Does the Norgren Pressure Regulator show working pressure or stored pressure?

[Madison]

Originally Posted by billbo911

Just out of curiosity, what does this one actuator do? What size and stroke.
The reason I ask is, there is a rule of thumb for using pneumatics. Use them if you can do two or more functions with them. ie. A shifter and a lever etc. Sometimes the weight added isn't worth it if only one function is added.
As with all "rule of thumbs", there are exceptions, such as, it is the best way to do what we need.
If you can leave the compressor off-board, you have fairly well handled the weight issue.

The actuator rotates our ball manipulator up against the robot to better control the ball. We had designed a built a claw-type manipulator, but weren't happy with ball control, so we've switched to something a bit simpler, but more effective. For it to operate properly with motors, we'd need either a worm or screw drive to prevent stalling the motors for long periods of time.

The pneumatics allow us to quickly control the position of the manipulator and we only have to worry about managing a single pneumatic tube -- since we're planning to vent to atmosphere on the actuator, I think -- along our lift's extension.

Luckily, weight is of little concern to us right now. We've swapped a 17 lbs. claw mechanism for a 4 lbs. manipulator. We're well below our weight restriction.

[billbo911]

As long as you are using a 3/4" dia., short(ish) stroke piston, you should be just fine with the compressor off board.
As an example:
We tested a 3/4" dia. 5" stroke piston on 60 PSI working pressure in 4 Clapard storage tanks. We only lost about 1 PSI per stroke. We were able to cycle the piston 25 times w/o much of an issue. The last 5 cycles were a bit weak.

[ay2b]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

Luckily, weight is of little concern to us right now. We've swapped a 17 lbs. claw mechanism for a 4 lbs. manipulator. We're well below our weight restriction.

Then you have plenty of weight available to have the compressor on-board, and not have to worry about the hassle of having it off-board. (: In my experience, having it off-board is a hassle - you have one more thing to do/check between each match; you have to be extra careful about avoiding a leaky pneumatics system (I've never seen one that's 100% leak-proof); if you have delays before starting the match, the leaks add up that much more. We've used an off-board compressor in the past (when our only pneumatics was shifting), and it worked, but if you have the weight, I would recommend against it. You could always put it on, and plan that if weight becomes an issue, it's the first thing you take off.