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Subject: 
Re: Brickfest Pneumatic Master and new Pneumatic Gate Circuits
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Mon, 22 Aug 2005 17:07:31 GMT
Viewed: 
4200 times
  
In lugnet.technic, Mark Bellis wrote:
In lugnet.technic, Kevin L. Clague wrote:

[MUCH SNIPPAGE]

Mark,
  I did this simple repost to remove the remainder of this conversation from
events.brickfest.

  I'll go home and study your feedback, build models and test them, and provide
a writeup.

Kev


Kevin,

I think "differential output" is what I really meant, though I called it "no
leak" because the supply never leaks, one output or the other is always
pressurised and there is never a state where both outputs leak.  There is also
only one place where the leaking output leaks on the XOR and XNOR gates, from
the single switch - subsequent parity stages have no leaks at all.  The idea
behind it was to have full control of both outputs in all possible states, since
that is also the goal of a finite state machine.  It suits me being a control
freak :-)

I use differential output gates because the output is suitable for driving the
input of the next gate, so these circuits are building blocks.  To invert the
output, swap the output hoses.  To invert the input, swap the input hoses.

My differential gates are suitable for driving load-bearing cylinders because
there will be minimal pressure loss in the gate when the inputs change to
another state that has the same output.  That was another requirement of the
design, which is helped by using as much flex tube as possible.  The
load-bearing functionality was the main reason for having no leaks.

Another thing was to avoid any gate being transparent.  This means, similarly to
electronic flip-flops, that the input can't go through to the output without a
proper change of state.  In a transparent electronic D-type flip-flop, if the D
input changed, the Q and !Q outputs would change with it.  In a non-transparent
flip-flop the change of Q and !Q has to wait for the data at D to be clocked
into the flip-flop, such that it changes state.  This avoids logic races in
electronic flip-flops and it was also something I wanted to avoid in pneumatics,
in order to be sure of the next state of the system at all times and prevent
movement into an undesirable or lock-up state.

Another feature of my designs is that the input need not necesarily be a
pneumatic function.  All that is required is something that moves a set of valve
switches, so it could be a motor or hand input.  I've not yet tried adding
machines but I could make one on the same basis as a binary full adder from an
electronics book, using and AND gate and an XOR gate for each of two half adders
and and OR gate for the summation.

Don't blame me, I'm just an electronics engineer :-)

I do use single switch ANDing on enable lines, where I need only one pressure
and not a differential output.  I use enable lines to interupt the air supply to
a set of cylinders, so the enable is a gated air supply to the middle port of a
switch, such that a cylinder can't move either way if it is not enabled.  I
haven't yet applied an enable line to only one port of a cylinder because the
system might end up with either pressure on both ports or a leak on both ports,
both of which I want to avoid.  For enable lines I apply the supply to the
middle switch port and take the output from one side with a stopper on the other
side.  The supply must never leak.


On the first of your gates, are you feeding pressure A into the cylinder and
also through a B switch to the AB port?

Also, you seem to be addressing hose pressures as the objects that have a state.
I have always used valve positions as the objects that have "0" and "1" states.
This means that, assuming the centre port is pressurised, in state "0" the right
port is pressurised whilst the left port leaks, and vice versa.

I looked at your 4-switch dual pressure AND gate, assuming that the "B" input is
from another valve switch, but it appeared to cause both outputs to leak in 0-1
or 1-0 states, due to the mismatch between the two hoses from the B switch (into
B and !B ports) and he states of A and B.  What parts are used that don't appear
in the diagram?

Solving the 0-1 and 1-0 mismatch was what pleased me most about my AND gate
design.

Mark



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Brickfest Pneumatic Master and new Pneumatic Gate Circuits
 
(...) Kevin, I think "differential output" is what I really meant, though I called it "no leak" because the supply never leaks, one output or the other is always pressurised and there is never a state where both outputs leak. There is also only one (...) (19 years ago, 22-Aug-05, to lugnet.technic, lugnet.events.brickfest)

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