Questions about AM super shifters

[Ninja_Bait]

I'll only answer the ones I have experience with.

Originally Posted by team 3311

1. How do you mount them I have seen the pic. and I don't see any mounting brackets

The four 1/4-20 bolts that hold the box together can also be used to face mount. Otherwise, you're making your own brackets and holes.

3. Should my team go for servo of pneumatic shifting. Myself I would go with pneumatic but I have been wrong before,

Pneumatic leads to wasted weight if you don't have other pneumatic systems. You need at least an air tank, a relay module, valves and a solenoid in addition to the cylinders, whereas you have just the two servos in the alternate setup. You also run the (reasonably slight) risk of running out of air mid-match.

We've only used servo shifting recently because we haven't used any pneumatic systems in the last few years, and it's worked fine for us. The servos didn't break and we shifted smoothly enough. SuperNerd is right that the pneumatic shifting is faster and firmer, but I don't think that's enough reason to warrant building a whole pneumatics system just for shifting.

[AlexH]

I'd go pneumatic with a spring return piston to lock it in low gear if you run out of air or have a failure in your pneumatics.

Originally Posted by Ninja_Bait

I'll only answer the ones I have experience with.



The four 1/4-20 bolts that hold the box together can also be used to face mount. Otherwise, you're making your own brackets and holes.



Pneumatic leads to wasted weight if you don't have other pneumatic systems. You need at least an air tank, a relay module, valves and a solenoid in addition to the cylinders, whereas you have just the two servos in the alternate setup. You also run the (reasonably slight) risk of running out of air mid-match.

We've only used servo shifting recently because we haven't used any pneumatic systems in the last few years, and it's worked fine for us. The servos didn't break and we shifted smoothly enough. SuperNerd is right that the pneumatic shifting is faster and firmer, but I don't think that's enough reason to warrant building a whole pneumatics system just for shifting.

I forgot to mention that! Yeah, Ninja_Bait's right. Unless you're using pneumatics in other places, then I don't suggest using pneumatic shifting. While it is more on the fly, the weight used is much needed elsewhere. So unless you're already using pneumatics for a few things already, use servos. They may not be as fast, but shave a lot of your weight compared to pneumatics.

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

I forgot to mention that! Yeah, Ninja_Bait's right. Unless you're using pneumatics in other places, then I don't suggest using pneumatic shifting. While it is more on the fly, the weight used is much needed elsewhere. So unless you're already using pneumatics for a few things already, use servos. They may not be as fast, but shave a lot of your weight compared to pneumatics.

You could just put on a large plastic tank and just refill it before each match Pneumatic over servo shifting is preferred, but 27 has had great success with servos. Try out both, but most teams end up using pneumatics for shifting and wouldn't ever do anything else.

-RC

Originally Posted by R.C.

You could just put on a large plastic tank and just refill it before each match Pneumatic over servo shifting is preferred, but 27 has had great success with servos. Try out both, but most teams end up using pneumatics for shifting and wouldn't ever do anything else.

-RC

Have you tried this before? If so, would you recommend it? What tank have you used? Do you ever run out of air in a match?

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

Have you tried this before? If so, would you recommend it? What tank have you used? Do you ever run out of air in a match?

Andrew,

We tried this recently and it works great. We normally pre charge our pneumatic system via an external compressor so the compressor has to do less work before each match.

On our offseason projects. We put two 44 cubic plastic tanks on there. We get around 150+ shifts via a 5/8ths od pneumatic cylinder with spring return. We normally like to have a compressor on board but if your only shifting your fine. IIRC 217 this year used hella plastic tanks and no compressor? Can someone confirm?

Thanks,

-RC

[apalrd]

217 had 8 (visible, maybe more hidden) tanks and no onboard compressor.

They actuated their minibot deployment, claw, and shifting pneumatically.



We needed a compressor due to the air usage of the dual drive, and still ran low on air at the beginning of the season (With only 2 of the plastic tanks and the Viair mini-pump). We later added more tanks, and are currently at 6, and seem to be OK, but it takes 3 minutes to pump up.

Relating to the shift pistons, we used modified SuperShifters (same guts, new side plates, AM long shaft, spacers instead of the box) with small cylinders, to fit the battery in between the drive CIM's (vertically). We had to machine a new interface plate for the piston (we took the AM one and added more holes), and an odd stud (1/4-28 one end, #10-32 on the other) to interface with the pistons.

We had no issues with the modified SS's on the competition robot, or the stock SS's on the practice robot all season. Each robot saw many hours of use.