When using a single solenoid for multiple pistons do you get the same amount of power you would when using a solenoid for each individual piston
Perhaps this sketch of an air cylinder will help a bit in your terminology, the piston is a small component inside an air cylinder:
To answer your question, if you add tee fittings after your solenoid valve to distribute the air between multiple air cylinders, each air cylinder will receive equal pressure, and thus develop equal force. At the small scale of these 10mm cylinders, you won’t see any degradation in the actuation speed. In industrial settings, the designers will consider air volumes and size solenoids and piping appropriately, an option you don’t have (or need) with VEX-legal components.
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The simple answer is… Yes.
however,
because now two pistons need to be filled up with air (through a single solenoid) instead of one, something happens:- Because you are constricting the flow of air through a single solenoid, each piston will take longer to fill up. This can effect the Power of your piston (power is amount of Work per Time, so if it takes longer to fill, your Power is less.)
But, like @kmmohn said,
Force is different than both Power and Work.
So, unless the response time of your pistons is an issue, what you are doing is actually a great idea, since it will save you parts.
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Another benefit to using a single solenoid to control two actuators that are linked to the same mechanism is that the force applied by each actuator will ALWAYS be the same magnitude in the same direction (unless something physically breaks).
This avoids the condition where one actuator fires and the other one doesn’t. For some designs, that condition can bend or break things.
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