Servo - February 2009

If your pneumatic system needs to be portable and cannot be tied to a bulky compressor, there is a CO 2 regulator kit available from Lowe's Home Improvement Stores. These kits can regulate high pressure CO 2 cylinders — such as those used with paintball guns — down to a range of from 0 PSI up to 120 PSI (see Photo 7). The Kobalt portable compressed CO regulator 2 kit sells for approximately $85. The kit allows you to connect your normal compressed air fittings to the compressed CO cylinder throughout the regulator. It is 2 made to clip onto a person's belt for portable use of nail guns. Lowe's provides a cylinder exchange system for these CO cylinders, similar to the LP gas cylinder

2 exchanges for home BBQs. You must purchase your first full cylinder for $24 for a nine ounce cylinder and $36 for a 20 ounce cylinder. When they are empty, you can exchange them for a full cylinder for about $5. Be sure to read all of the instructions, precautions, and safety notes when using this regulator.

Part Jameco #159599 Jameco #175565 Jameco #275531

PARTS LIST

Description

Miniature limit switches 24 VDC DPDT electromechanical relays Relay socket

the counter when the HOLD_BIT is clear. The HOLD_BIT can be cleared either by the system having completed all of its oscillations or by pressing the stop button at any time.

Granted, this PLC demonstration program may not appear to be terribly practical, but its purpose is to use several of the programming features of the PLC and interface with a pneumatic system.

It has been my experience that pneumatic components can add some real muscle to projects along with electronic controls as the brains. It would be pretty difficult — and probably very expensive — to find an equivalent linear electronic actuator capable of producing up to 66 pounds of force (at 150 PSI) while travelling a full six inches as quickly as the pneumatic components shown in this article will.

I hope that you found this information helpful and it will help to get you started with pneumatic components and systems. SV

5 reflectance sensors on underside

battery charger connector

piezo buzzer

Item #975 $99.95

4 AAA batteries (not included)

The Pololu 3pi robot is a high-performance, compact mobile platform featuring:

Two metal gearmotors

Five reflectance sensors

8×2 character LCD

Three user pushbuttons

Buzzer and LEDs

All peripherals are connected to an ATmega168 microcontroller running at 20 MHz, with free C-programming push-on/push-off tools, libraries, and support for the Arduino environment. power button reset button