My team is competing this weekend but we are short two double acting solenoids. I was wondering if using two single action solenoids to replace each double acting solenoid is 1. Legal, 2. Viable, and 3. Not going to blow up a piston if timed incorrectly. Basically the idea is that one single acting solenoid could power a double acting piston in one direction then release air as a second solenoid is powering the piston in the other direction. Essentially becoming a double acting solenoid with extra steps.
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That should work if I’m picturing the setup right. And there are no rules stating what you can or cannot do in terms of how you set up legal pneumatic components.
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Thanks, that’s what I assumed but I thought that I would double check before I did something that could be incredibly dumb.
This should work fine and if done correctly can cause the piston to be more efficient. You want the tubing between the solenoid and the piston as short as possible to save air. This was a common trick way back when to save air as you could mount the two single acting pistons directly to the piston with them both touching. It shouldn’t be hard to code either and if they do actuate and air is fighting itself, the piston should be fine. I wouldn’t do this constantly but pneumatic pistons are designed to take a lot of force parallel to the direction they extend.
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