Hey Guys,
We’re currently prototyping our pneumatics system and were wondering if there was a limit on air tank quantity. Yes, I read the manual, and didn’t see anything, but just wanted to make sure.
Thanks!
Zach
There is no air tank limit.
Aside from the overall size limit for the robot, anyways.
My team makes our chassis out of 2x1 aluminum tube. We should use that as an air tank.
Not COTS air storage, sorry.
As noted, the only constraints are the size/weight of the robot (and required components, including in this case the pneumatic components that MUST be on board with the tanks [R91 or R92 as appropriate]), and that you only use unmodified* COTS** storage tanks.
However… there are practical limits to how much air you can carry on the robot, including how long it takes the compressor to fill the tanks. That part is a design problem.
*with certain exceptions, R82
**R81
There’s a reason why more tanks are better, so long as the pit crew doesn’t panic.
Since most compressors fill the air tanks faster at lower PSI than at higher PSI, it is more efficient (power-wise and time-wise) to fill 4 tanks to 90-100psi than 3 tanks to 120psi. Both setups give approximately* the same amount of stored air above 60psi. Sometimes the time difference doesn’t matter; yet when determining whether to de-pressurize in the 6-7 minutes between elims matches, it could matter.
*There’s a bit of calculus here I haven’t bothered to solve, but anecdotally this held true for us in 2017. Obviously, more is better.
It’s just algebra and Boyle’s law.
P1V1=P2V2
In this case we care about pressure above 60psi, so P = (x - 60)psi
P2 * 4 = 60 * 3
P2 = 45psi
So the pressure for an equivalent amount of stored energy is 45 + 60 = 105psi.
Thanks all for the help!