Cheap syringe pump solution for precision dispensing

Hi all,
I want to share with you a off-the-shelf solution I have used in combination with Arduino and the Sparkfun Big Easy stepper driver.

There is this guy, RobotDigg, in China who puts a stepper motor on a threaded rod and thereby create a syringe pump that accepts “hospital” syringes of PE plastic.

I am using this version with great success myself: DIY syringe pump usage stepper motor linear actuator - RobotDigg

The guy also produced another edition that is a little more sturdy, but I have not tested that edition: Stepper motorized linear module 50ml syringe pump - RobotDigg

The accuracy is great and basically comes down to the dimension of the syringe you mount and the droplet by the end of the hose/needle.

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Very cool! That’s great that you can buy it outright, and it seems pretty economical. A few questions: Is the design open-source? Have you had any issues with retaining position?

I think RobotDigg is not open-source or at least it’s very hard to find! I drew inspiration from them when I built my own syringe extruder Fungibot. Fungibot indeed is in a very different size lol; however, the principle of designing plunger-driven extruders is very similar.

Jubilee has a 10 mL syringe tool that takes “hospital” syringes.

I believe both would be fairly easy to modify if you want to control it using Arduino instead of Duet.

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Hi everyone! Those are really nice syringe tools. :slight_smile: Has someone tried microliter dispensing with smaller syringes?

@sgbaird suggested I post about pipettin’s adapter for Gilson’s micropipettes over here. The docs are here: Micropipette Adapter Tool - OLA is Open Lab Automata

It is compatible with the Jubilee toolchanger, just by swapping the “wedge plate” and adjusting heights (docs for that are due). This is the one I took to POSE/UW:

We’re also working on an “original” electronic micropipette tool too. I’ll post about it as soon as we can manufacture it reliably (our CNC lathe is broken and we need it to make the tip holders).

PS: a friend is working at PUC developing OSH for microfluidics (including a syringe pump): Pierre Padilla-Huamantinco on Instagram: "When open-source and proprietary instruments are encountered in the same lab bench #microfluidics"

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FYI, we previously developed an open-source liquid dispensing device named digital pipette using a plastic syringe GitHub - ac-rad/digital-pipette

The actuator we adopted is very easy to use and some of you might be interested. Actuonix L16-100-63-6-R

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Thanks for all your great inputs and ways to go about pumping! Awesome solutions :smiley:

@sgbaird As I see it RobotDigg did put the design online, but he hasn’t specified whenever it is open source or not.

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