Hello,
While working with the pneumatics system on my team’s robot last night, I found that it was really difficult to remove our bike pump from the fitting, which seems to be letting out air. I have another pump that is quick to remove, but lacks a pressure gauge (meant for those actually using it for bike tires, going by feel rather than pressure). I also can’t find a shutoff valve to put between the tank and fill valve, so instead i would like to put a single acting solenoid (Pump -> air cylinder connection -> solenoid -> pressure input -> tank) in line, then activate it to fill the tank. I could either press the button to open it (but it’s a really small button), or come up with a quick circuit to energize the solinoid. However, I don’t have a connector to interface to the solenoid with, but I can interface with the driver, which leads me to ask this:
Can the solenoid driver handle +6VDC from 4 AA batteries across the power and signal lines to energize the solenoid? Perhaps some resistors would be in order? Am I completely nuts? Or should I persuade my instructor to buy a new bike pump (not at this stage)?
I could hook up a 4-cell battery pack to a header I have on hand for a quick +6VDC supply, and solder series resistors in if I had too, if the driver can handle it.
Thanks