Using more than 8 24v solenoids

[timytamy]

Our team has always used 24v solenoids, as such we have a reasonable stock of them. At this stage it looks like our robot will require more than the 8 channels usually available on the Solenoid Breakout.

I have a few ideas to get around this, but I wanted CD's thoughts on this:


1. Split air AFTER valve, ie run two cylinders off one valve, this is the simplest but does waste air. However AFAIK is completely legal.


2. Split electrical signal AFTER breakout and BEFORE valve, the only relevant rule I could find was [R51]

Unless otherwise noted, each power regulating device may control one and only one electrical load.

However a strict reading of this table implies that the Solenoid Breakout can only control one solenoid. Is it worth Q&Aing this?


3. Splitting 24V supply AFTER PDB and BEFORE breakout such that two Solenoid Breakouts are used. Illegal under [R42]:

With the exception of one (1) cRIO and one (1) Solenoid Breakout Board, no other electrical load may be connected to the 24 VDC supply terminals on the PD Board.

However [R69]:

If powered from the PD Board 24V supply per R41, loads on each Solenoid Breakout shall not cumulatively exceed 16W if using the cRIO-FRC (8-slot) and 21W if using the cRIO-FRC II (4-slot).

is worded with "each" which could be inferred to mean more than one. Regardless [R42] seems fairly clear cut. Is it worth Q&Aing this?


4. Use some 12V solenoids. Not preferable, for obvious reasons. But AFAIK legal.


5. Completely switch to 12V. Less preferable than 4, but will be less complicated. Definitely legal.


1, 4 and 5 are the most likely options. 2 and 3 while technically possible (assuming compliance with [R69]) are questionable at best, and probably illegal. So I'm stuck between two bad options and two illegal ones.

Is there anything else that I've missed? Any other ideas?