Project pitch: DIY dosing pump with 3d printed peristaltic pump head, R-Pi controlled

[Ranjib]

Glad to see a little life on this thread. Since you have a 3D printer I would consider some sort of spring arrangement to apply pressure to the bearing/tubing. That way the tolerances on the build could be less critical and maybe allow changing of tubing sizes/thicknesses. Just a thought.

I was not looking into the designs of actual mounting head. Currently Im using stock peristaltic pumps with custom enclosures.

 

[Ranjib]

I have made strides in this area, I have a thread on here and you even posted in it, but I fear you stopped following it after the first iteration.

I have made many changes to the pump head and frame, settling for this 3d printed design

and my newest version that controls 2 tubes at once for auto water changes:

however after using if for a few months and turning the unit off for a week, the indents where the roller bearings pinched the tube against the frame became semi permanent and too tough for the motor to overcome after restarting the unit 7 days later. I had to take it all apart and run the tube under hot water to get the indents out. Which makes me want to go back to the drawing board and completely revamp the entire design so that occlusion can be adjusted independently as well as removing pressure off of the tube for storage.

Designing it isn't the hard part, it's the trial and error, designing one, printing one and then testing it, make correction, print it again and so on.

This might motivate me to take up the task, if you're interested. I can also provide you with my .stl so you can print them out to determine other concerns that I may have over looked.

And of coarse the motor housing can easily be revamped to fit your reefpi needs. And I'm all for helping the reefpi community I've become rather good at 3D renderings.

Let me know... I loved this project and became quite fond of peristaltic pumps!!!

That will be awesome. I'll definitely check out your thread. I am in process of tinkering with stepper drivers + stepper motor based dosing systems. I am mostly printing with PLA so I doubt very much my components will have structural rigidity good enough for this type of use case. I plan to start playing with PETG after a couple of months which I think will be good for this type of use cases

 

[TheHarold]

That will be awesome. I'll definitely check out your thread. I am in process of tinkering with stepper drivers + stepper motor based dosing systems. I am mostly printing with PLA so I doubt very much my components will have structural rigidity good enough for this type of use case. I plan to start playing with PETG after a couple of months which I think will be good for this type of use cases

I’ve found these fantastic stepper driver breakouts. So you just need to send it step and direction . And you can adjust micro-stepping with the integrated DIP switches.

 

[Ranjib]

I’ve found these fantastic stepper driver breakouts. So you just need to send it step and direction . And you can adjust micro-stepping with the integrated DIP switches.

link , brand/manufacturer?

 

[TheHarold]

link , brand/manufacturer?

$5 on amazon, $1.50 on ebay

Amazon product

I’ve been using them on my coral spinners. One mode has constant adjustable speed, the other has adjustable frequency oscillation. Fun stuff.