Help! Rookie with Pneumatics!!!

[one_each]

Originally Posted by adciv

One other thing to remember, you can pre-pressurize your pneumatics system in your pit. You are not limited to pressurizing during the match.

This is true, however, it must be the robot that fills the tanks. You many NOT use external air to fill the tanks before a match. What we do is program the Test mode to only run the compressor then enable test to fill the tanks. When they are filled, then we shutdown the robot and swap in a fresh battery.

[rich2202]

You have a high pressure gauge, a regulator w/ gauge for working pressure, a pressure switch, and a relief valve.

You should confirm that the regulator w/ gauge does NOT exceed 60 PSI.

You should confirm that the switch cuts off before 120 PSI (somewhere between 115-120 PSI).

The relief valve should open before 125 PSI (121-125 PSI).

The Robot Inspector will check for all of that, and adjust the component if out of range.

The actuators are after the regulator w/ gauge, so should never receive more than 60 PSI.

[Mr V]

There is no need for multiple regulators unless you want more than one working pressure, ie one at 60psi and one at say 40psi. You need at least two gauges however one showing stored pressure which would go before the regulator and one on or after the regulator(s) to show the working pressure(s).

When the regulator is hooked up with the air supply into an outlet port air will leak out of the top around the knob. I've seen this problem more than once. Depending on the regulator it can be tricky to know which is the inlet port as they are not specifically marked inlet. Typically they have an arrow, some it is on the bottom so the inlet is on the "feather" side of the arrow. Others have it on the side of one of the ports and the inlet is 180 degrees from that port.

[GeeTwo]

Also, note that pressure regulators work the opposite direction of a flow valve (e.g. most water valves). That is, you turn the top of the knob to the right to increase the pressure which passes through, and to the left to decrease.

Figure 4-7 in the game manual (at R67) shows how to plumb the pneumatics system. You can make some minor rearrangements, but the following are key:

• The (spring-loaded) pressure relief valve must be directly connected to the pump, as the first item.
• There must be a gauge on each side of the regulator.
• The (quarter turn) vent plug must exhaust all the air pressure in the system. If your regulator does not allow backflow, this will need to be on the low-pressure side; we have seen this issue with non-competition systems such as our air cannon.

We have also found it helpful to connect as many metal fittings as feasible directly to the compressor output, to assist in heat dissipation before the air enters the first plastic hose. In practice for Ultimate Ascent, we blew out several hoses at the first fitting until we made this change. (Our primary climber actuators were pneumatic, so we needed lots of air).