Pneumatics Questions.

VEX V5 Technical Support UNOFFICIAL Tech Support
#1

Does anyone know of any websites, videos, articles, Etc. that would explain how to work the single acting pneumatics system? I have it assemble but I don’t know how to work it. I can’t find anything too helpful.

#2

I will be making a tutorial soon on how to set-up, and control pnuematics.

Have you looked through this article?

You need the Solenoid Driver Cable to be able to use your pnuematics on the VEX Cortex (http://www.vexrobotics.com/275-1417.html). Do you have those?. Do you have those?)

#3

There’s also some information at http://botsnstuff.com/wiki/Pneumatic but it still needs some expanding upon

#4

Are you referring to the programming of the solenoid, or how to make the pistons “most” useful a/o most effective?

To answer the programming questions, there are may resources available online and they are incredible simple to program (it’s all DigitalOut, use the DigitalOut block in easy or assign “SensorValue[MySolenoid]” to 1 or 0, (in or out). As far as how to make the pneumatics more useful and effective, you should either find examples or ask more specifically here.

#5

Okay, speaking of that programming thing, doesn’t that make opposite sense of how it should be? 1 should be out, 0 should be in. Or at least that’s what we expected. We spent a good hour yelling at the Cortex thinking we had something wrong the first time I tried to program a couple of pistons.

Sorry, just my 2¢.

#6

In/out for 0/1 depends upon which end of the piston is connected to which port of the solenoid. Swap them over and you get out/in for 0/1

#7

A digital port set to 1 causes the solenoid to energize, for single action this allows air to flow into the piston pushing it out. As Chris said, for double action it just depends on which way the ports are connected.

#8

Well, this backfired… I wasn’t thinking about which was which, I just said 1 and 0 to represent in and out (not necessarily in that order). Since ROBOTC and easyC differ, I specifically didn’t specify which was which (wow that’s a tongue-twister).

#9

Ya, It can be tough helping people in EasyC when we normally think in ROBOTC. Confusion between the two is farely common in are school club. That’s one the hardest things from my experience to explain to amateurs is programming… I need to find a self guided learning process to make this easier… wink wink, nudge nudge, (Elliot) :wink:

#10

we still are new to using the easyC stuff and need simple instructions on programming the single action pneumatics kit

#11

There’s really not much to it. Connect the pneumatic driver cable to say digital port 12 on the cortex (by default 9 through 12 are outputs). Add a JoystickToDigitalOutput and wait statement in operator control as follows.

#include "Main.h"

void OperatorControl ( unsigned long ulTime )
{
    while ( 1 ) // Insert Your RC Code Below
        {
        JoystickToDigitalOutput ( 1 , 8 , 1 , 12 ) ; // fire pneumatics
        Wait ( 20 ) ;
        }
}

This allows button 8 Down to fire the pneumatic piston when pressed.

#12