We previously featured the Tinkrmind pneumatics programmable air hardware kit at the beginning of this month, now the system is available to purchase via the Crowd Supply website with kits available from $150. Enabling you to program your very own pneumatic system, check out the demonstration video below to learn more about the unique kits.
“Programmable-Air is a hardware toolkit that allows you to inflate and deflate objects. It has everything you need to start playing with pneumatics and inflatables including high pressure and vacuum pumps, valves, and a pressure sensor on board. The output from Programmable-Air is a single tube that goes into your soft robot or pneumatic actuator. By controlling the motors and valves, you can push air in or out of the actuator, or let it exchange air with the atmosphere. All while you get feedback about the state of the actuator through the pressure sensor. The Programmable-Air library makes it easy to control the valves and pumps. Simple functions like blow(), suck(), vent(), and readPressure() cover most of the basic use cases.”
Pneumatics opens up a world of possibilities for a maker to explore:
– Make a vacuum pick and place machine
– Blow up a balloon and have it’s size represent data
– Make a soft robot walk
– Use a syringe as a linear actuator
Features and specifications of the Programmable-Air kits and development board include :
– Based on Arduino Nano (ATMega328P), so works by default with most Arduino libraries
– Ready to go right out of the box, no need to purchase additional power supplies/cables/pumps/tubes/valves.
– Pneumatics – full channel control, i.e. high pressure through atmospheric pressure to vacuum output in the same tube.
– Max pressure: 0.5 atmosphere (7.5 PSI / 50 kPa)
– Min Pressure: -0.5 atmosphere (-7.5 PSI / -50 kPa)
– Flow rate: 2 liters per minute (per motor)
– Power – 12 V, 1.2 A from a barrel jack
– Grove I²C connector to easily add sensors (not pictured, but added in v0.6)
– Expandable for adding valves/sensors
Open source all the way!
– Open source hardware certification #US000153.
– GitHub
Built for learning
– Guides and tutorials available. With more forthcoming.
– The color-coded buttons on the board are meant for easy identification when following tutorials.
Source: Crowd Supply