This is the third course in the DIY Lab Equipment with Arduino series. After we learnt the basics in the first course, now it is the time to learn about the low-cost off-shelf pumps and their accessories. For this course, it is not required to take the second course about Temperature Control but it is recommended since it has a lot of general useful resources like using SD card and display. Here we will APPLY this knowledge to control the liquid handling in our experiment setup or project. By controlling the pumps, it is easy to automate the experiment activities like taking samples, circulating liquid, mixing different liquids at specific ratio and specific time and many more.
After learning the basics of pumps and how electrically simple they are, we move to learn how to program them using Arduino/ESP32. We learn simple control as ON/OFF in addition to flow rate control. We take a deep understanding of stepper motor peristaltic and syringe pumps and how to calibrate them and use Bluetooth to control the flow rate. Like other course, we use off-shelf components that are readily available at low cost.
During this course, we practice how to utilize available codes from the internet or library examples and fit them in our project with minimal coding experience. If you have no knowledge about coding and Arduino, it is highly advised to take the first course (DIY Lab Equipment with Arduino-Part 1-The Basics).