I had assumed not, as it’s a peristaltic, but is there any reason not to use the 12v peristaltic pumps either to turn-over air in the headspace, or to bubble air through the liquid. I only ask as the docs say: “Adding external aeration to your Pioreactor. In the simplest case, using an air pump.”
I’m growing cyanobacteria which I suspect are consuming the CO2 from the headspace.
I would avoid using the peristaltic pumps to aerate, because you likely need to run very often (almost continuously?), and the interior tubing has a finite lifespan. This lifespan is low hundreds of hours, so it may only hold up for a few experiments before failing.
You can purchase more interior tubing, and it’s pretty cheap. But you don’t have much control over when it breaks.
You can purchase simple 5V - 12V DC air pumps that would cycle more air / Watt, and last longer.
Ah yes, excellent point. I was just thinking enough flow to turn the headspace over once an hour or so, but that may be more flow than I was anticipating. An air pump would be a much better plan anyway, as I’ll need both peristaltics as soon as I go chemostat.
What do you call (/how do you specify) the connector on the peristaltic? I may as well search for something that has the correct wiring out of the box.
I was just thinking enough flow to turn the headspace over once an hour or so
that should be okay to run!
We have docs on our PWM connectors here: Hardware connection assembly | Pioreactor Docs
Brilliant, I see digikey sell these in the UK too, I’m guessing they’re a bit specialised, so getting an air pump with them already installed will presumably be a non starter. It would be nice if we could recommend all the bits from one supplier, digikey also sell these Adafruit 4700 4.5v 1.8 l/min pumps. Do you imagine they’d be a good choice?
Definitely not possible to buy pumps with those connectors, unfortunately.
That looks like a good pump, but you’ll need to supply wire + possibly solder the wires to the connectors + tubing.