering gasket out of bicycle tube to keep the ends of the three cylinders together.