I have been trying to design a 1 cylinder mogo clamp but no matter what I do, after 3 or so actuations, it is no longer strong enough to tip the goal. I have tried rubber banding and adding an ‘upside down’ ramp for it to slide down but it just isn’t working. (I can add pictures later if wanted)
Yes please add pictures, need to see what is going on. Where you placed the piston, for example can make a big difference.
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Use a pressure regulator. It looks like either this:
or this:
This decreases the amount of pressure on each actuation, which allows you to get more actuations out of each tank.
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(Yes always send pictures if you can) inferring here it’s probably that you piston does not have enough leverage but that’s just a guess.
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In addition to trying a pressure regulator, I would also check your pneumatic tubing for leaks.
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ok I’ll send pictures when I can. I am currently using a pressure regulator. When I try giving the piston more leverage, it then doesn’t move the clamp far enough for the mogo to fit underneath is the problem I’ve been having. I could possibly use a longer piston, but that will use even more air when I only have 1 tank.
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We are using three air cylinders right now and I think we get about 20+ actuations of the mechanisms, with two VEX tanks (SMC are a little smaller). So 3 seems kind of small. What size pistons are you using? I would recommend the medium size (50mm). While pressure regulators do reduce air usage by running the system at a low pressure and therefore less force, you shouldn’t need one and I wouldn’t use one especially if you want the full force. It does however make the force consistent until the pressure drops below whatever level the regulator is set at.
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my best guess is you’re losing air through through one of the tubes, or maybe the piston itself (they don’t last forever, especially if they’ve been mistreated on previous robots), so try replacing that stuff first. if not, you may want to try supporting the arm on both sides to avoid torque twisting, which could even be the reason you’re losing air.
oh and one other thing to check… make sure there’s no kinks forming in any of the hoses. seems obvious, but it’s surprising how long it can take to realize a problem like that.
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In basic lever logic, the further you move away from the support point, the easier it is to lift, so try to hold the part of the piece you are trying to hold the mogo that will connect to the piston a little longer.
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connect the piston a little higher
- Mount the pistons higher up on the clamp
- Unjank it. Tighten every joint. Doing this will make your power transfer more efficient and gets more “bang for your buck”
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Do you have any single acting pneumatic cylinders? My advice is to use one of those as they don’t use air pressure to return back to the contracted position
wow necroposting is crazy :)
If you leave the second port open, the double acting cylinder can return to either its fully open or closed position with the use of a rubber band
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Thank you for all the advice. I recently fixed the problem and it works really well.
In case anyone was wondering, I basically redesigned the whole robot and not the clamp is farther back into the robot (so the mogo requires less force to tip) and I added a horizontal plate to better align it.
It actually works now with still a single cylinder and the pressure regulator down as far as possible.
I can get tons of actuations up until about 20 psi and can lift a full mogo up until 60 psi
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