My Version of a DIY paristaltic pump

crusso1993

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Looking sweet!
 
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Sisterlimonpot

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Garbled made a pump head and frame for this but while we were testing it out on his, we couldn't get it to pump. the Head was designed really well with needle bearing rollers and tight tolerances but the frame stopped short of the mark, it needed some work.

gT5RfBgl.jpg


I scrapped it and made a completely new frame with scrap acrylic just because I was eager to try some of the software functions.

dTD7u1Pl.jpg


ftxj0Itl.jpg


This frame isn't going to be the final product but it's going to serve its purpose. I was playing around with the calibration settings trying to get it to consistently dose 20 ml. I don't have a graduated cylinder of any kind so I popped off the plunger of a syringe and plugged up the tip, it didn't take much to get it calibrated and after I did, I ran the test probably 20 times to see the consistency surprisingly it came out to be within 0.5 ml.



Next will wok on cutting out a frame that will be more permanent.
 

Dr. Dendrostein

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I already designed the mounting plate for the larger pump so it was easy to cut a new one with new locations of certain parts.

uMPIEYjl.jpg


Installed the motor and pump head

kR2hbwVl.jpg


Installed the pivoting frame

1rhUMR6l.jpg


Right now I'm simply using silicon tubing 6mm ID 9mm OD. In the future I plan to use a more durable tube.

Ywt6Prrl.jpg


Clamp it all down with the spring and nut

he7s5hEl.jpg


After getting it all together I wanted to test it out:




Tell you what, your pump will probably last 1000 years than all the other ones combined. Built to last. Thanks for sharing, comrade
 
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Sisterlimonpot

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Thanks guy,

today I was able to make the final part for the pump. being that I have the ability to cut acrylic with a laser and garble has the ability to print with his 3D printer, it will be interesting to see the design he came up with.

I have to approach it from a 2D perspective by cutting a series of flat pieces and layering them to achieve the final product. In this case I had to design 5 individual layers and have them all line up at the end. Here's the design with all 5 layers together:

33XXYCJl.png


And after it's all cut and bonded together.

oALV0Kll.jpg


I was able to get some real peristaltic tubing and this stuff actually pinches the liquid off, unlike the other stuff that I have been using. while putting it all together I filed down the sharp edges on the yellow piece and lubed everything up. I'm amazed at how quiet it made it run... hmmm who knew that lubrication would silence things.



Now it's up to @garbled to tweak the arduino programming to make it more suitable for reefing.
 

crusso1993

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Thanks guy,

today I was able to make the final part for the pump. being that I have the ability to cut acrylic with a laser and garble has the ability to print with his 3D printer, it will be interesting to see the design he came up with.

I have to approach it from a 2D perspective by cutting a series of flat pieces and layering them to achieve the final product. In this case I had to design 5 individual layers and have them all line up at the end. Here's the design with all 5 layers together:

33XXYCJl.png


And after it's all cut and bonded together.

oALV0Kll.jpg


I was able to get some real peristaltic tubing and this stuff actually pinches the liquid off, unlike the other stuff that I have been using. while putting it all together I filed down the sharp edges on the yellow piece and lubed everything up. I'm amazed at how quiet it made it run... hmmm who knew that lubrication would silence things.



Now it's up to @garbled to tweak the arduino programming to make it more suitable for reefing.


Very nice!
 
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Sisterlimonpot

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Great job. You should see if there is a way you can incorporate and LCD display that shows the rpms or figure out how to convert to ml/min and display that!
Why did you post end up at the end of page 1?

The current program allows you to pump in RPM's vs ml per/min. I sort of viewed that option as a novelty. Maybe I'm missing it, what is the benefit of viewing RPM's over ml per/min?
 
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Sisterlimonpot

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If you are able to remake that program for automatic doser that was amazing! :)
I'm far from even a beginner when it comes to coding, I have been obsessed with trying to get it to automatically dose on a schedule, what I've determined is that there needs to be a RTC (real time clock) added to the hardware and associated program written. If that's going to be an option, I have to figure all that out. Although there is a way to sort of use millis() as a timer, but there are limitations and accuracy problems....

However after almost 2 weeks of trial and error, I have added a way to use it with the Apex OSC code (well sorta). With the accuracy of this unit, I figured it would be a shame not to utilize that function. What you can do is plug the power supply into an Apex controlled outlet and have it set to dose XX ml when the unit is powered up. For instance, if I program the PeriPump to dose 2 ml at the rate of 90ml per minute every time it is powered on, I simply set the Auto Run setting to On and Save it. Then every time it's powered on it will dose 2ml. If one were to program an OSC code in apex to turn on every 30 minutes for 1 minute on time (just so it is on long enough not to interrupt the 2ml dose), the PeriPump will dose 2ml every 30 minutes.

Here's a short video of what I'm talking about.


Now i'm back to the drawing board to make it a stand alone doser.
 
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garbled

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Yeah.. basically I was digging into the same problem on my end.. The only way to get it to self-time is to add timing hardware, and a whole mess of additional code to handle setting the time, etc etc. It's non-trivial.

I'm working on a different version of the arduino setup, using an i2c LCD, and different base code, that simplifies the whole thing. Hopefully... it's rough going still...

What you did to get it working is pretty awesome.. nice job!
 
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Sisterlimonpot

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I'm super excited!!! I got it to automatically dose a specific amount anywhere from 1-48 times a day.

To recap, this can:
1. Be calibrated
2. Stand alone to continuously dose specific amounts 1-48 times (every 30 minutes) a day from 0.1-999.9 ml each time.
3. Stand alone continuous flow anywhere from 0.1-120ml per minute
4. Used with Apex to dose precise amounts


I'l make a video and post it up once I get a chance.
 
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Sisterlimonpot

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I just added it to the tank to dose potassium nitrate every 30 minutes.

I'm still trying to fine tune the calculation for compensation of the pseudo timer. The last 4 days I have been slowly tweaking the numbers to get it extremely close to Real Time. I'll run it for 24 hours and see how far it shifted and change the numbers in the code. this mornings test proved that I'm on the right track. The time gained 1/10th of a second in 24 hours. hopefully tomorrows test will be even closer.
 

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I know for the Spectrapure pumps I have the engineer I spoke with at spectrapure said when doing the calibration to make sure you have the length of tubing you are going to use when the pump is in place and to also use the liquid you are going to dose. Since different liquids have different densities. If have found that having longer tubing lengths will change the amount of liquid that can be dosed.
 
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Sisterlimonpot

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I know for the Spectrapure pumps I have the engineer I spoke with at spectrapure said when doing the calibration to make sure you have the length of tubing you are going to use when the pump is in place and to also use the liquid you are going to dose. Since different liquids have different densities. If have found that having longer tubing lengths will change the amount of liquid that can be dosed.
Excellent point!!
 
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