pic: Team 418 LASA Robotics '08: ZePHyr

[Danny Diaz]

Originally Posted by spazdemon548

I wouldn't recommend having such a long tubing run south of your solenoids. Whenever the solenoid is actuated, all the air in the cylinder and tubing is vented. Moving the solenoids closer to the cylinders will minimize the wasted air.

Yes, I see what you mean, it would make the manipulator's air usage more efficient to put the solenoids for the manipulator up on the manipulator backboard - reducing the distance from the solenoid to the pneumatic cylinder. I'm not sure if the pneumatics team consciously or unconsciously made the decision to put the solenoids in a [more] protected location down on the robot and decided it was potentially okay to eat the extra air between the solenoid and the pneumatic (or if that was even a consideration). We unfortunately didn't have the ability to test this out in a competition setting; the AusTIN Cans hosted an awesome mini-meet but we were unfortunately not fully functional until about 36 hours after the mini-meet.

However, if we find that we are having a hard time recharging fast enough through a practice match at Lone Star, we will definitely keep this suggestion in mind. Who knows, this might save the day! Thanks a lot!

-Danny