Liquid delivery can be automated in the Zantiks AD and LT units when the peristaltic pump is attached to the motor on the top of the unit.
Set up
If the AD or LT already has the brass feeder mechanism attached (used for solid food delivery for fish), use the supplied hex key driver to remove the brass feeder from the motor stand. The peristaltic pump for liquid delivery can now be attached as shown in the video below.
Video illustration of how to install the peristaltic pump
You will need to test the pump motor settings with your liquid to ensure that the correct amount of liquid is delivered with each motor command.
Once the pump is in place, with tubing attached (2mm internal diameter, 4mm external diameter silicone tubing is recommended), test the pump with water to ensure liquid flows as desired.
Currently, the peristaltic pump has only been quantitatively tested with water. However, it can also be used with gases.
NOTE: In house testing indicated one drop of water was delivered from 2mm internal tubing after 50 turns at U0 (quarter step). Each drop was approximately 0.05ml.
Each full rotation of the pump is approximately 0.19 ml (i.e. after 50 full rotations 9.5ml of water has been delivered).
Script Explanation
DEFINE ITI 2
DEFINE TRIALS 50
ACTION MAIN
INVOKE(PUMPTEST,TRIALS)
COMPLETE
ACTION PUMPTEST
WAIT(ITI)
ZCOMMAND("U0 D1000 M-200")
WAIT(ITI)
COMPLETE
The ZCOMMAND controls the motor that rotates the pump. The numbers in the brackets - and written between inverted commas “” indicate the rotation parameters, to change the rotation parameters edit the numbers after each letter:
- 'U' controls the step mode, U0 commands a full step, U1 a half step, U2 a quarter step, U3 an eighth of a step.
- 'M' describes the number of steps and the direction, a positive number indicates anticlockwise rotation by the motor, a minus number indicates clockwise rotation. For example with the command above "U0 D1000 M-200" the -200 indicates 200 full (clockwise) steps which is a full 360 degree rotation.
- The number after 'D' is the delay between motor steps (this sets the motor speed - it should not be below 1000).
- It is also possible to set a pause between motor movements by including 'P' with a number after it, the number sets the delay in milliseconds between motor movements.
Script download
To download the pump_demo demo script as a .zs file (file type Zantiks software reads), choose the Save File As option in the right-click dialogue box. Clicking on the script name hyperlink will open a read-only version of the script.
