Jump to content

High End DIY Peristaltic - Masterflex Alternative?


TheClark

Recommended Posts

1 hour ago, TheClark said:

Update while waiting on parts.

I have been running for a couple of days.  Stepper motor gets pretty hot at 2.0 amps / 12v.

Did some googling, sounds like it is perfectly normal.  Also, apparently they have a 10 year rated life at 8 hours per day.  So I should expect at least a few years out of it running 24x7 at less than full speed.

In the pic you can see it is about 127FDFD78C52-8BE8-4EC5-8FAA-D52EA5A246B5.JPG

 

 

Interesting. Not an insignificant amount of current - was that at full speed?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Interesting. Not an insignificant amount of current - was that at full speed?

Yes, as fast as I could get it to run, at 2 amps.  If you try to go any faster, it stalls out.

Not sure how many mlls/min that equates to yet, until I get some tygon tubing, correct motor, driver, etc.  I will try to put a kill-a-watt on it.  But assuming full power 2 amps at 12 volts, should be a 24 watt pump at most.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, TheClark said:

Yes, as fast as I could get it to run, at 2 amps.  If you try to go any faster, it stalls out.

Not sure how many mlls/min that equates to yet, until I get some tygon tubing, correct motor, driver, etc.  I will try to put a kill-a-watt on it.  But assuming full power 2 amps at 12 volts, should be a 24 watt pump at most.

 

 

Found killawatt.  Looks like 9.5 watts at this speed and torque.  Driver is set to 1.5 amps it turns out, so that is reasonably close to expected.

At 1.0 amps, the motor stays quite cool, but I can make it stall/skip with a pair of pliers and some force.  At 1.5 amp, I cannot stop it with pliers.  It is a strong little motor with a good amount of torque.  Should be excellent for peristaltic pumping.

 

CF913191-A65A-4D4A-B45F-1736D0D99CC2.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheClark said:

Found killawatt.  Looks like 9.5 watts at this speed and torque.  Driver is set to 1.5 amps it turns out, so that is reasonably close to expected.

At 1.0 amps, the motor stays quite cool, but I can make it stall/skip with a pair of pliers and some force.  At 1.5 amp, I cannot stop it with pliers.  It is a strong little motor with a good amount of torque.  Should be excellent for peristaltic pumping.

 

CF913191-A65A-4D4A-B45F-1736D0D99CC2.jpeg

That makes some sense given the torque - hadn’t considered that. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Gumby said:

Really nice! Can't wait to see it in action.

Thanks Jim, I am pretty excited. 

A bunch of parts came in today, just a few to go.  Hope to have 1 or 2 online by next Wednesday.

Once I get a couple online, I really want to improve a few things, which is a tall order as the design is very nice.  

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, pdxmonkeyboy said:

i literally know how to do most anything DIY related except programming and circuit boards 😞


Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

Just a couple of youtube videos away!  Seriously you will be like a mad scientist in one afternoon.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5345BA97-D3CE-4A3E-B285-F87DA2ACAA73.jpeg

 

Tons of progress to report.

Some good news, some bad news.

I was on a mission to try and simplify the electronics part of this and make it more reliable.  A breadboard is just too many loose connections.  Also, there are allot of wires to deal with, time consuming and easy to screw up. 

Ended up going with an arduino nano on a perfboard with some pin headers for the nano and the motor controller.  Also switched the LCD over to an I2C version, only four wires.  Now,it's allot faster to build (although not fast) and easy to swap out components if one gets fried.  Good stuff!

The bad news is that the peristaltic pump does not pump with my tygon tubing size.  So more is on the way.  If the new tubing works, and I can get a high enough mls/min, I get to put it into production on my CR!  

If it does not produce enough mls/min, will have to redesign the pump head and get some new pins and bearings.  Should know by mid week.

 

Video of menus and running without tubing (noisy, because a couple screws are loose)

 

Picture of simplified electronics

 

1AF5104E-CDF9-4549-9862-E96C8C8CE4C5.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TheClark said:

5345BA97-D3CE-4A3E-B285-F87DA2ACAA73.jpeg

 

Tons of progress to report.

Some good news, some bad news.

I was on a mission to try and simplify the electronics part of this and make it more reliable.  A breadboard is just too many loose connections.  Also, there are allot of wires to deal with, time consuming and easy to screw up. 

Ended up going with an arduino nano on a perfboard with some pin headers for the nano and the motor controller.  Also switched the LCD over to an I2C version, only four wires.  Now,it's allot faster to build (although not fast) and easy to swap out components if one gets fried.  Good stuff!

The bad news is that the peristaltic pump does not pump with my tygon tubing size.  So more is on the way.  If the new tubing works, and I can get a high enough mls/min, I get to put it into production on my CR!  

If it does not produce enough mls/min, will have to redesign the pump head and get some new pins and bearings.  Should know by mid week.

 

Video of menus and running without tubing (noisy, because a couple screws are loose)

 

Picture of simplified electronics

 

1AF5104E-CDF9-4549-9862-E96C8C8CE4C5.jpeg

That is looking pretty trick. Can’t wait to find out what kind of flow rates you can get out of it. 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a bust! 

The pump head allows for water to back siphon, the seals are not good enough.

Modified the pump head to squeeze down harder.  It helped, but the motor cannot move against that much pressure.

Going to redesign the pump head tonight and see where it goes...

 

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't worry Sean, I am 100% dedicated to finishing this. 

Since going back to my return pump feeding the reactor, flow is all over the place:

geauOkL.png

 

I printed out some alternative pump heads, kind of exploring right now.  I also want to explore increasing torque for the stepper.  Planetary gears (adds another 20 bucks to build),  belts and pulleys (like 3d printers) changing the steps from quarter step to full, different drivers (TMC), different motor options, doubling up the motor.  Basically keep searching until something makes sense.

Since this is all open source, and 3d printed, the sky is the limit.  This pump will LIVE!!  Unlike my last disappointment in this area.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, TheClark said:

Don't worry Sean, I am 100% dedicated to finishing this. 

Since going back to my return pump feeding the reactor, flow is all over the place:

geauOkL.png

 

I printed out some alternative pump heads, kind of exploring right now.  I also want to explore increasing torque for the stepper.  Planetary gears (adds another 20 bucks to build),  belts and pulleys (like 3d printers) changing the steps from quarter step to full, different drivers (TMC), different motor options, doubling up the motor.  Basically keep searching until something makes sense.

Since this is all open source, and 3d printed, the sky is the limit.  This pump will LIVE!!  Unlike my last disappointment in this area.

 

I applaude the effort Jeremy!  I can't help thinking that the tubing itself may have contributed to the issue.  If I recall correctly, our peristaltic pumps all had specialized tubing that was considerably more pliable than tygon for use in the head itself - we used tygon etc. to extend the runs from there but the "business" part of the tubing was of different composition (and expensive).  I want to say possibly silicon or some other synthetic.  Of course, this also probably contributed to it's fail rate but I think it was the only way to get consistent flow from those units - especially at low flow.  I would try and research but short on time right now...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, albertareef said:

I applaude the effort Jeremy!  I can't help thinking that the tubing itself may have contributed to the issue.  If I recall correctly, our peristaltic pumps all had specialized tubing that was considerably more pliable than tygon for use in the head itself - we used tygon etc. to extend the runs from there but the "business" part of the tubing was of different composition (and expensive).  I want to say possibly silicon or some other synthetic.  Of course, this also probably contributed to it's fail rate but I think it was the only way to get consistent flow from those units - especially at low flow.  I would try and research but short on time right now...

Thanks for the tip!  The tygon is tough stuff, double edged sword.  I am pretty sure silicone tubing would work, as you mention, until it ruptures...  Good stuff

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quick update:

- Next step, use reducing gears to increase the motor torque.

Motor with planetary gears ordered, going to be a while.

I tried 3d printing some planetary gear boxes for Nema 17 motors, will try them out too while waiting if I ever get over to home depot to grab some M8 bolts for the motor shaft...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/7/2018 at 10:37 AM, albertareef said:

I applaude the effort Jeremy!  I can't help thinking that the tubing itself may have contributed to the issue.  If I recall correctly, our peristaltic pumps all had specialized tubing that was considerably more pliable than tygon for use in the head itself - we used tygon etc. to extend the runs from there but the "business" part of the tubing was of different composition (and expensive).  I want to say possibly silicon or some other synthetic.  Of course, this also probably contributed to it's fail rate but I think it was the only way to get consistent flow from those units - especially at low flow.  I would try and research but short on time right now...

And I do wonder, even with the extra torque, if tygon is just too stiff as you point out Sean.  These cheap 30 dollar (noisy) steppers I use claim to use tygon tubing.  They last for years pumping quite often.  There are a ton of different types of tygon too, so maybe that is too generic of a term when searching!

I could get cheap silicone tubing, but man did that stuff wear out fast...

I have a rusty old masterflex down in the stash, I think one head has good tubing, I should go check it out...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Success!

I stand corrected.  Very small Tygon E-LFL 3/16 id  worked, even without extra gears, albeit slow.  I could run at 20 mls per minute.

Hopefully with the geared motors I can run larger tubing and higher mls/min.  We shall see!

Felt good to see it finally work.

Picture is the result of:

- Dosing mode

- Instructed to dose 20 mls.

It's pretty close for how jumpy the tubing is in the pump head and how imprecise my calibration was.

 

Shows promise.

 

 

820A5C4D-A700-405D-84FA-CE87023ECD2B.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...