24 September 2019|In Do it yourself|7 Minutes

Arduino Dosing pump DIY – Part 1, Hardware

daniloBy danilo

How to build a free and precise dosing pump DIY, with step by step instruction, with FREE ARDUINO SOFTWARE and shopping list?

In the past month i had to use a dosing pump with a great precision. As long as i collaborated with Arduino projects in the past (Ferduino above all), I decided to build this Arduino Dosing Pump DIY by myself but it had to be very simple to assemble and as much cheap as possible.

I therefore decided to publish my project for everybody as long as there is no business in it. I hope to help someone to build it .

Dashboard Arduino Dosing Pump DIY Settings Arduino Dosing Pump DIY Schedule Arduino Dosing Pump DIY

First of all it is mandatory to make a little introduction:

  • It’s a no profit project, which i do at my best, but i won’t be responsible for any damages or ANYTHING else 🙂
  • You need to use this site to use this dosing pumps using my code.
  • You need to have some skill with computer, and you need to be a little confortable with welder (just a little bit).
  • There’ s no Rtc (real time clock) by now in these diy dosing pumps. I will use internet time, so it has to be always online. If you turn it on without connection, it will start from midnight
  • I try to get the site multilingual, but as long as my english is not so good i will need help to correctly translate it.
  • Don’t ask for eta for updates, or for custom functionality as long as i don’t have time for them.

This Arduino Dosing Pump DIY can have up to 6 heads. The choice of the heads depends on your needs of precision. You can save more money compared to commerial products with the high quality heads. You can build a good dosing pump wifi with something like 60 dollars buying all the materials from internet.

You have 2 ways to get the material:

  • Buy everything on Amazon / Ebay / Aliexpress, wait for everything to arrive and, with a little manual skill, assemble everything as described in the next article
  • Buy Joy-Reef Kit from our store to create your doser without welder! You will just need to tighten some screw (like IKEA table).

If you are interested in the construction kit consisting of board, processor, pumps and box already shaped, like the one in the figure, you can find it here: Shop.

Here you will find the document that explains in detail the operation and assembly of the kit: Assembling Kit

Otherwise you can proceed to buy everything piece by piece from the internet, let’s see how and where:

Let’s talk about dosing pump heads.

You can find cheap heads, that we can compare to the entry level commercial dosing pumps, or much more expendable heads, that we can compare to the best dosing pumps you can find.

My software is the same, and the building instruction the same.

Here the shopping list of all the parts needed for this project:

Kamoer KNP

knp

Very cheap (6$ for each one) they are the same of the cheap commercial dosing pumps

Acquistale: Kamoer KNP

Kamoer KFS

kfs

KFS is the model i bought, more expensive but very accurate. They can dose 6.2 ml in a minute.
They are the heads of many famous commercial dosing pumps.
Please note we are talking about the dc version of these heads and not about the stepper version. Stepper version is not supported.
The price is something like 35$ each.

Buy it: Kamoer KFS

Kamoer KXF

Then there are the KXFs which are a good middle ground, even though I have never personally experienced them. Indeed, if someone wanted to give me feedback on this, I wouldn’t mind.
They costs about 15$ each.

kxf

Buy: Kamoer KXF

HARDWARE:

Needless to say, the heads of the dosometers are the biggest expense. The rest of the construction material comes to around € 20 in total.ì. Below is the shopping list:

NodeMcu

nodemcu

Electronic card based on the ESP8266 chip, programmable in C and compatible with Arduino. It has integrated WiFi and perfectly supports the use of the 6 pins we need to control the pumps.

Buy: NodeMCU

Circuit

The circuit required to control the pumps is as follows:

circuito

Based on the ULN2003 module that you can buy here:

Buy: ULN2003

Otherwise, if you just need a 4-channel dosometric system, the circuit already made already exists without having to do any welding.
Just buy one of those cheap stepper motor on Amazon and throw away the engine, keeping only the circuit.

stepper

Buy: Stepper Motor

Step Down Buck Converter 

convertitore

To do a good job, you will need to feed the nodemcu and the dosometrics with the same power supply. Since the dosometrics must be powered at 12v and the nodemcu at 5v, we need a voltage converter.

Buy: Converter

Cables

cavi

The most convenient way to connect everything is to use female dupnt cables:

Acquistalo: Cavi Femmina Femmina

Box

box

The final shape of your Arduino Dosing Pump DIY. Here you can play around as you like, print them in 3D, build them in wood, in plexiglass. The most convenient and cost-effective way I found was to use a junction box. A perfect fit for our purpose is the following, although it may be a bit expensive:

Buy: Box

12v panel connector

connettori

A normal panel connector for 12v power supplies. It’s better to buy it in the shop below your house because online they sell at least 10 of them and it’s not worth it

12v power supply

alimentatore

A normal 12v power supply unit that goes into the connectors. Surely you will have one at home, otherwise:

Buy: Power Supply

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