For our climber we were planning to have a piston go through all layers of our telescoping arm, when that piston is pulled in, the springs would just raise the elevator, then you could just have a rope connected to the inner most stage be pulled down using a gearbox with a winch on it. Do you think that would work and how complicated would it be?
Do u have a sketch of packaging? I’m unclear whether your saying the pneumatic cylinder is in-line with the direction of the extension and thus helps extend the climber, or if it’s perpendicular that axis and therefore just acts a pull-out pin to release and let the springs do all the extension.
You’ll need to sketch all the relevant stroke and overlap lengths to make sure you can go from stowed to reaching the bar, the springs will have enough force at the top of extension, etc.
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the piston will act like a pull-out pin and let the springs do all the extension
I’m a programmer so I cannot offer much building advice but that sounds sick.
So, let’s see if I understand what you’re aiming for:
You have a climber. You pull it down and pin it in place with a pneumatic cylinder. When you want to climb, you retract the cylinder. Springs pull the climber up, and then you pull down with a winch.
Silly question… Why not use a releasable ratchet in the climb winch to hold down the climber? You need one anyways to stay up for 5 seconds. Won’t require the precision alignment of putting the pneumatic cylinder into a hole. I’m also concerned that the pneumatic will have a hard time pulling out of the holes when it’s under load.
could you explain how a releasable ratchet would work?
You set up a ratchet to hold your hook in the down position when engaged–this will also hold the hook down during the match. BUT, you need to run up the climber, so you need to release the ratchet. Exactly how you do that is an exercise left for the reader, but there may be some parts on VEX or WCP or AndyMark that might help.
You could also just use a system like the Everybot’s climber to avoid adjusting the ratchet.
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we are a trench bot so we need a 3 stage telescoping elevator to get to the bar and I wasn’t able to figure out how to do an everybot type climb with multiple stages
We are using a similar system to do our climb.
The arm is raised by a gas spring (not pictured) completely passively, being held down with a solenoid to release it.
The hook is connected to a separate winch rope (also not pictured) designed to “break off” the lifter arm. The winch rope runs through boat cleats pictured here as an convenient and alternate method to a ratchet. This means we have no need to retract the arm that raises the hook as when we climb, it is not attached to anything.
do you think it the piston will have a hard time pulling out even at a high pressure?
Yep.
For one thing, you only get 60 PSI to work with. OK, so that can generate some force. But typically, locking cylinders are small-bore–you’re not likely to be pushing with 60 lb, particularly working on the shaft side.
The problem is that you’ve got at least 2 pieces of aluminum pushing sideways against the shaft of the piston while it’s extended (for a 3-stage elevator). If it’s a fairly fast elevator, that means fairly strong springs. That’s a fair amount of friction force, and not a little shear force translating into bending force. (If it’s a slow elevator, why bother?) That force group will likely cause some issues with retracting the cylinder, particularly when combined with any threads at the end of the piston shaft.
I’d also predict–given a steel shaft and aluminum tubes–that you’ll need to reinforce the tubes or replace them at some point during the season. Steel tends to wear out aluminum in friction situations–might take a long while, but it can and does happen. Result in this case: elongated latch holes, possibly ending with the inability to fit under the height limit or the trench (more likely the latter). Again, it’ll take a while–multiple events probably–but it will happen.
If I were you guys, I’d be coating those holes with grease, or better yet putting bushings in them. Those actions will help prevent both of the above scenarios.
I am curious about this type of mounting/powering system for a climber it seams very complex to do and implement without major fixing to do within an event. Would there be a way to use this type of design but have a simpler system to power? No cylinders, just on large motor for both directions of travel (everybotish), or two motors one for each direction (extending and closing/climbing).
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