Pneumatics (V5RC)

Real practice, one or two air tanks covering dropdown arms, claws, PTOs, intake lifts, and arm joints every season. Here's how to actually wire that many functions off a small air budget.

One solenoid controls one double-acting cylinder, full stop. A stock V5 Pneumatics Kit ships with two double-acting solenoids, each with two output ports, A and B, extend and retract. Need more than two independently-timed functions, you buy more solenoids, there's no way around it.

Mechanisms that always fire together can share one solenoid. A two-cylinder system links two solenoids through the supply line so air reaches both, tee the line off a single solenoid to two cylinders instead and they move in perfect sync, at the cost of never timing them separately. Use this for something like two claws that always open and close together.

The tank feeds every solenoid off one shared supply line. Air runs from the tank through a regulator, then tees out to each solenoid's input port. Every solenoid draws from the same limited air budget, more functions on one tank means fewer full-power actuations of each before you're out of air.

Sort functions into "needs independent timing" and "can fire together" before buying solenoids. A dropdown arm and an intake lift probably fire at different moments, separate solenoids. A PTO engaging alongside a claw closing, if they're always simultaneous, can share one.