Pneumatic Restrictions & Improvments

[Oblarg]

Originally Posted by nuclearnerd

Seconded.

Look, I get that there need to be restrictions on the pneumatic power available, but think about it this way: When the game requires your robot to through 4lb balls 10 feet in the air, you're going to need a certain amount of power. That power can be either delivered through a sketchy assembly of springs and a latch mechanism that was likely never meant to work under load
*or*
it can be delivered with commercial-off-the-shelf tubes, valves and cylinders that are engineered for the application, can be reliably assembled without machining resources, and have published specifications to govern their use.

Honestly, pneumatics are the safest way to deploy a given amount of power IMHO.

It's worth noting that allowing quick exhaust valves doesn't really increase the amount of available power, since it's legal to simply leave one of the orifices on a two-stroke cylinder open to the atmosphere. I imagine the motivation for not allowing them is something else (thought I have no idea what that may be).