[HELP] Improving Pneumatic Setup

[Electricsteam]

I ran this by train tech and I'm running by you guys to see if you have any input on my mess. But it works!

It's just a simple 2 cylinder engine but I need to keep in on the side because well its a train! I know this is a little out of place for Technic but I was hoping you'd give me input on it's set up, maybe ideas on how to improve and other things. I want to get this top tier before I go about building a train over it.

Video of it in action

Please of please folks I'm not the best at technic give me imput please!

[aeh5040]

Not such a mess - it looks pretty good for an initial prototype! The most important thing is that it works!

A few things you might want to think about: ideally you want the cylinder to be able to expand and contract to its full extent while the switch moves to almost its full extent, but ever without needing to force the switch against its end stops. It seems that you are close to this with the current setup. Also, you should think about bracing. In any brick-built struture there is a risk that the parts will gradually get prised apart under stress. So here, the technic brick holding the pneumatic switch may get lifted off the part below it, which would of course wreck your engine timing. To stop this, ideally you want somewhere some kind of liftarms running vertically to hold everything together, like this:

Ideally you might also want to support the axle holding the pneumatic cylinder one both sides of the cylinder. Although if it is working already there may be no need.

Finally, getting enough air to run penumatic engines at a decent speed is always a challenge. If you want to do it with lego pumps, you'll need lots of pumps and lots of motor power!

[Imanol BB]

Hi, maybe you could consider to put smaller diameter cylinders if that will be the air pump you gonna use, because those cylinders need too much time to move with those small pumps, also, you could try to make a switchless engine, so you could get a little bit more force in your train, here is a motor i saw some time ago:

Good luck.

[Electricsteam]

I left out a bit of major info on my project.......

This was the original model a few years ago. It worked but it worked poorley...... I want to build a train ontop of this mess...... I don't think switchless would work since a large compressor can't fit on a 8x24 platform....