robotic vacuum pump

[dmehling]

In my robotic design, I was wanting to incorporate a vacuum pump mechanism.  Do you have any idea where I could find a vacuum pump that I could control with a microcontroller?

[Admin]

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22vacuum+pump%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


You will need to hack the on/off switch . . . replace it with a MOSFET, where the gate pin is connected to a digital output of a microcontroller.

[drcrash]

Doug Walsh is selling some nice Thomas oilless piston pumps right now for under $100, shipped, at www.build-stuff.com

How much vacuum do you need for what you're doing?  There are several other things you can use as vacuum pumps if you don't need a lot of flow.

[dmehling]

I actually don't need very much suction.  I am using this for a page turning machine, so probably no more than a few inches of static pressure.  I happened to stumble across the robot tutorial for the card shuffling robot which I believe was made by the administrator of this robot forum, and whatever suction pump he used would probably be adequate.

[Admin]

I just used a suction cup taken off a toy. No air required.