Liquid Fuel Pump for RC Cars: Simple Principal Yet Elaborate! (Guts Complete, Housing Being Made! - Part 1 of 2)

Intro: Liquid Fuel Pump for RC Cars: Simple Principal Yet Elaborate! (Guts Complete, Housing Being Made! - Part 1 of 2)

Firstly i must thank everyone who has already made a liquid pump like this here on instructables because that is where i got the idea from to make my own, so a mojor thanks to all who have already made the simple versions of this, if it wasn't for you, i wouldn't had been able to make this monstrosity !

Oh and this is my 1st Instructable so go easy on me, naturally constructive criticism is welcomed but if your just here to merely prod & belittle, then i suggest you keep yourself to yourself !

I really tired to make this a very simple design but because i had modeled this around the motor & plate from the cd-rom drive, it turned out to be getting slightly complicated here and there!

But never-the-less, here are the Guts to my RC Nitro Car Fuel-Tank Fill & Empty Fuel Pump !

Call This instructable my Fuel Fill & Empty Pump (GUTS!) Part-1 !!!

It all works as advertised, the fins move clockwise with Button 1 and they move anti-clockwise when released Button 1 and pressed Button 2, so i know that all the electrics work !

 This is however an experimental design and it will also matter greatly on the housing and tubes' placement so watch this space for i am currently working on the housing !

-WARNING-

(This is intended Not to be Offensive OR Rude in anyway, Constructive Criticisms Welcomed here...)

ANYONE PAINTING: WITH AEROSOL SPRAY-PAINT MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSE OR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES PRINTED ON ANY SPRAY-PAINT-CANS.

ANYONE USING POWER~TOOLS: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AND EYE PROTECTION AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH THEIR POWER-TOOLS.

ANYONE USING ANY GLUE OF ANY~KIND: MUST ALWAYS USE IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA AND ALSO USE A FACE-MASK AS EXTRA PROTECTION - ALSO ADD A GOOD DOSE OF COMMON~SENSEOR IF UNDERAGE YOU MUST ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT WITH YOU TO SUPERVISE AS MUCH SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE BEING MET IN THE STRICTEST OF CIRCUMSTANCES. - I ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYONE NOT FOLLOWING THE GENERAL RULES SUPPLIED WITH ANY GLUE IN ANYONE'S POSSESSION.

Basically USE a Good-Supply of Common-Sense but if you're Running-Low, have a Friend or Three come and help you out !!!

STEP 1: Firstly - Unscrew and Take Apart Your Old Cd-rom Drive

(Warning - ONLY DO THIS IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT TO INHERIT UPTO 3 MOTORS and various other small components!!!


i have also bought a few mini battery-powered strobe-light kits to cannibalize ! (http://www.audiomate.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=G011KP)

Here is the finished 'guts' of the liquid pump (THIS INSTRUCTABLE IS a work-in-progress and is currently being worked-on BUT this part, THE PUMP's guts is complete, the HOUSING is being made as this is being read! )

Ingredients: {Some Bought Stuff & Some stuff a had lying around...}

NB (i): I use a lot of acrylic/plexiglass both flat and tube so most of my designs will have this built in/around.
NB (ii): The wire links are for 25' (25-Feet) of cable length, you can easily search ebay for smaller lengths but if you decide to buy the 25' length, know that you'll have enough to almost last a LIFETIME, lol.

- old busted cd-rom (only the cd tray had broken beyond repair) {'Pulled THREE MOTORS FROM IT !!!'}
- 3mm Thick acrylic/plexiglass (I will refer to this as ACRYLIC from here-on...)
- 22 AWG Black wire
- 22 AWG Red wire
- LIQUID-RUBBER
- Metal Strips From Red-Bull or Soft-Drink Can (Non-Magnetic)
- Double Sided Tape (UK Based websites by the way)
- 2 Switches ('Push-ON' - 'Release-OFF')
- Heatshrink (4mm)
- Strong Epoxy Resin (2 Part VERY VERY STRONG GLUE) or just use a hot glue gun, whatever!
- Battery Box (For TWO 9 volt 'square' batteries with individual connectors - NO Wires)
- Cable Braid (9mm UV Blue) You can use whatever color suits you ! {Note - 9mm is a bit too loose, 6-8mm would be better, talking from hind-sight!}
- Helping Hands with Magnifier (i use TWO of these as they are almost cheap, £5 each ish)
- A Technical Tinkering Mind !
- Moderate to Plenty of Time on your hands!

Tools i used:
- Dremel {Or similar Rotary tool}
- Various small hand tools, eg, files, needle-files, sanding block fitted with GLASS-PAPER, hacksaw, coping saw, engineers scriber, drill press attachment for dremel (makes a dremel into a mini bench-drill)
- Hobby Bandsaw (Bought this because i CANNOT - for-the-love-of-life CUT IN A STRAIGHT-LINE !!! {lol} )
- Drill bits
- Heavy-Duty Scissors
- Wire Strippers
- Needle-Nose Pliers
- Tweezers
- Solder
- Soldering Iron (My iron is a gas operated one, but a simple cheap alternative can also be used)
- Liquid-Rubber aka Liquid Electrical Tape aka Plasti-Dip {i opted for the 750ml CLEAR plasti-dip liquid rubber Incl.FREE delivery... - AWESOME-MAN, LIKE, TOTALLY !!!} - Sorry folks, am a TMNT Fan (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) lol
- Rubber/Non-Latex Gloves - Whatever...
- FASMASK - Latex-similar type LIQUID Masking-Tape !!!!!

Next Step = Isolating & Removing the Motor & Plate Assembly from Old CD-ROM drive...

STEP 2: Isolating & Removing the Motor & Plate Assembly From Old CD-ROM Drive

Ok Here i have marked the plate in red permanent marker (fine-tip) and ready for cutting.... I should mention that i use a lot of 'Guesstimation' and usually use a metal ruler often to check roughly if everything will fit into the design i have in my head...

Next Step = Use the dremel to cut the plate (i used stone cutting discs, cheaply bought in those 400 pieces assortment kit pack for £10, i bought two of them so got a nice 800 piece assorted accessories pack nice and cheap when it was on sale from maplin !)

STEP 3:

More markings...

OK OK this step is before the cutting, still!

the marked area grid label 'CUT OUT' is for the 'Fin' or 'Blade' placements to be glued to the shaft, i will be using the metal from soft drinks cans, washed carefully, dried and then cut to the size that will fit the Spiral shaft In the pic here...

STEP 4:

STEP 5:

STEP 6:

STEP 7:

STEP 8:

STEP 9:

STEP 10:

I really couldn't think of how to integrate two circuits but using just one battery pack at 1st, i really couldn't wrap my head around it so i doodled away trying to make it a very simple circuit, times two.

The 1st switch button would supply power to the motor the most logical way, by meaning, have the - battery terminal go to the - motor terminal and the + terminal of the battery going to the switch the in turn to the + terminal of the motor - so that the motor will turn clockwise.

The 2nd Switch button would be wired up as opposite to the 1st switch so that the motor, in turn, will spin anti-clockwise, hence giving my pump the ability to Fill Or Empty and liquid i intend to use in it !

Again, for the love-of-life i couldn't think of how to wire it all up so that this pump only used one 9 volt battery so i opted for a battery holder that held two 9 volt batteries and had 2 pairs of un-wired - un-soldered contacts !

Comments

[MCRIPPPer]

another easy way to get bidirectional motor operation is to use a dpdt (double pole, double throw) switch. you can use it to basically make a mechanical Hbridge.
then just add a pushbutton inline as an "enable" switch.

[offtherails2010]

AWESOME !

Many thanks mcrippper, i'll be using this method very soon, as whatever i make for my car, i make another for a friend so his fuel pump will be employing the DPDT switch !

Again many thanks !

[soshimo]

You can drive the motor both ways with a single battery, but what you need is called an h-bridge circuit. This is a circuit that uses transistors to control current flow to the motor. It controls the amount of current and the currents direction across the winding which control speed and direction of the motor.

[offtherails2010]

A Major Thank you soshimo !

I cannot thank you enough, after all the time i spent looking for a way to solve my problem of just using one battery to power the pump for dual-direction motor spin, i also registered with a specialized electronic forum which was a complete waste of time because whoever got back to me on the forum wanted me to 'buy' the solution from them or whatever they advised me on made absolutely no sense!

Again, a MAJOR thanks for the assist !!

;-)

[soshimo]

No problem at all, that's what we are all here for - to share. Forget those corporate monkeys who tried to "sell" you a solution.

By the way, to make your job easier there are several chips (many DIP for prototyping) available which will give you your H-Bridge circuit. Just drop in an IC and a couple of supporting components and you have a motor driver. Two are the SN754410NE and SN754410NE which are both Quad H-Bridge drivers that can control two DC motors in both directions or one stepper motor.

Normally applications using this chip show you how to use it with a microprocessor, but you can also supply +5vdc directly to the control pins (via your switch) to control the direction of the motor.

Check out this link: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/2074

Happy Hacking!

[soshimo]

The two chips are SN754410NE and L293D.

[scottrevoman333]

How soon do you think you can post the finished pump housing so it is fully finished and ready to pump? I've been looking for a small pump for a micro aquarium I just set up, I'd just have to change the fins to plastic and coat the shaft with glue to prevent rusting and it would be perfect.

[offtherails2010]

Hi scottrevoman333 & thanks for the interest!

i think your use of this pump will be excellent for moving liquid in an aquarium, i also stumbled upon an article for how to waterproof motors (below) just in case you need to take steps to waterproof a motor to be used underwater...

How to waterproof a motor

Unfortunately ive really-overdone-it the last 2 weeks and am paying for it now! resting at the moment as ive over-exerted myself and it'll take a good few days to recover! (advanced Arthritis doesnt help!) But i aim to have the housing for this pump finished within the next two weeks and ready for use to pump liquid of any sort (the waterproofing 'stuff' mentioned in the instructable like the liquid rubber for example, has excellent resistive properties to chemicals and  water, if you like & for peace of mind, the Plasti-Dip can be used to 'dunk' motors into to give a good waterproofing coating effectively !) but make sure you dont get any onto the motor shaft's bearing!

[lemonie]

Nice bit of work there, but if I read it right it's not finished for moving liquid yet?

L

[offtherails2010]

Many thanks lemonie!

Thats right, i made sure the title of this project made everyone aware of this!

[rimar2000]

Good work!

[offtherails2010]

Many thanks - its most-appreciated !