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Subject: 
Re: Brickfest Pneumatic Master and new Pneumatic Gate Circuits
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Thu, 25 Aug 2005 16:04:41 GMT
Viewed: 
4512 times
  
I think this diagram should explain the differences:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/mbellis/Technic/Pneumatics/Building-Blocks/pneumatic_n-input_and_circuit.jpg

It is the N-input differential output AND gate, developed from your sketch.
I've used 2 switches for A, to gate the supply so that it doesn't leak.  This
gives 2+4++4 switches for an N-input gate.  The diagram shows 2+4 and more
modules of 4 can be added.

I'm including the 2 switches in the gate, since the two inputs are the positions
of switch banks A and B, as driven by the cylinders (B has a parallel pair).
The idea is that the output from another gate (at the circles bottom right) can
be connected to the input of another gate (at the inputs on the left) in order
to daisy-chain gates to make a combinational logic system.

In this case switch bank A is the source of the pressures you used as your
input.  I've included them in the gate because the pressures should have a
source in the position of a part of the model, which would then move switch bank
A.  Hence the position of that part of the model is your input into the logic
("IF grab is closed AND arm is retracted THEN rotate elbow" etc...).

When adding modules to this gate (imagine stage C like stage B but between it
and the cylinder), you can reverse the inputs to have A AND B AND !C (with a
free NOT gate), but you can't swap the output hoses on the right between stages
B and C because inside the gate they are not leak-protected.  The leftmost
switches in each bank together make a pressure signal that leaks except when all
stages are set to "1".

------------------------------------------------------------------

My AND gate can have additional B stages added to it to make 3 or more stage
gates.  I've yet to determine the leak protection requirements between stages of
that, but I'll look into it to see if either design can do more interesting
3-input functions such as (A AND B) OR C in one gate, eliminating the
propagation delays of daisy-chaining gates.

My 3+3 AND gate actually produces the same signals as this 2+4 gate, but
possibly only requiring 1 cylinder per switch bank if they are not attached to
moving parts of a model.  This would be the case if I built the model like my
octopus arm, where I put enough cylinders and one switch on each moving joint,
to save weight on the arm, and put all the logic (24 switches in banks of 4, 4,
9 and 3) on a 32x32 baseplate, each with a pair of cylinders for three or four
and three pairs for the 9.

In my gate it's the two paths in the 0-1 and 1-0 states that are most confusing,
since if A is 0 and B is 1 the pressure goes along the same-side link one way
(A2-A3) and crosses from B to A and back to B the other way (B2-A1-B3).

---------------------------------------------------------------------

In the gate, the switches are the internal transistors, which is why I include
them.  The input signals are either the differential pressures driving the input
cylinders, or the positions of the switches they drive.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

In lugnet.technic, Kevin L. Clague wrote:

(SNIP)

But the moment you use gate pistons as muscle pistons, and the load exceeds the
force produced by the gate pistons, your run the risk of locking up your state
machine (whether you use differential pressure gates or single pressure output
gates.)

The other side of the coin is that if you do not use your muscle pistons as
timing pistons, then you are back to assymetries in pistons making your walkers
walk funny.

Yes, I use my gate pistons as muscle pistons, but sometimes buffer them with a
single 1-cylinder 1-switch stage.  I make sure that only one thing moves at a
time, or if more than one, that there are AND and OR functions to cover every
possible state of the multiples, so that they must all remain pressurised in the
right direction until all have completed and so that nothing else can move until
they have all completed.  It's generally too complex to do multiples, so I'd
rather avoid it and save a few switches!

----------------------------------------------------------------------

(SNIP)
Hmmm...  my goal when making a walker, is to have all the pistons be muscle
pistons with as few timing only pistons as possible.  Timing only pistons create
delays that slow walking. By combining timing and muscularity in the same piston
you can compensate for their assymetries.  For example, when I tried to use a
central timing circuit for SSC1 (the kind of design I think you are talking
about) without any synchronization of the legs, one leg group lifted and dropped
very nicely, and the other did not.

Here is a central timing circuit:
   _   _
A / \_/
    _
B _/ \_/

  0123456

A and B's expansion controlled one leg group lift.  A and B's contraction
controlled the other leg group's drop.  The assymetries between expansion and
contraction caused the lift/drop of one leg group different than the lift drop
of the other leg group.

I had to instrument both the lift and drop of all the legs in each leg group to
make sure I eliminated these assymetries.

(SNIP)

Kevin

Then the ground being uneven might bring them back, since the legs would have
different loads!

Mark



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Brickfest Pneumatic Master and new Pneumatic Gate Circuits
 
(...) whan you use them in this way you better can use 1 switch becouse the air wil be free to the admosfer alround it whane the swich is compleetly swiched, isn't it?... a sugest to make a construction whare one switch is in the senter and the (...) (19 years ago, 25-Aug-05, to lugnet.technic)
  Re: Brickfest Pneumatic Master and new Pneumatic Gate Circuits
 
Mark, I have studied and understand your 3+3 AND gate. A few years ago I made a simpler version of the same thing. My design replaces your six switches with one switch and mechanical linkages. Here is a picture of this AND gate: (URL) In my 1 AND (...) (19 years ago, 25-Aug-05, to lugnet.technic)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Brickfest Pneumatic Master and new Pneumatic Gate Circuits
 
(...) I mechanically link the two pistons together so they act as though they were one larger piston, also I mechanically link the four switches. This eliminates any issue with racing between the two pistons and their switches. Could you explain in (...) (19 years ago, 24-Aug-05, to lugnet.technic)

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