Can we control how far the piston on a pneumatic cylinder extends and contracts? We are using the double solenoid with a dual actuated cylinder. When we turn the relay on the piston extends to its FULL length. We tried turning the relay off before the piston was in it’s fully extended position, but it didn’t stop. Can you control the length the piston extends with programming?
There are already a whole bunch of threads about this topic, but here’s one explanation:
Yes, many threads already, but I’ll answer it again.
The short answer is No, you can’t stop a piston in mid-travel.
The only easy way to do it is to mechanically block the piston from traveling any further than you want it to.
The long answer is Yes, but its a bit complicated.
In the past (Read: 2004 Off-Season, and 2007 Regular/Off-Season) 1075 has built arms that stop in mid-travel with pneumatics.
In 2004 we used 2 valves. One to switch the direction of travel, and then a second to switch the exhaust of the first. By not letting the exhaust out of the system, the piston doesn’t move.
That system was plagued with large amounts of drift, but it served its purpose.
In 2007 where accuracy was paramount, we used a 3rd valve, as well as a mechanical brake. This allowed us to switch the feed side as well for added control. This reduced the drifting problem. Additionally, we used potentiometers, and some fancy code to make it all work nicely together.
Searching CD should yield several drawings of how to plumb such a system.
THis is not true actually u can , u connect a single solonoid to a double solonoid to the piston , if u hooped up the single correctly, it shoudl work just turn that little blue thingy while pressing the double solonoid buttons, the piston wont extend/retract but if u release the blue thing a little the piston will extend/retract the more u release the fast and more it will extend/retract
You cannot accurately control the length a piston will extend, if there is a load on it, because the air in the cylinder acts like a spring. You’re better off using a motor instead of pneumatics if you need to have good control over how far something moves.
The neat thing about this year’s game is that for the most part there is no need to have good control over how far something moves…I mean, the game piece is 40" across, and it just has to go over or under the overpass, it doesn’t have to be any specific height. We’re using pneumatics that are either up or down for our 3 ball manipulator mechanisms.
If you are trying to control the length of a cylinder you want a “center off or center closed” solenoid. Instead of the spool inside moving and staying in position to supply air to port A or port B, when it gets power only momentary to allow air into port A or B allowing for small adjustments of a cylinder. As stated above this can be tricky since the air in the cylinder isn’t the full regulated pressure but an average and can act like a spring. If you are interested in these contact SMC and they can help you select the proper one for your situation.
I’m not really sure how what I’m saying is “not true” since you basically described a similar method to what I did… I have personally built 3 of these type of systems now, with considerable success.
While the trapped air in the cylinder can effectively turn it into a spring, I would argue that it CAN be controlled to a reasonable level of accuracy, as evidenced by 1075’s 2007 arm. We did however, use, in addition to the ram driving the arm, another ram which clamped down on a piece of Al angle attached to the arm that slid through a piece of Al square tube. This basically functioned as a physical brake, reducing the “air spring” effect.
I forgot about these “center-off” valves. My ongoing question about these is “Are they allowed?”. Besides, the method I feel I was one of the pioneers of, using a plurality of valves to control one ram fits more within the FIRST mantra of using creativity to solve problems, rather than store-bought parts.
Adding a mechanism to limit travel can be a big help, you could also have a movable physical stop (perhaps a small servo could actuate a pin or something, as long as the load is removed before you try to move it)
With the current KoP parts, this is correct, However, Both Bimba and Parker have cylinders with potentiometers built into the cylinder that give positional feedback. Either of these, used with a pressure controller, could be used to control the stroke of a cylinder even under load.
And this is why I don’t like the pneumatics setup that FIRST requires us to use, as it really limits creative pneumatics.
I look at it the other way…it forces you to be more creative in your use of pneumatics!
And the limited compressor/storage capacity makes you have to think even more 
.
<R88> states that there is no limit to the number of soleniod valves as long as they are off the shelf. We used center off valves a few years ago. They are also alot easier than multiple soleniods.
short answer yes, we do so yes.
you need a double solinoid, double solinoid. or 2 double solinoids.
I don’t know the programming for this and this may be to late, but to hook it all up.
solinoid 1
You need the pressure goes in the p hole
top of clynider to the a hole
bottom of the clynider to the b hole
then you also fill the ea, and ab holes but ill get to that later.
solinoid 2.
connect tubing to the a, and b holes
plug p
leave ea, eb empty.
connecting the two
connect ea on solinoid 1 to b on solinoid 2
connect eb on solinoid 1 to a on solinoid 2
in short
connect ea on solinoid 1 to b on solinoid 2
connect eb on solinoid 1 to a on solinoid 2
connect solinoid 1 a to clynider
connect solinoid 1 b to clynider
connect solinoid 1 p to pressure source
plug solinoid 2 p
leave solinoid 2 ea empty
leave solinoid 2 eb empty
im sry this is late, i got to go back to work on our robot sry i can’t post code for this, you can’t reverse and you need 2 spikes good luck.
This is incorrect. The 2nd valve will not switch without pressure in the P hole. I believe the SMC valves require about 20psi to switch. A method that will work, is looping the A and B ports together on the 2nd solenoid, feeding EA, EB, or both from solenoid 1 to the P port (for one direction, the other, or both) on the 2nd solenoid. plugging EA, and leaving EB open to atmosphere. I would recommend using a Single Solenoid for the 2nd one.
Basically the system looks like this:
Pressure in–>|Solenoid 1|-EA------P-|Solenoid 2|–EA–|
…||-EB-/…||–EB------
…A|…B|…A|…B|
…----|cylinder|…___/
LOL.
Oh, we can be as creative as the next guy … No doubt about that. It’s just tough because i do work for Parker and I know what is commonly (an uncommonly) available, and I see the restrictions on pneumatics that the students dont even know exist.
I guess my point is First should only limit the amout of power available to pneumatics (limit the working and storage pressures, and the overall maximum volume). That way we could see the real power of pneumatics without having to re-invent the wheel each time.
JM(NS)HO 
with this, the pneumatic will stop when the sol 2 switches to A. when its on B it will move freely. is this correct? trying to figure out programming real quick.
actually, i think its the opposite of what you’d said… its easy enough to flip the one variable if its wrong.
For those teams that have used center off solenoids in the past, what brand and model solenoids did you use?
Just to reiterate, coarse control of piston length has been around for a while. Here is a post about the setup on 1108’s 2003 robot with picture and diagram. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showpost.php?p=209532&postcount=11
The two solenoid system work for this. I’ve always thought that the center stop solenoid would be a more elegant solution but never got my hands on one and the rules have changed around some as far as outside part go (I don’t know what is allowed this year).
The interesting challenge would be to do fine controls, especially under load, which I haven’t done much exploring in.
could you use this
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/202742348/4V_Series_Three_Position_Five_Way.html
and could anyone give more info on how to stop a ram using a three way solenoid
In previous years (including last year) valves not supplied in the KoP were not legal to use, so these would not be legal (although this could change in the future)
I’m assuming that when you say ram you mean actuator (cylinder).
You would need 2 3-way valves on the primary side of the cylinder and seal the secondary side.
The first valve is used to add pressure or seal the primary side.
The second valve is used to release pressure or seal the primary side.
When you actuate the first valve pressure will build on the primary side of the cylinder and start moving the rod. as the rod moves the gas on the secondary side will be compressed and pressure will build. When you seal the first valve the rod will continue to move until the pressure on both the primary side and secondary side of the cylinder are near equal (difference being friction).
To retract the cylinder you’ll just need to activate the second valve.
Note the pressure on the sealed secondary side needs to be above atmosphere when the cylinder is fully retracted or the cylinder will only partially retract when the second valve is actuated unless you assist the cylinder with some external spring source like surgical tubing
Note2 you could add 2 more valves on the secondary side and reverse the actuation from the first side to get quicker (while less efficient) response.