A DIY Peristaltic Pump using Arduino and NEMA 17 Stepper Motor

The cost of building a peristaltic pump with an Arduino board was estimated to be around $30, which is comparable to the buy option. The DIY version required electronic components such as a voltage regulator, a transistor, and an inductor transformer. These components were used to transform the output of the Arduino board into a value that could control the stepper motor. The output of the Arduino board was then applied to the transistor, which amplified it and sent it to the inductor transformer. The transformer converted the AC signal from the Arduino board into a DC signal, which was then fed into the power supply.

The power supply was set up to provide 12 volts to the stepper motor driver. The three mode inputs of the stepper motor driver were configured to activate the 116 step mode. This mode allowed for precise control over the rotation of the rotor and ensured that each step of the pump was performed accurately. The code was then uploaded to the Arduino board, which controlled the stepper motor driver and created a PWM voltage on p9 with a duty cycle of 50% and a variable frequency.

Each time the signal from the Arduino board completed one period, the motor performed one step, which meant that with a higher frequency, we got a higher RPM and with a lower frequency, we got a lower RPM. The cost of the Arduino board was added to the overall cost of the project, but it was still considered a relatively affordable option compared to the buy version.

The three mode inputs of the stepper motor driver were configured to activate the 116 step mode. This mode allowed for precise control over the rotation of the rotor and ensured that each step of the pump was performed accurately. The code was then uploaded to the Arduino board, which controlled the stepper motor driver and created a PWM voltage on p9 with a duty cycle of 50% and a variable frequency.

The mechanical construction of the DIY peristaltic pump consisted of a rotor made of two plastic plates between which three plastic rollers were positioned. The plastic outer shell kept the silicone tube close to the rollers. In contrast, the buy option used metal components, including the rotor, which was more difficult to create. To overcome this challenge, I found a suitable model of a peristaltic pump on Thingiverse, created by Rolf. Although it was not designed for the NEMA 17 stepper motor, I modified the model files using Fusion 360 to close the mounting holes for the smaller stepper motor and create new ones with indentations for the NEMA 17.

I downloaded the model files, imported them into Fusion 360, closed the mounting holes for the smaller stepper motor, and created new ones with indentations for the NEMA 17. Unfortunately, I was unable to create all four of them, as that would have messed up Rolf's original design. However, I believe that two mounting holes will be sufficient once the three parts for the enclosure are modified.

I loaded a roll of black ABS filaments into the 3D printer and sliced the models with an infill percentage of 60%, which gave the parts more mechanical stability. The three parts were then printed, which took around five hours to complete. I tried assembling the enclosure, even without any bolts, so I continued by modifying the two rotor plates of the system. This was the hardest part, as it had to snugly fit onto the shaft of the stepper motor.

After four iterations, I finally got a pair that fitted perfectly and held its position very firmly, which meant it was time to assemble the rotor using three-year M4 bolts and nuts, and 613 ball bearings. I made sure not to tighten the bolts too much, as this would prevent the ball bearings from spinning freely. Next, I added four M4 nuts to the bottom side of the enclosure, securing the stepper motor to it with two and three bolts.

I slid the rotor onto the motor shaft at this point, which marked the final step in assembling the DIY peristaltic pump. It was then time for the silicone tube, which Rolf recommends having dimensions of six by four millimeters. I went with those dimensions, placing a long piece of it inside the enclosure next to the rollers. After adding the two missing pieces of the enclosure and closing it all up, it was finally time for the first test.

The rotor moved without any problems during the first test, indicating that the DIY peristaltic pump was functioning as intended. Although NT pumps can also transport liquids, I had to shorten the poles of the rotor in order to achieve the desired flow rate. By turning up the RPM of the motor to its maximum right before it gets stuck and measuring the amount of pump milliliters per minutes, we get a flow rate of approximately 200 milliliters per minute.

The DIY peristaltic pump has several advantages over the buy option, including being mechanically pretty stable and having the advantage of using a stepper motor. The cost of the DIY version is only around $30, making it a relatively affordable option compared to the buy version. Additionally, the DIY version allows for precise control over the rotation of the rotor and ensures that each step of the pump is performed accurately.

In conclusion, building a peristaltic pump with an Arduino board was a challenging but rewarding project. The DIY version required some modifications and modifications, but the end result was a functional and reliable pump that can perform accurately.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin a previous project video of mine I showed you how to create a crude cocktail machine the most important components of the system were three peristaltic pumps those are basically motors to which mechanical structure is attached which compresses a silicon tube while the motor shaft is rotating this way a pressure difference is created which can force liquids through the pump without their touching any mechanical parts that makes such a pump suitable for clean / sterile or aggressive fluids and best of all it delivers a precise amount of fluids per minutes in my case around 525 liters per minutes now while all of that sounds fantastic the price of those particular pumps is certainly not move around $30 per piece that do exist cheaper versions though but their flow rate is also around five times smaller so in this episode of DIY or buy we will try to create our own peristaltic pump which for one should be cheaper than $30 and should also offer a flow rate higher than 100 liters per minutes let's get started this video is sponsored by jl CPCB upload your Gerber files to order high quality PCBs for insanely low prices and turn your designs into real boards to make your projects look more professional as stated as before a peristaltic pump consists of two main ingredients the motor and a mechanical construction which brings us to the first big problem if you are familiar with motors then you might know that they are not that simple to create on your own which means this will be a component we have to buy so the next question is which one should we buy I went with the NEMA 17 stepper motor because it has a standardized face plates with known dimensions they're very easy to get a hold on and most importantly they're relatively cheap around $10 per piece the only problem with such stepper motors is that in comparison to DC motors which like the name implies only require a DC voltage to work they require a specific sequence of applied voltages to their four wires so make sure to watch my basics video about the subject if you're confused right now as for the complimentary electronic components for the motor I went with a drv8825 stepper motor controller IC and an Arduino Nano mic controller with a potentiometer as an inputs to later control the RPM of the stepper motor according to this schematic I then connected the two breakout boards to one another solder the motor wires directly to the stepper motor driver and finally added a 100 mukarat capacitor to the power input of the driver for the Arduino codes I simply created a loop that samples the potentiometer voltage and transforms it into a value for the timer one of the main controller which according to how I set it up in the setup section of the codes then creates a PWM voltage on p9 with a duty cycle of 50% and a variable frequency each time this signal completes one periods the motor performs one step which subsequently means that with a higher frequency we get a higher rpm and with a lower frequency we get a lower rpm last but not least I configured the three mode inputs of the stepper motor driver so that the 116 step mode is activated and with the code being completed I uploaded it to the Arduino connected a 12-volt power source to the motor driver and checked whether everything worked correctly which it did the cost of the Arduino and stop a motor driver does also not add to the overall cost of our DIY peristaltic pump since the $30 buy version also required electronic components which cost around the same and with the conclusion of the motor parts we get to the more complicated components the mechanical construction if we observe the buy option a bit closer we can see that the consists of rotor that is made of two plastic plates between which three plastic rollers are positioned additionally we got a plastic outer shell which keeps the silicon tube close to the rollers with those guidelines mind's eye tried creating rough sketches for my own version of the mechanical construction with one big difference instead of plastic rollers I wanted to use metal ball bearings but after around 2 hours of dueling I realized that mechanical components are quite hard to create thankfully though I found a suitable model of a peristaltic pump on Thingiverse which was originally created by Rolf its model was pretty much what I was looking for the only problem though was that was not created for the NEMA 17 stepper motor so I downloaded his model files imported them into fusion 360 closed the mounting holes for the smaller stepper motor and created new ones with indentations for the NEMA 17 sadly though I could not create all four of them since that would have messed up Ralph's model but I think two mounting holes will also be sufficient once the three parts for the enclosure were then successfully Modifieds I loaded a roll of black ABS filaments into the 3d printer and sliced the models with an info of 60% this will later give the parts more mechanical stability after the three parts were then printed which roughly took around 5 I tried assembling the enclosure which already held this form even without any bolts so I continued by modifying the two rotor plates of the system which was the hardest part since it had to snugly fit on the shaft of the stepper motor but after four iterations I finally got a pair which fitted perfectly and held its position very firmly that means it was time to assemble the rotor by utilizing three year m4 bolts and nuts and 613 by four by five ball bearings but make sure to not tighten the bolts too much otherwise the ball bearings cannot spin freely next I added 4 m4 nuts to the bottom side of the enclosure secure the stepper motor to it with two and three bolts and slid the rotor onto the motor shaft at this point it was time for the silicone tube for which Ralf recommends one with dimensions of six by four millimeters so I went with those by placing a long piece of it's inside the enclosure next to the rollers and after adding the two missing pieces of the enclosure and closing it all up before and folds it was finally time for first test as you can see the rotor moves without a problem NT pump can also transport liquids but I should mention that I had to shorten the poles of the rotor in order to achieve that and by turning up the RPM of the motor to its maximum right before it gets stuck and measuring the amount of pump milliliters per minutes we get a flow rate of approximately 200 milliliters per minutes combine that with the fact that our DIY version is mechanically pretty stable offers the advantages of a stepper motor and overall cost only half in comparison to the buy option I would say that DIY is this time the winner but what do you think and what should be the subject for the next DIY or buy episodes let me know in the comment section below as always thanks for watching don't forget to like share and subscribe stay creative and I will see you next timein a previous project video of mine I showed you how to create a crude cocktail machine the most important components of the system were three peristaltic pumps those are basically motors to which mechanical structure is attached which compresses a silicon tube while the motor shaft is rotating this way a pressure difference is created which can force liquids through the pump without their touching any mechanical parts that makes such a pump suitable for clean / sterile or aggressive fluids and best of all it delivers a precise amount of fluids per minutes in my case around 525 liters per minutes now while all of that sounds fantastic the price of those particular pumps is certainly not move around $30 per piece that do exist cheaper versions though but their flow rate is also around five times smaller so in this episode of DIY or buy we will try to create our own peristaltic pump which for one should be cheaper than $30 and should also offer a flow rate higher than 100 liters per minutes let's get started this video is sponsored by jl CPCB upload your Gerber files to order high quality PCBs for insanely low prices and turn your designs into real boards to make your projects look more professional as stated as before a peristaltic pump consists of two main ingredients the motor and a mechanical construction which brings us to the first big problem if you are familiar with motors then you might know that they are not that simple to create on your own which means this will be a component we have to buy so the next question is which one should we buy I went with the NEMA 17 stepper motor because it has a standardized face plates with known dimensions they're very easy to get a hold on and most importantly they're relatively cheap around $10 per piece the only problem with such stepper motors is that in comparison to DC motors which like the name implies only require a DC voltage to work they require a specific sequence of applied voltages to their four wires so make sure to watch my basics video about the subject if you're confused right now as for the complimentary electronic components for the motor I went with a drv8825 stepper motor controller IC and an Arduino Nano mic controller with a potentiometer as an inputs to later control the RPM of the stepper motor according to this schematic I then connected the two breakout boards to one another solder the motor wires directly to the stepper motor driver and finally added a 100 mukarat capacitor to the power input of the driver for the Arduino codes I simply created a loop that samples the potentiometer voltage and transforms it into a value for the timer one of the main controller which according to how I set it up in the setup section of the codes then creates a PWM voltage on p9 with a duty cycle of 50% and a variable frequency each time this signal completes one periods the motor performs one step which subsequently means that with a higher frequency we get a higher rpm and with a lower frequency we get a lower rpm last but not least I configured the three mode inputs of the stepper motor driver so that the 116 step mode is activated and with the code being completed I uploaded it to the Arduino connected a 12-volt power source to the motor driver and checked whether everything worked correctly which it did the cost of the Arduino and stop a motor driver does also not add to the overall cost of our DIY peristaltic pump since the $30 buy version also required electronic components which cost around the same and with the conclusion of the motor parts we get to the more complicated components the mechanical construction if we observe the buy option a bit closer we can see that the consists of rotor that is made of two plastic plates between which three plastic rollers are positioned additionally we got a plastic outer shell which keeps the silicon tube close to the rollers with those guidelines mind's eye tried creating rough sketches for my own version of the mechanical construction with one big difference instead of plastic rollers I wanted to use metal ball bearings but after around 2 hours of dueling I realized that mechanical components are quite hard to create thankfully though I found a suitable model of a peristaltic pump on Thingiverse which was originally created by Rolf its model was pretty much what I was looking for the only problem though was that was not created for the NEMA 17 stepper motor so I downloaded his model files imported them into fusion 360 closed the mounting holes for the smaller stepper motor and created new ones with indentations for the NEMA 17 sadly though I could not create all four of them since that would have messed up Ralph's model but I think two mounting holes will also be sufficient once the three parts for the enclosure were then successfully Modifieds I loaded a roll of black ABS filaments into the 3d printer and sliced the models with an info of 60% this will later give the parts more mechanical stability after the three parts were then printed which roughly took around 5 I tried assembling the enclosure which already held this form even without any bolts so I continued by modifying the two rotor plates of the system which was the hardest part since it had to snugly fit on the shaft of the stepper motor but after four iterations I finally got a pair which fitted perfectly and held its position very firmly that means it was time to assemble the rotor by utilizing three year m4 bolts and nuts and 613 by four by five ball bearings but make sure to not tighten the bolts too much otherwise the ball bearings cannot spin freely next I added 4 m4 nuts to the bottom side of the enclosure secure the stepper motor to it with two and three bolts and slid the rotor onto the motor shaft at this point it was time for the silicone tube for which Ralf recommends one with dimensions of six by four millimeters so I went with those by placing a long piece of it's inside the enclosure next to the rollers and after adding the two missing pieces of the enclosure and closing it all up before and folds it was finally time for first test as you can see the rotor moves without a problem NT pump can also transport liquids but I should mention that I had to shorten the poles of the rotor in order to achieve that and by turning up the RPM of the motor to its maximum right before it gets stuck and measuring the amount of pump milliliters per minutes we get a flow rate of approximately 200 milliliters per minutes combine that with the fact that our DIY version is mechanically pretty stable offers the advantages of a stepper motor and overall cost only half in comparison to the buy option I would say that DIY is this time the winner but what do you think and what should be the subject for the next DIY or buy episodes let me know in the comment section below as always thanks for watching don't forget to like share and subscribe stay creative and I will see you next time