dosing pumps

[Neongt]

is there any electronics that have to be put on the dosing pumps

[Rob F]

No, pumps connect directly, the board has the electronics already added. You should have the diagram for which wires go to the RJ45 on the connector board. You can connect any kind of 12v pumps as long as each one doesn't draw more than 600ma or power.

[Neongt]

do you have a preference of a doing pump?

[Rob F]

Not really, I have the following but 3 of the 4 make a lot of noise, seem to always work though. Have no idea on accuracy haven't measured it yet.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-DC-Dosing-pu...Sw7ThUgzNk

[Boulders]

Is there a way to calibrate them within your interface or would I need something like this in order to do it?

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vie...97&alt=web

[Rob F]

You can calibrate each pump in GUI. Here's the 3 screens related to the pumps.

settings > hardware > Dosing Pumps


settings > dosing


settings > schedules > dosing

[Neongt]

so i have some special 6 volt dosing pumps that are very accurate and i have a small voltage regulator board so i am seeing if i can make it work i will let you know what happens

[Rob F]

Nice, that should work, 12v comes out the controller so put that into the regulator and connect the 6v to each pump. Nice thing is grounds are being switched so you only need one of those regulators for all pumps.

[Neongt]

here is the boxes for dosing pumps

[Rob F]

Looks great, how do you connect them to the RJ45? Are they joined together? Do you have a part number or brand, those look like nice pumps. The ones I'm using I won't sell because I don't think they're very good.

[Neongt]

rob is there any way you can make it so we can change the name of the fertilize to what ever we want it to be called ? here is the pumps i am using 6V DC DIY Dosing pump Peristaltic dosing Head For Aquarium Lab Analytical water search it on febay 

[Rob F]

At some point I would like to, I also want somewhat customizable names for the other temperature probes but yeah it'll be a bit before I get there.

[Dom59]

Nice, that should work, 12v comes out the controller so put that into the regulator and connect the 6v to each pump. Nice thing is grounds are being switched so you only need one of those regulators for all pumps.

Hello Rob,
 I have same parts. Where 12v comes from?.  Can i take it from any pump on the rj45?

[Rob F]

Hi Dom, yeah you can use the 12v from the RJ45 for dosing pumps as each pin shares the same 12v. Each of the grounds is switched so you don't want to share grounds. Here's an image with the pinouts.

[Dom59]

Ok, thanks

[TilmanBaumann]

I just discovered the weirdest problem ever. I can't make heads and tails of it.

I bought some new pumps. My old ones where just a bit too slow.
But they also have pretty high resistance.
When the motors run free everything is fine. But once I stall the motor shaft or attach the pump heads, the motors don't stop spinning. They just keep on going until I release the resistance on the shaft.

I first thought it's back-EMF and installed reverse protection diodes. But that did nothing. (Well except of blowing one of my FETs because I installed the diode the wrong way round.)

Any ideas?

[Rob F]

Hi Tilman, its possible the transistors driving the pumps are under powered. I found a better transistor for them, if you're able to replace them I can send you some which I think will fix it. These are the small 3 pin transistors above the dosing port, there's 5 of them, 4 for the pumps and one for the feeder.

[TilmanBaumann]

That would be nice. I will get back to you by email later.
I mean I had blown one of my output stages anyway. Need replacement either way.

What type transistor/FET did you use? Perhaps I have some in my parts bin...

[Rob F]

Any N-Channel mosfet should work as they are low current.

[TilmanBaumann]

Lazy question. What package is that? And what current rating should I be shooting for?
I can't very easily get at my boards to check. :D