automatic water change

dread240 said:
whew I missed alot while I was gone for a bit.

zachts.. my amp clamp is in my other truck at work... which is broke down and I'm in a temporary work van so I don't have everything in it. I also don't have any resistors big enough laying around to test it that with voltage drop :(

I can say though... watching my eb8 current monitoring.. I'm picking up .3 amps when this turns on

120 * .3 = 36W
36W/12VDC = 3A

My power supply is pretty clearly listed as a 1A on the back of it, but the numbers I'm seeing are telling a different story just off of that. This is also an old school power supply I had sitting around, not some cheap china ebay one that is bubble gummed together and covered up with a pretty sticker, so probably playing a part in it as well too.
Click to expand...

I wonder if it's supplying way more than 12 volts to keep things running? I've got a bunch of 1 to 2 amp wall wart supplies from who knows how long ago and all of them will kick out up to 16 amps up until they reach near their rated current, then they drop down to 12 volts or less if more than rated current is drawn..... possibly explains it. I forget the differences in PSU design that explain this.

Anyone live near a radio shack? or know someone who builds speakers or a few of the old school parallel LED arrays? ...to snag a 10 watt resistor in the name of science.
 
I don't think we have bad motors, I'm just wondering if we have the right ones.

When I was looking the the manual that Tickle posted on page #35 about half way down on the left it says...

"Mount up to four pump heads depending on the drive."

They are referring to the motor as the drive. So I wonder if these motors (drives) are not capably of turning more than 1 pump.

If that's the case I can't explain why dread240's setup works. I doubt it his power supply.

I'm mot giving up yet though.

I'm going to try either the smaller OD tubing 3/8" or the 7/16" OD with the 5/16 ID that I can get cheaply at HD and if they work and pull water then I will get the better peristaltic rated tubing in the size that works from McMaster.

I think the 3/8" OD will give the rollers less resistance and may be the slight difference it will take to get two head spinning.
 
just curious, are you sure that you have the polarity right on it? I assumed they were resistors to the housing but they may have been MoV's or possibly a diode across the back of it (the jumper lead between the 2 dc terminals)

I never tested any of that because... well it worked as soon as i hooked it up lol
 
Last edited:
That thought crossed my mind, but the power supplies I have came pre-wired with the size M male plug on them already and center positive and outside negative.

The pumps had wires on them already all I did was cut the connections off and solder on a size M female plug.

I wired it as center positive and outside negative.

The red positive wire on both my pumps went to the upper right side and the negative to the lower left.

All capacitors, resistors or anything that was on the motor I left on, even the jumper between the 2 dc terminals.

The pump spins clockwise, which way does yours spin?

IMAG0151_zpsoi0pjtnr.jpg
 
As far as I remember you can reverse polarity on any dc motor. Thats why rc cars have reverse it just reverses the polarity in the speed control unit.
 
Here's mine running. Note it is using a 500mA power supply. It's an old 12v radio shack wall wart I used on some fans about six years ago.

No issues starting up. And it's still running now. Motor and wall wart are cool to touch. At least ten minutes so far.

http://youtu.be/kD7snTl_qkk
 
Guys in the pics I've seen, the motors have quite a bit of info on the label on the motor itself, have you compared part numbers to see if you all have the same motor?
 
Just to note - the tubing I'm using is the norprene from McMaster Carr. I think it was listed in this thread somewhere.
 
wow, I totally never noticed that very light numbering on the side of the motor.. I only paid attention to the sticker from barnant (who is the parent company of masterflex)

I'm doing some work to my water change station today, redoing the ghetto plumbing setup i had going on it and fixing a small leak i'd get if it moved the wrong way, but my pwm board came in today too so I'll at least be able to play with that later tonight and see if I can get her slowed down a hair
 
Glad to hear some of you making progress on your motors.

I havent had a chance to install the safety switch in the fresh SW bin, but hope to soon and will post.
 
Tickle said:
it may have been 2A I had my 5V supply hooked up and then hooked up my 12 volt supply,together they add up to 2A 17V

A rs 555 motor is is $4 off ebay new
Click to expand...

I typed in RS-555 and a bunch came up, but I didn't see any 5025.

Which one are you talking about?

I tried my 24v 1.5 amp from my Jebao WP25 pump and it started up, but not enough power to spin it.

I had the same results as the 12v 2 amp I posted the video of yesterday.
It will move, but jump back, never actually turning.

12v 2amp wall wart

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WrDgfVNdHuY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

What I don't understand is that when I use a PS with move amps the motor turns slower, shouldn't it be the opposite?
 
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