Early revision DIY syringe pump

So its 1AM, I thought I'd shoot a short video and show the syringe pump in (barely functioning) action.

It uses a NEMA 17 stepper motor to drive the leadscrew, and temporarily uses an Arduino to control the motor.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Syringe pump
• arduino
• stepper motor

[MrTpengineer]

You could use thick drinking straws for the guide, hot glue them to the acrylic, and there ya go :) Also you may want a little light grease between the straws and bars to keep the straws from wearing out. I use straws when creating differnt types of moving tables and it's worked pretty good.

[aonomus]

@MrTpengineer Wow. How the heck did I not think of that? That is genius! I have to revisit this now one day.

[bigchad007]

What power supply are you using? Please be detailed when answering. I'm having a hard time understanding what is needed.

[aonomus]

@bigchad007 Its just a generic +5/12/15, 1A power supply that I built a while back.

[bigchad007]

@aonomus Ok. I'm having a hard time grasping how stepper motors work. I order the easy driver from sparkfun and a nema 17 stepper motor. From what all I've gathered, if the motor needs say 1 amp, as long as your power supply can give 1amp your ok. Like having a 12volt 30amp supply would be ok?

[aonomus]

@bigchad007 Stepper motors are made up of several windings in a specific geometric arrangement, the output shaft moves as each winding is powered on and off sequentially in a stepwise fashion (ergo, stepper motor). The winding impedance dictates how much current can flow at a given voltage (ie: Ohm's law), while the motor specs dictate how much heat the motor can tolerate. If you have a low winding impedance you must use a lower voltage to not overheat the motor.

[aonomus]

@bigchad007 Also, a 30A power supply means that in any failure mode involving a short circuit, 30A of power at 12V (potentially 360W) can flow, resulting in lots of magic smoke being released. I would go with something much lower power, or add in some current limiting.

[013dirtdiver]

nice video.Check out my completely HOMEMADE mini water pump in my channel

[MrTpengineer]

@aonomus Thanks :)

[bigchad007]

@aonomus Thanks for all the help and feedback man.. I'm going to be using a nema 17 with a sparkfun easy driver.. from what I gather the driver is actually regulating the amps and voltage? So if the motor needs 2amps max using a 12 volt 5amp+ computer power supply would even work?