We have a tshirt cannon that uses FRC parts to control 6 solenoids for firing out of 6 separate barrels. Our current compressor is getting some issues and we’re wanting to replace it, but I’m not sure exactly which compressor would be good for this. We will have it mounted on our cannon and it will have to run for a while at a time with some breaks in between.
Honestly, if you can, id recommend looking into scuba tank storage. Our cannon is set up to go for basicly an entire year without a refill, and its ready instantly for every event. We have a 3000psi tank connected through a limiter to a MAC solenoid valve that is connected to the cannon and a second low pressure fireing scuba tank.
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Onboard compressors seem like a good idea until you actually do the math (usually takes forever to compress), and its usually better to do something like scuba tank storage. Our team uses airsoft tanks for storage but something along those lines will get you what you want.
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We would be storing it in a school and they don’t like the idea of a 3000psi tank because it wouldn’t be too safe
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We do have 2 storage tanks but they deplete after 3-5 shots
If its a scuba tank its perfectly safe so long qs you actually follow the service schedule. We used high quality tanks to mitigate failures but weve never been close to any kind of failure in the last 4 years weve used the system. People are willig to but thease on there backs lol, besides, an industrial compressor like you would use for a CNC machine or in house pneumatics testing carrys a similar risk.
By safety she meant like how a bunch of high schoolers will have access to a 3000psi tank of air not so much that it might fail
If its spends its life connected to the system through standard fittings, or handled by mentors when its being refilled, there isnt much of a danger. Besides, any sysyem like that shoud have multiple manual safty valves to prevent accidental discharge.
I’d recommend adding more storage tanks if possible rather than adding a compressor onboard. Also, what do you currently use as a compressor? In terms of safety, as long as you use it within the PSI range and a mentor is watching/helping while compressing, it should be safe for high schoolers to use.
Our t-shirt cannon uses a Viair 350C and a 3 gallon storage tank. We’ve been pretty happy with how that’s worked for us.
We used the Viking Horns V103C
filling up a 3 gallon tank as well. Original plan was to fill the 3 gallon tank with an air compressor and then top off with the onboard compressor, but the one time we used it for a parade, it filled from empty and was fine. Battery wise, maybe swapped four batteries over the length of the parade-about an hour.
If you’re worried about battery usage you can always add a second battery just for the compressor.
We found pretty quickly that even a 120V 10A compressor (powered through an inverter) can’t keep up with a t-shirt cannon after a few shots.
Instead, we switched to a 10lb CO2 tank which you can get filled and tested at a homebrew supply or fire protection equipment store. Liquified CO2 has its own issues (the valves can freeze up, and you need an appropriate regulator), but you should get ~100 shots per tank.
343’s old tshirt shooter uses a pair of the old diaphram style compressors from the dinosaur days of FRC and had a very large (for an FRC robot) air tank on board, 1.5gal maybe. Yes it takes a while to come all the way up to pressure but it can get off a full round of 10 shots with no issues and then repressurize while the barrels are reloaded.
In service of the dual compressors it also has dual batteries (but conveniently can run on just one meaning you don’t have to shut it down to do a battery swap)
Our shirt cannon has used standard FRC compressors for almost ten years. We have a 1 Gallon Working air tank at 120 PSI, which is maintained by the onboard compressor; we then charge a .75L “firing” tank, which provides all the air for an individual shot. This way, we don’t lose too much air to the atmosphere if the firing valve remains open.
going to add to this
electrically we use two compressors connected to eachother with a relay powering both
the pneumatics controllers don’t like how much current they pull, and we wanted a lot higher fill rate, so we have 2
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