Pneumatic Automation - What's out there?

[DrJB]

When 8455 came out, about 20 years ago, I bought two such sets.  One could build fancy contraptions with 20 cylinders and 14 switches. My thinking back then was that some day I'll get to re-create and further explore some of the pneumatic logic I learned during my highschool years, the L-cycle, the U-cycle, Truth tables ... etc. Of course those parts sat in storage for many years, until Akiyuki came up with a pneumatic-powered GBC. The mechanics of such GBC were just phenomenal (It's an L-cycle). Yet, I have not seen anything remotely as sophisticated.

Hence, the reason for this thread. Do you have knowledge of pneumatic contraptions that are fully automatic i.e., operating on various self-perpetuating cycles?

PS. To be fair, I did see a couple of 6-legged walkers and the pneumatic motors, though some of those require permanent modifications to the cylinders. 

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by DrJB

[Milan]

8868 B model?

 

[DrJB]

Thank you Milan. Looks like another L-cycle  :)

[howitzer]

Yep, 8868 B-model is one of the best B-models ever. I should probably dismantle my 8868 A and build it...

[astyanax]

I got this one still on my to-build list:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-107169/hitchhiker/mechanical-spider-reloaded

[ord]

Oh, I love this thread. 

Kevin Clague has some interesting contraptions:

 

[Berthil]

I have build a pneumatic scissor lift for GBC with compressor (free instructions). The timing is done by the train. Worked like a charm on events so far.

 

[proran]

I think the big topic fitting this category is pneumatic trains. But, I guess, these are just pneumatic engines on wheels. Still a lot of cool MOCs there from simple to not-so-simple. I think a big factor limiting the pneumatic automation is a high mechanical resistance of LEGO pneumatic switches.

[Mr Jos]

It uses pneumatic cylinders and switches, but automated with LEGO EV3 Mindstorms.

At the moment I'm remaking this MOC as I sold the original.

Pneumatic is used for;

• Raising a new coil on the coilcar to the correct heigth to put on the decoiler axle.
• New version uses a cyilinder for pushing the wheel on the coil that is being decoiled.
• The upper tool that makes the holes is clamped with a cylinder so it stays in place until toolchange is wanted, then you can open it and move out the upper and lower tools.
• The technic brick scissor is being operated by the program to cut the sheet of paper at the right time when the length of the sheet has reached the scissor position.
  • A stripper plate goes down first, clamping the sheet in front and at the back of the "scissor". This prevents the paper going in between the two Lego bricks when cutting.
  • The large cylinders starts cutting the paper, and meanwhile pushes down the paper guiding (as after cutting the paper, the start end will have to be guided again into the clamping behind the scissor).

[lcvisser]

I built this once... for TC10:

 

[Jonas]

For me, the most sophisticated pneumatic contraption is Pneumatic Ball Factory by Quanix. He made at least 3 versions. Here is the last one:

 

[lcvisser]

That factory is amazing indeed.  Looks like a proper factory too with all those hoses.

v1 and v2 had robotic arms in them and were even more impressive in my opinion:

 

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by lcvisser
v1 and v2 videos

[DrJB]

Thank you all, those are fantastic finds.

Keep them coming :)

[aeh5040]

There was a lot of activity involving self-working pneumatioc logic 10 years ago or more.  Kevin Clague has some incredibly sophisticated walkers:

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=kclague

Likewise Mark Bellis:

https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=82738

This was the smallest fully pneumatic walker I could come up with

and here is a larger one that carries its own air bottle:

 

My tower of Hanoi solver uses pneumatics in an automatic repeating loop, although it is actuated mechanically.  (It could in principle be done by pneumatic logic, but I encountered too many problems when I tried.  Eventually I hope to finish a fully mechanical version).

 

[DrJB]

On 11/9/2022 at 5:21 AM, astyanax said:

I got this one still on my to-build list:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-107169/hitchhiker/mechanical-spider-reloaded

I would LOVE to build that one. Are any instructions available at all?

It looks like the cylinders are moving pretty fast, and thus, most likely 'modified'. Thoughts?