Filling Robot Pneumatic Systems

[apalrd]

IMHO, the requirement to control the compressor via the cRio at all (on or off-board) is meaningless.

You can start the match with 120psi of air in the tanks. You can change the battery after you charge the tanks. You don't even have to have the compressor on your robot. And there isn't even a requirement for a specific pressure switch or compressor. There is no competitive advantage to running the compressor when the robot is not enabled, as long as the valves cannot be actuated (which is true now).

A simple pressure switch and relay would suffice, but instead we need to use a control system programmed by the teams (which IMHO is less safe than a simple relay), which has a significant boot time and requires a laptop just to fill up the robot in the queue line.

I also don't see how preventing a shop type compressor from being used to fill the robot is any less safe than a team using the same compressor for an air riveter in their pit. The compressor is running, the commercially made tank is full of air, and the pits are fine.


In the same way, we currently use a 50a rated battery connector which has proven itself unfit for the hundreds of amps a modern FRC robot is capable of drawing. It will (and has, in several cases) melted before the main breaker trips. The manufacturer even makes larger connectors which are perfect for us, but we can't legally use them.