Legal Compressors

[dlerner]

Looking to see if anyone has a viable alternative to the 90c. We need something with a better duty cycle.

[Mark_McLeod]

This one has a 40% duty cycle:

FRC Robotics Compressor

[troy_dietz]

Anecdotally (but from several teams), a fan from an old speed controller is good for this task.

Nobody has shoved a transducer and temp probes on the stock Viair afaik, but I’ve definitely seen a few teams smoke them. The rubber isolation mounts don’t help.

Whichever company made that CIM motor cooler…I would have used an air compressor version.

[Jon_Stratis]

Look at the Viair IG series. The 250c-ig has a 100% duty cycle, and the 350c-ig has an even better fill rate with the same 100% duty cycle. Of course, you pay for that with the size and weight of the compressors!

[Matt_Boehm_329]

@Jon_Stratis

100% duty cycle, and the 350c-ig

Net Weight: 8.25 lbs. WOW

[SiddheshDash]

Might be interested in the Thomas 215 series compressor:

Thomas Air Compressor | Model 215 | 100 psi - Ridetech

Perfectly legal, iirc they have a better duty cycle than the Viair 90C’s do as well, and are only a little bit heavier. Somewhat better packaging too (easier to fit sideways, you can just zip tie them down to tubes or a bellypan without dealing with the awkward Viair sheet metal base), and off the top of my head I think 254 and 1323 have used these for a while now, so they’re fairly well tested. Haven’t had any experience with them myself yet, but this thread has a bit more information on them if you’re interested in the pros and cons of using one:

On the Thomas 215 in comparison to the standard Viair 90C Air Compressor

Recently I’ve been looking into standardizing our electrical and pneumatic systems in preparation for the 2021 FRC season, and most notably have come across the Thomas 215 compressor as a possible alternative for our current compressor, the standard Andymark Viar 90C. Looking to threads like: …and a few others, certain other members of our team have expressed interest in the possibility of testing and possibly using the Thomas as an alternative to the Viair during and possibly…

[garyk]

Any teams that have been around a while have a box of these, old Victor speed controller or they’re on the T-shirt shooter. Yes, as troy_dietz has said, I’ve seen their (12VDC) fans cooling compressors, wired to always be on. As they were KOP, they’re granfathered (grandmothered ?) in as legal without worrying about the fan clause of R501.

[philso]

The Viar compressors are built really solid. I bought one for pumping up my car tires after reading that they are what a lot of off-roaders permanently install in their vehicles to air up their tires after going rock crawling and to run their differential locks.

[dlerner]

Thanks everyone! I think we have some options now.