Wave maker switching an AC circulation pump

[2000]

Hello friends, I’d like to turn a simple AC circulation pump into a wave maker. The basic idea is to control it with a 555 timer-relay circuit.
Additionally I was willing to use a dimmer in the AC signal so that I could also control the intensity.
Does anyone here ever tried or heard of this approach? Do you think the AC motor would have its life time because of the switching?
Regards,

 

[NanoDJS]

the short answer is no, many company's have spent insane RD money on inventing a motor that can high speed switch and stage , the answer's they come up with are all DC, your AC winding will fail very quickly once you start to deviate from its specs ie 110v@60hz ,

 

[splitting_lanes]

Yup, engineer here, AC motor doesn’t do well getting switched on and off.

 

[AlexG]

The only company that I know is controlling AC water flow pumps for aquariums is Rossmont. I have 3 of these pumps running on one of my tanks and they work great. They were designed to be controllable AC pumps per Rossmont. I would think they are using some kind of VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) to control the pump speed. As stated above though if the motor is not engineered to be controlled it will not work out well.

 

[Montiman]

I am also a Rossmont user.

Their Waver Controller can control their own AC pumps. According to Rossmont the controller needs to know an exact profile for every pump before it can control it which is why you can't control any other brand of pump or even their newer pumps without a software update with the specific profile for the pump. Their is a reason the controller is $200 I would not personally attempt a DIY solution.

 

[Ranjib]

You can do pure time based switch on/off (user 555 timer based circuit hooked upto a relay), but speed control will be significantly complicated

 

[2000]

Hello friends, news from the front, the 555 astable circuit is up and running a 3W US$5 circulation pump. I´d like to report a few things just for the record:
1) the pump has a anti reverse groove in the axis tip. i had to chop it off because 1/2 of times the motor started the rotor hitted these grooves making an annoying sound. Now 1/2 of the time the pump will work forward and 1/2 reversing. As long as the pump is intended to circulate the water it´s ok;
2) I´ve adjusted the astable to a 1/3 duty cycle and period of 1 second;
3) If my tank was bigger, it would be a nice idea to 2 pumps facing eachother connecting one to the NO contact and the other in the NC with a 50% Duty Cycle;
I´ll keep it running in my 80 liters nano and see how long it will last.
thanks for all the friend that read and commented the post.

 

[newreefguyy]

Hello friends, news from the front, the 555 astable circuit is up and running a 3W US$5 circulation pump. I´d like to report a few things just for the record:
1) the pump has a anti reverse groove in the axis tip. i had to chop it off because 1/2 of times the motor started the rotor hitted these grooves making an annoying sound. Now 1/2 of the time the pump will work forward and 1/2 reversing. As long as the pump is intended to circulate the water it´s ok;
2) I´ve adjusted the astable to a 1/3 duty cycle and period of 1 second;
3) If my tank was bigger, it would be a nice idea to 2 pumps facing eachother connecting one to the NO contact and the other in the NC with a 50% Duty Cycle;
I´ll keep it running in my 80 liters nano and see how long it will last.
thanks for all the friend that read and commented the post.

Hey man don't mean to Necro but how was ur diy? I'm thinking of doing the same thing atm.