Basic pneumatics questions

[TheHolyHades1]

Originally Posted by Answer42

Bit of a deviation here. But is a pneumatic catapult really the best option here? Especially considering that you don't already have the system on the robot, it's just one more thing to add along with the catapult. You said you have 30 pounds left, and unless you've used all your cims, mini-cims, and banebots motors you still have plenty of power left. Electrically driven catapults are super simple, requiring you to just hook a gearbox to a shaft via some sort of pulley or chain. No locking mechanism, springs, or pneumatic required. They require complex coding to make accurate shots, but just trussing could be accomplished by something as simple as boom done's system from RI3D. Using a torque limiting belt removes the need for precise control. IMHO it would be the easiest way to add a trussing capability to your robot. But that's just my two cents.

Well, the reason behind using pneumatics (apart from coolness factor), is that I want to have myself and my team get some experience with the setup before I leave at the end of this year. That being said, I should mention that we've had some issues in the past with shooting things with motors; we want to try something different this year, which is why we're looking at pneumatics. And you're right, trussing doesn't require much precise aiming, which is exactly what we're going for at the moment.