Pre-charging pneumatic air tank

[mikets]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

There is one more very large difference. Your onboard pneumatics system (with its compressor and pressure switch and everything else) gets checked by the inspectors for proper operation. Your proposed setup does not. Its design might well be equivalent, but the execution does not get evaluated by people responsible for ensuring that every team plays by the rules.

(The more fundamental difference is that your proposed setup won't work. The Spike control input is a 5 volt signal.)

Thanks for pointing out the 5V signal. I was about to check it out. So we would have to either use a resistor/Zener diode to step down to 5V or use a 12V relay instead. Just to reiterate, we are not using this at the competition. We are thinking of using it in the shop for testing and prototyping. The rake will have all the safety and relief valves in place. In my opinion, it is safer than the students trying to pressurize it with a battery and a switch box. I will get together with our pneumatic expert to make sure all the safeties are in place (i.e. safety relief valves, pressure gauges, emergency stop button etc). This is mainly used for testing a prototype that is not a complete robot, so there is no other electronics and certainly no cRIO.