Dissadvantages of Suction?

[Sunshine]

Ryan:

We used a vacuum system last year by making our own impeller. We took apart an 18volt hand-held vacuum and re-engineered their impeller for our purposes. It was created in our 3D printer at school. It worked great. I have enclosed a few picts of the system. If you can use the CAD files, I would be happy to pass them along.

[Vikesrock]

It should be noted that there will be significant differences between an impeller based system and a venturi based system as described here. You may not be able to get the same strong hold with an impeller based system.

[smileydude560]

We also used a vacuum system last year, but all we did was rip the impeller out of a shop vac and hook it up to a geared up cim. It worked pretty well, but we gained a reputation for our incredibly loud robot. You would also need a way to turn off suction. Last year, we used our kicker to get it off of the tubes, but I don't think using a kicker will be as good of an idea this year XD

[eStop Robotics]

Greetings from eStop Robotics!!!

Thanks to Liam for suggesting our Custom Controls Interface (CCI)!

Last year, a team we sponsor, Royal Assault Team 357, was able to use the impeller and tubing from a vacuum cleaner for a suction device. They were able to control it using custom controls.

This year we've introduced a new product, the CCI, for just this purpose. It is a simple, effective way to add custom controls to your robot.

The CCI has 12 digital inputs and 4 analog inputs. No special SW or drivers to install. It works with your Driver Station PC out of the box. Your cRio programming is also no different than using a joystick, the same functions are used for the CCI as a regular joystick.

The CCI can be used to wire up switches for your controls. Using the CCI and a switch, you could turn on or off your suction device when you want to during a match.

http://www.estoprobotics.com/estore/...d&productId=33

Good Luck to all the teams!!!