Gearbox AFTER Transmission?

[BrendanB]

Originally Posted by rich2202

Thanks for all the advice.

Question on Pneumatics:

Let's say we don't need pneumatics for anything else (although we tend to find something every year). The shifters don't seem to need much air.

1) Is a storage tank enough air to comfortably last a round?
2) Can you keep a tank primed while waiting when you are on-deck (battery powered pump on the cart)?

Yes. In 2012 our robot was slightly overweight and since we only used air for shifting the compressor was the first to go.

We used one plastic air tank on our robot and made a small board that had the compressor and other required electronics. Make sure you read the rules closely on what has to be on the robot to make the system legal.

While waiting in que we would wait until halfway through the match before us to start charging. We never ran into air problems while running the AM supershifters shifting maybe 5-10 times a match (couldn't really tell you it depends on the driver).

Since we were strapped for weight (and passed inspection by cutting off one ziptie) we only had the one tank on the robot. In the off-season we added an additional plastic tank after taking something else off as a safety. 2012 was a good year since the game was designed for fast turnaround between matches. We also worked to make sure the pnuematics system had little to no air loss.

Pistons with springs are helpful so if you lose air they shift to a specific gear (low for most teams or high if you are 67).

If our shifters were the only pnuematics we had in 2013 I would have felt much safer with 2-3 plastic tanks. We had a few matches where the time from on deck to match start were 10+ minutes.