Our team needs pneumatics tubing that will work with the VEX parts pretty fast. Does anyone know an Amazon (or other quick shipping) link that will work with the pneumatics kit?
This link provides the legal tubing for use with pneumatics in VRC: Pneumatic Tubing, 100ft, Black - Robosource.net
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Do you think this will work? Robo source provides great stuff, but its really expensive and our organization won’t process the order in time. I’m looking to see if there are any restrictions on color, but I know the rule book says that commercially available tubing is fine.
So you feel that lying to inspectors is ok ? Perhaps read the code of conduct.
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What the rule (<R7> part i ) actually says is:
Pneumatic components with identical SMC manufacturer part numbers to those listed on the
VEX website. For more detail regarding legal pneumatic components, see the Legal VEX Pneumatics Summary document:
https://link.vex.com/docs/2023-2024/vrc-over-under/LegalPneumatics.
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what you advised is pretty much an indicator of a team not acting with integrity. That is a Code of Conduct issue.
My advice is to your team is to give specific advice -
- use VEX provided parts - no issues
- to find legally (as specified in Game Manual) equivalents if available
- if you can not find legal equivalent components, then research other mechanisms that achieve similar function (pro-tip - not everything needs pneumatics)
I hope we can all agree it is not wise to recommend teams to be deceitful to inspectors.
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Actually, most of us have a decent respect for the rules and don’t try to bend them to gain an unfair advantage.
Please don’t tell people it’s common to lie in inspection. Pretty much all VEX students (but apparently not you) want to have fun competing and they follow the rules. Suggesting that everybody cheats to gain an advantage is not only completely wrong but extremely offensive to teams that have worked hard to build their robots within the rules and dealt with parts shortages when they came up.
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If you are wondering Me and my team have never lied to the inspectors but I was just saying that. but my team in a respectful team and we wouldn’t do that. I was just saying that but no we have respect even if you believe it or not so I really do not care. I am a good human.
so here is a link to tubing
cheaper than robosource and get\ts here faster.
they get it to you in 4 or less days.
specifically for tubing " 1. Commercially available items used solely for bundling or wrapping of 2-wire, 3-wire, 4-wire, or V5 Smart Cables, and/or pneumatic tubing are allowed. These items must solely be used for the purposes of cable/tubing protection, organization, or management. This includes but is not limited to electrical tape, cable carrier, cable track, etc. It is up to inspectors to determine whether a component is serving a function beyond protecting and managing cables and tubing."
I think for general pneumatics parts they want to be more precise, but for tubing, I would assume 4mm black tubing is fine, right? Following that link provides these SMC (TUO425B or 275-0447 (VEX p/n)), but tbh idk what that means.
This is referring to cable management, you can use commercially available parts to wrap or bundle wires or tubing.
The only legal tubing, according to rule <R7>i, are vex part number 275-0447 or SMC part number TUO425B, that does not cover random 4mm tubing available from Amazon.
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Oh okay, that makes more sense thank you. I’m gonna see what I can find that’ll ship quickly.
Yeah were not too big on deceit either. We would love to use VEX parts, but limited on supplies and time. Working on the second piece of advice (hence the post), and we are just really trying to avoid redesign since our completed CAD requires pneumatics. (btw were very aware not everything needs pneumatics, but some things are much easier and more efficient with it 
)
ask teams around your area if they have spare tubing. I’ve found that to be effective way to get material quickly.
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any chance u wanna drive down to PA haha
I don’t think anyone thinks you are a bad human for suggesting someone fib to an inspector over non-spec pneumatic tubing. Everyone knows it is not the kind of thing an inspector would catch unless the color was off anyway.
However, it is never wrong to look at what the intent of the rule is. R7 does not say what the intent or spirit of the rule is, but I would guess it is safety, which must always be taken with the utmost seriousness. But as an engineer, I can tell you that with 4mm x 2.5mm polyurethane tubing at 100 psi, you would have to get tubing that was actually defective to have it fail, and even then it would be more a performance issue than a safety issue. Plastic generally does not send shards flying when it bursts under pressure, it just rips or comes loose at a connector.
I am pretty sure SMC is the actual supplier of this tubing to VEX, and TUO425B is the part number.
For future reference, here’s a Link to the SMC webpage for 4mm pneumatic tubing. They show in stock and I bet they can expedite. Unfortunately I could not find it in the Grainger catalog, so I will have to purchase this from VEX once the pneumatics kits I asked for in August arrive.
VEX pneumatics tubing - 4mm
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