Ball Shifter Force Requirements

[craigboez]

As an offseason project, I'm considering developing a non-pneumatic shifter for the Vex Pro ball shifters. It would seem that the pneumatic cylinders supplied with the kit provide more than enough force to use reliably, and servo setups have been attempted a few times without success. Somewhere in the middle is the tipping point between sufficient force and not enough.

Has anyone collected data on how much force is required to engage the ball shifter under load?

Has anyone used a non-pneumatic means of shifting the ball shifters that they'd like to share?