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Unread 13-08-2014, 11:42
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Brandon Holley Brandon Holley is offline
Chase perfection. Catch excellence.
AKA: Let's bring CD back to the way it used to be
FRC #0125 (NU-TRONs, Team #11 Alumni (GO MORT))
Team Role: Engineer
 
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Re: Pneumatic Restrictions & Improvments

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Stratis View Post
Brandon - In general we don't like shop compressors in the pits at all, for a couple of reasons. First, the high-current they require at start up can often overwhelm the pit power supply. Doing so can trip breakers and shut down power to a group of pits, not just your own, in many venues (especially when running in high schools for district events). Second, when you have a shop compressor in a pit, there's no way for us, as inspectors, to know 100% that you aren't using it to charge your robot.

What pneumatic tools do you use that can't easily be swapped out for a motor-driven equivalent? In my experience working on these robots, there's nothing we can do with a pneumatic tool that we can't do with a motor-based tool.
Jon-
The biggest reason we bring it is for our pneumatic rivet guns. Many of our modular sub assemblies are mounted purely with rivets, and popping 100+ steel 3/16" rivets with a pneumatic rivet gun is MUCH faster than doing it by hand (and comes out higher quality).

We obviously make do with the manual tools, as we've been forced to remove this compressor in the past. However the preference will always be to have it IF we are allowed to.

Just to add perspective, this is not a large shop compressor. Its a 1 gallon harbor freight job that would be something akin to what's in the trunk of your car to fix a flat.


Regarding not knowing if a team is using to fill their robot- you're 100% right. However, how do you know a team isn't using a spare legal robot compressor to fill their robot? Or breaking one of many other rules? We trust teams and give them the benefit of the doubt on so many levels, it just seems odd that this is the item that pushes us over the edge to where we say a team cannot be trusted. And just to bring this full circle, if a team does need to remove a compressor for one of the reasons you outlined- we shouldn't quote the rule being discussed in this thread- its simply not right.

-Brando
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MORT (Team 11) '01-'05 :
-2005 New Jersey Regional Chairman's Award Winners
-2013 MORT Hall of Fame Inductee

NUTRONs (Team 125) '05-???
2007 Boston Regional Winners
2008 & 2009 Boston Regional Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award
2010 Boston Regional Creativity Award
2011 Bayou Regional Finalists, Innovation in Control Award, Boston Regional Finalists, Industrial Design Award
2012 New York City Regional Winners, Boston Regional Finalists, IRI Mentor of the Year
2013 Orlando Regional Finalists, Industrial Design Award, Boston Regional Winners, Pine Tree Regional Finalists
2014 Rhode Island District Winners, Excellence in Engineering Award, Northeastern University District Winners, Industrial Design Award, Pine Tree District Chairman's Award, Pine Tree District Winners
2015 South Florida Regional Chairman's Award, NU District Winners, NEDCMP Industrial Design Award, Hopper Division Finalists, Hopper/Newton Gracious Professionalism Award

Last edited by Brandon Holley : 13-08-2014 at 11:49.