My Version of a DIY paristaltic pump

[TheHarold]

Excellent @Sisterlimonpot !

I’m making something similar, though out of aluminum and delrin given I have access to a machine shop .

I already made a 3D printed 24x24 CNC, so am pretty familiar with steppers. But I want this one to be controller by apex 0-10v, which will be fun.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Excellent @Sisterlimonpot !

I’m making something similar, though out of aluminum and delrin given I have access to a machine shop .

I already made a 3D printed 24x24 CNC, so am pretty familiar with steppers. But I want this one to be controller by apex 0-10v, which will be fun.

Awesome! What's next?

 

[TheHarold]

Awesome! What's next?

Probably the rotor assembly out of aluminum as well. I’m not sure yet whether I will use delrin wheels or bearings... but I will mount the upper support with two slots (in this aluminum baseplate) so I can adjust it if I mess up any of my measurements

 

[ShadowR55]

I just bought this from eBay.
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/352561089425
Seems too cheap to be true but we’ll see if I’ve been scammed or not.

 

[SecondCityCorals]

Wow this is actually impressive.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Wow this is actually impressive.

You just wait for version 2....

 

[garbled]

Seems too cheap to be true but we’ll see if I’ve been scammed or not.

You probably have not been scammed. I have one of those pumps, but not with the control box. It's a perfectly good pump. It's pretty much the same one used in a Jebao. The pump without speed control is about $10 on amazon. I'm intensely curious to know what the speed control method is though....

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I'm sure it's a simple PWM. You can find a 12v PWM on amazon for roughly $5-10. You add in a power supply and a case and you can't make it cheaper.

I'm not familiar with the jebao doser pumps, I do know that that the concern for these $10 peristaltic heads is the material that the rollers are made from. The way that these work is that it relies on friction from the motor shaft to spin the 3 rollers. If the 3 rollers are made of plastic, it has a tendency to slip and not rotate the rollers. Eventually the shaft wears a flat spot or groove in the plastic rollers making it stop working.

What you want to see are those rollers coated with a rubber layer that allows the motor shaft to grip and spin the 3 rollers. Subsequently as a bonus, the rubber layer quiets the operation down.

 

[garbled]

Yeah, wasn't sure, because the motor/pumps I saw on amazon were all just simple 2 wire DC brushed motors. I even went and traced the motor "lineage" on mine, and it's made for hair driers. But the one that @ShadowR55 purchased might be the same head with a different motor.

So I'm interested in playing around with the stepper motor and whatnot because I think we might be able to beat a $300 Kamoer continuous duty. What I recently discovered, is that DIY *cannot* beat the Jebao DS-4 for price in the "dose a little now and then" range. I can literally buy 2 entire 4-head dosing units from Jebao @ $59 a pop (which each come with a spare head!) for the price it would cost me to 3D print and solder my own 4-head doser.

Same with the one he found on ebay. If he just needs to run it for a few minutes a day, he could buy 3 spares before the DIY price was met. I mean, heck, I got a 24v head and wired it directly to the DC24 of my Apex, and that cost more than what he just got off ebay, and doesn't have the speed control knob....

I mean, in the realms of pure economics... If one purchased 18 of those, vs 1 Kamoer continuous duty, and ran them 24/7.. which would last longer?

 

[ShadowR55]

I ended up buying two of those pumps to test out, I’m trying to setup a remote frag tank that will just cycle the water from my display tank to the frag tank, maybe change out a few gallons every hour. They will be triggered with float switches and of course have failsafes in case one pump were to stop working.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

@ShadowR55, For years I had one of those cheap $10 peri pumps running my ATO. I had to replace the head unit 3 times just because it was getting too loud. It was just recently downgraded to the Kalk pump to make room for this DIY project.

@garbled, I have no doubt that we are on the right track with making a constant running pump that will rival the continuous use like the Kamoer. Wear and tear is going to be the big issues. Sourcing the right silicone tube (for a decent price) and ensuring that the step motor can handle the constant running are the hurdles I perceive to be the hardest. Tweaking the head unit and fine tuning of the programming should be par for the coarse, longevity , reliability is key here.

 

[garbled]

Wear and tear is going to be the big issues.

Yeah.. for the body and head, I feel like I could just print so many replacements it's stupid, and not care about wear and tear on those. The motor is my main concern..

Have we looked to see if you can buy replacement silicone tube for a kamoer?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

They do, last I checked they were out of stock, but are in stock now... I'm going to order a couple and hope to integrate it. If not, I will hold it for my kamoer. Here they are

 

[ShadowR55]

Received both pumps, and neither of them will pump anything. It was shipped through Amazon, so I did a search on Amazon and found it for sale on there for cheaper. And the 3 reviews are horrible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0799C8Q7S/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_awdb_aqYvCbS9196NZ

 

[garbled]

That answers my question. They are using a resistor I bet. Try turning it up to 100%, I bet it works.

My guess is it's just a normal DC motor, and they use a potentiometer as a resistor to change the flow rate (which is why the LED dims). But you really can't do that to DC motors, they only operate within a range.

If you are going to give up on it, I would really appreciate a photo of the inside, I'd love to see the "circuit" and what motor they are using.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Received both pumps, and neither of them will pump anything. It was shipped through Amazon, so I did a search on Amazon and found it for sale on there for cheaper. And the 3 reviews are horrible.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0799C8Q7S/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_awdb_aqYvCbS9196NZ

That sucks! are you up for opening it up and snapping a photo of how the knob is wired? Actually snap a pic of everything.

 

[ShadowR55]

Turns out that the tubing inside with the rollers was kinked from sitting for so long. The rod and plastic rollers are really cheap, it is just using friction to turn the rollers, I can see this as a big problem in the future.

 

[ShadowR55]

That sucks! are you up for opening it up and snapping a photo of how the knob is wired? Actually snap a pic of everything.

I will take one apart and take pics

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Gargled has taken this to the next level. He has a 3D printer and was able to create a frame and pump head from thingiverse. It's a small box and there's not much room after everything is installed.

He made one for himself and one for me, we split the supply list down the middle

It'll be on an arduino platform which makes changing things fairly easy, if you know how to code.

Today I got right to work cleaning up the plastic and mapping out how to solder and wire everything.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

It took a good 8 hours to get to the point where I can power it on and see if all my work was worth it. It was tense up to this point.

Now I had to start stuffing it all in there.

Super tight fit

And now for running a few commands to see how programming it changes the motor rotation

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This is pretty much where I am at the moment. I will start assembling the roller head and get that done.