What do you guys think is the best alternative for atlas scientific pumps ? $95 is too expensive in my opinion.
whats the best way in terms of accuracy aswell as mycodo support?
mycodo shows the following options.
Peristaltic Pump: Grove I2C Motor Driver (Board v1.3) (smbus2) [I2C]
Peristaltic Pump: Grove I2C Motor Driver (TB6612FNG, Board v1.0) (smbus2) [I2C]
Peristaltic Pump: L298N DC Motor Controller (RPi.GPIO) [GPIO]
Peristaltic Pump: MCP23017 16-Channel |/O Expander [I2C]
Peristaltic Pump: PCF8574 8-Channel I/O Expander (smbus2) [I2C]
Peristaltic Pump: Raspberry Pi GPIO (RPi.GPIO) (GPIO1)
The “Grove - I2C Motor Driver Board V1.3” seems to be a good option , but is still a little bit expensive, if one is needed per pump. of course still way more affordable, compared to atlas.
I’m currently in the process of developing documentation on building an inexpensive peristaltic pump array from any DC motor peristaltic pumps, L298N motor drivers, and the PCA9685 16-Channel PWM driver. I think this is the best combination of hardware that allows both direction and speed control for 5 pumps, or up to 16 pumps if you only require one direction and no speed control, all controlled via 2 wires (I2C).
Wouldn’t TB6612FNG be a better substitute for the L298? More efficient, not getting that hot etc.
After some troubles with the l298 and the mini version i ended up with wemos and a driver shield based on that chip, works like a charm.
Not a professional here either, there might be a lot of reasons for that, including the LN being cheaper, compatibilities, and a lot of other things. Perhaps Kyle could share more insight into why it would be a better option in the project he’s referring to.
Here is a quite detailed comparison of the two - TB6612FNG H-Bridge Motor Controller - Better than L298N? - YouTube
The L298N can handle a higher voltage and current load than the TB6612FGN, so you could use 24 VDC pumps that draw 1.8 Amps, such as this. If your pumps are within the voltage and current limitations of the TG6612FGN, then it’s a good option because of its energy efficiency and size.