solar pumps power

[tazuk]

nearly ready for my herms now i am now looking at power for the the pump wot do you think about this :thumb:

power unit

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221142241047? ... 1438.l2649

dimmer unit to controll flow

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320745348928? ... 1438.l2649

 

[Mark1964]

We use a plug in variable power supply. It's 1500 ma and runs from 4.5 volt to 12 volt and works very well. You lower the voltage for sparging

 

[tazuk]

just built this rotating sparge arm have a look vid there

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=31383

 

[Mark1964]

We tried to make several arms all failed. I just bought one in the end off Eskimo bob and very well it works too

 

[Vossy1]

There are several rotating sparge arm builds on the forum, one by Aleman and one by unclepumple IIRC amongst others, they had pitfalls others can avoid if making one. Good to see you got yours working T :party:

 

[tazuk]

like the look of this for solar pump power unit

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-x-New-Black ... 232106e763

 

[Mark1964]

looks ok as long as its 1500 ma

 

[tazuk]

Output Voltage: 0-20V, 0-2.5A so at20 volt it would be 2.5 amp so as use 12 volt max i think would be safe

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150877955939? ... 1438.l2649



i am still temted for this as its 12 volt so safe
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221142241047? ... 1438.l2649

and this dimmer
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/370681526732? ... 1438.l2649

:thumb:

 

[MacKiwi]

I have the same dimmer with the solar pump. It hasn't worked out so well for me.

The problem is that the ramp between fully-off and fully-on is incredibly narrow, so you don't get a lot of control over the speed.

This could be because I have a duff dimmer. Or it may be some side-affect of combining the motor and dimmer (I thought the motors response would be linear, but it isn't an area I know much about).

I intend to take the dimmer into the office and monitor the output with an oscilliscope to see if it really is duff. Will report back... I believe it has worked out ok for others...

edit : also not sure about that "transformer". It doesn't explicity say that the output is DC (which is what the motor requires). In fact, if it is just a step-down transformer, the output will be AC...

 

[tazuk]

wot do you think about one of these :thumb:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/150877955939? ... 1438.l2649

I have the same dimmer with the solar pump. It hasn't worked out so well for me.

The problem is that the ramp between fully-off and fully-on is incredibly narrow, so you don't get a lot of control over the speed.

This could be because I have a duff dimmer. Or it may be some side-affect of combining the motor and dimmer (I thought the motors response would be linear, but it isn't an area I know much about).

I intend to take the dimmer into the office and monitor the output with an oscilliscope to see if it really is duff. Will report back... I believe it has worked out ok for others...

edit : also not sure about that "transformer". It doesn't explicity say that the output is DC (which is what the motor requires). In fact, if it is just a step-down transformer, the output will be AC...

 

[MacKiwi]

Looks nae bad. Again it doesn't explicitly say the output is DC, but a quick google shows that all other tattoo power supplies are, so probably a safe assumption.

Looks like it has more than enough oompgh (2.5A @ 20 volts = 50W, more than enough for the solar pump).

But the biggest plus is that this is a voltage controller, rather than a PWM controller (the dimmers are PWM). Given my poor experience with PWM, I'm looking for voltage control. And I'm pretty sure that there is something on the Solar Projects web site about the motors being ok with voltage controllers.

I'm not an expert on motor control - someone might be along later to explain why PWM is better than voltage control in this context, but PWM hasn't worked out for me.

 

[tazuk]

sweet pay day i will get one then :thumb:

Looks nae bad. Again it doesn't explicitly say the output is DC, but a quick google shows that all other tattoo power supplies are, so probably a safe assumption.

Looks like it has more than enough oompgh (2.5A @ 20 volts = 50W, more than enough for the solar pump).

But the biggest plus is that this is a voltage controller, rather than a PWM controller (the dimmers are PWM). Given my poor experience with PWM, I'm looking for voltage control. And I'm pretty sure that there is something on the Solar Projects web site about the motors being ok with voltage controllers.

I'm not an expert on motor control - someone might be along later to explain why PWM is better than voltage control in this context, but PWM hasn't worked out for me.

 

[tazuk]

here is a bling one nice and shiney lol

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321020015996? ... 1438.l2649

 

[Mark1964]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IKASU-12volt- ... 20be51abb1

 

[MacKiwi]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IKASU-12volt-TV-Mains-AC-Power-Supply-Adaptor-12V-2000MA-EU-EUROPEAN-PLUG-/140631976881?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item20be51abb1

That would drive the motor fine, but you would need to add something to get control of the speed (like one of those dimmer things, which didn't work so well in my case)...

To be honest, I'm getting by without speed control ok. If you batch sparge then just having the pump on/off is all you need.

 

[MacKiwi]

here is a bling one nice and shiney lol

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321020015996? ... 1438.l2649

Crikey, it would feel wrong putting my grubby, wort-covered hands anywhere near something that shiney!

 

[Mark1964]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IKASU-12volt-TV-Mains-AC-Power-Supply-Adaptor-12V-2000MA-EU-EUROPEAN-PLUG-/140631976881?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item20be51abb1

That would drive the motor fine, but you would need to add something to get control of the speed (like one of those dimmer things, which didn't work so well in my case)...

To be honest, I'm getting by without speed control ok. If you batch sparge then just having the pump on/off is all you need.

Thats the idea on the back of the plug on the one we have there is a screw that turns. You can select 4.5 6 9 and 12 volts which slow or speed up the motor

 

[MacKiwi]

Ok, maybe I'm on the wrong ebay link, but it looked like a fixed 12V output supply.

Regarding the ones with a few voltages to chose from, is that enough control? When I was sparging and wanted a input flow of 1L/min to match what I was taking out, I felt like a needed quite a fine degree of control (like what one of those continuously variable tattoo power supplies would give you).

I'm really just thinking out loud here, I don't have a working solution myself yet...

 

[Mark1964]

fit a bypass valve to the pump and you have all the control you will ever need

 

[MacKiwi]

That's a very good point, I may well try that...