pneumatics

[edomus]

is it legal for an air cylinder to be manually powered by a motor in order to build up pressure?

[Cory]

not sure howya would do that, but the answer is no.

Cory

[edomus]

why would it be illegal. all it would do is push the shaft into the air cylinder

[Clanat]

ask on the FRC forumes

[Eric Bareiss]

Rule M11 states

Energy stored by FIRST Robotics Competition robots, i.e., stored at the start of the match must come solely from:...

Compressed air stored in the pnuematic system, but only supplied by the pump included in the kit and stored at a maximum pressure of 120 PSI

There you have it, air pressure can only be made through the pump int he kit.

[sanddrag]

Originally posted by edomus
is it legal for an air cylinder to be manually powered by a motor in order to build up pressure?

I think you would need a one way valve for that to work. Even if you could make it, I'm not sure if they would allow it though. They do allow creating a vacumn by manually extending or retracting a cylinder with a motor.

[rbayer]

Unfortunately, you're never going to be able to get more than 60psi using the kit parts. The regulator they gave us is a "relieving" regulator, meaning it won't allow the working pressure to go above 60psi even if you compress a pressurized cylinder. Since FIRST doesn't provide one-way valves, there would be no way to isolate the cylinder from the regulator either.

[edomus]

"They do allow creating a vacumn by manually extending or retracting a cylinder with a motor."

is there a rule to show me this? Because this is exactly what I wanted to hear.

[sanddrag]

It was in a team update some time ago. Check hyperrules or the first website.