So I am trying to use pneumatics this year and I was wondering the following. First, how do you attach the resevoirs to the base, or connect them to the metal. Second, what do you plug in into the brain to make it turn on and off. Third, is there a difference between the amount of fires you can get with a single-action piston and a duel-action piston. And is there a difference in how many fires you can get if you fill it up more, or is it just stronger, and, I know there is a limit, but is there a psi limit?
- We just use long zip ties, other people cut metal and fit the reservoirs into the metal.
- You use Solenoids(Look at picture for the setup of the pneumatics)
- A single action pushes the pipe outwards if programming you say ==1, and it does nothing if you tell it ==0, a double action pushes outwards if programming you say ==1 but it will contract if you program it to ==0.
- You are only allowed to fill pneumatics to 100 PSI, and if you’d fill it with around 100PSI, you should be able to get 5-20 fires(Depending on your sealing, force the pneumatics have to pull/push, and other things).
Does that answer all your questions?
So what would affect “5-20” so much. Amount of pistons?
Kind of, if you have a large amount of pistons going at once, it could go only about 5 times, but if you do one piston out of the large amount, it should be around 20 times. Not just how many pistons you use, but how well your pneumatics is sealed to reduce air loss. And not just that too, it’s how well you treat your reservoir… If you leave compressed air in it for too long, the reservoir could possibly break and be unuseable.
Oh, ok. And you can just use a bike pump to fill it, or do you need some kind of adapter.
You can use a bike pump, but that would eventually wear you out.
We use a motorized drill-looking pump, and is called “Craftsmen Cordless Inflator”
You can program it to a certain PSI and just hold the trigger… The pump will automatically stop at the desired PSI.
[AVG Cost for one: $70]
Here’s an image:
Also the length of the tubing between the solenoid and the piston affect how much air it uses. You want to have to solenoid as close as you can to the pistons to reduce losing unnecessary air presssure.
Note that the power of each piston can also be tuned both on the actual piston itself and through the air regulator. Obviously the more power each piston is using the more air it consumes, so you will want to optimize the power of each piston and tailor it to the task.
Lol that’s what the regulator does? Ah, that makes sense! Thanks!!!
Double-acting cylinders will consume air twice as fast as single-acting cylinders. The difference is that single-acting cylinders are retracted using an internal spring. A different solenoid valve is also used with single-acting cylinders, since air is not needed to retract the cylinder.
A double-acting cylinder can be used like a single-acting cylinder (but not visa-versa) by using rubber bands to retract (or extend, you can do it either way) the cylinder, and plug the second output port on the solenoid valve. For this reason, we buy double-acting equipment, and then have the flexibility to go either way.