Pneumatic#

Introduction#

The Pneumatics system uses an air pump and solenoid to control compressed air for moving cylinders. It can turn the pump on or off and extend or retract cylinders through code.

Below is a list of available methods:

Methods – Compress or decompress air with an air pump.

  • extend – Extend a cylinder.

  • retract – Retract a cylinder.

  • pump_on – Turn on the air pump.

  • pump_off – Turn off the air pump.

  • pump – Set the on or off state of the air pump.

  • installed – Returns whether or not a solenoid is connected to the Brain.

Constructors – Manually initialize and configure Pneumatics.

For the examples below, the configured Pneumatics will be named pneumatic_1 and will be used in all subsequent examples throughout this API documentation when referring to Pneumatic class methods.

Methods#

extend#

extend extends a cylinder.

Usage:
extend(cylinder)

Parameters

Description

cylinder

The cylinder to extend:

  • CYLINDER1
  • CYLINDER2
  • CYLINDERALL – Both cylinders

 
# Extend and retract the cylinder
pneumatic_1.extend(CYLINDER1)
wait(2, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.retract(CYLINDER1)

retract#

retract retracts a cylinder.

Usage:
retract(cylinder)

Parameters

Description

cylinder

The cylinder to retract:

  • CYLINDER1
  • CYLINDER2
  • CYLINDERALL – Both cylinders

 
# Extend and retract the cylinder
pneumatic_1.extend(CYLINDER1)
wait(2, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.retract(CYLINDER1)

pump_on#

pump_on turns the air pump on.

Usage:
pump_on()

Parameters

Description

This method has no parameters.

 
# Extend and retract the cylinder
pneumatic_1.pump_on()
wait(1, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.extend(CYLINDER1)
wait(2, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.retract(CYLINDER1)

pump_off#

pump_off turns the air pump off.

Usage:
pump_off()

Parameters

Description

This method has no parameters.

 
# Extend and retract the cylinder
pneumatic_1.pump_on()
wait(1, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.extend(CYLINDER1)
wait(2, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.retract(CYLINDER1)
wait(0.5, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.pump_off()

pump#

pump turns the air pump on or off.

Usage:
pump(state)

Parameters

Description

state

The air compressor state:

  • True – Turn the air pump on.
  • False – Turn the air pump off. 

# Extend and retract the cylinder
pneumatic_1.pump(True)
wait(1, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.extend(CYLINDER1)
wait(2, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.retract(CYLINDER1)
wait(0.5, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.pump(False)

installed#

installed returns a Boolean indicating whether the solenoid is connected to the Brain.

  • True - The solenoid is connected to the Brain.

  • False - The solenoid is not connected to the Brain.

Usage:
installed()

Parameters

Description

This method has no parameters.

 
# Display if the pneumatics are installed
if pneumatic_1.installed():
    brain.screen.print("Installed!")

Constructors#

Constructors are used to manually create Pneumatic objects, which are necessary for configuring Pneumatics outside of VEXcode.

Pneumatics#

The Pneumatic constructor creates a Pneumatic object in the specified Smart Port:

Usage:
Pneumatic(port)

Parameter

Description

port

Which Smart Port that the solenoid is connected to as PORT followed by the port number, ranging from 1 to 12.

 
# Construct a Pneumatic System "pneumatic_1" with the
# Pneumatic class
pneumatic_1 = Pneumatic(Ports.PORT1)

pneumatic_1.extend(CYLINDER1)
wait(2, SECONDS)
pneumatic_1.retract()
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