Useful project from science exposure!
It’s a been a while since I’ve been able to post on my blog, as I’ve been quite busy lately with work in lab. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking of posts, so here’s a quick tutorial I’ve been planning since weeks, but haven’t had time to write up!
In this quick project, we’ll be using Monk Makes’ RaspiRobot board (v2) and a peristaltic pump, to build a sort of touch free water or drink dispenser. Our main component here, the RaspiRobot board, is a brilliant motor shield you can buy for the Raspberry Pi, which plugs in neatly onto the GPIO header and enables you to control motors effortlessly. Thanks to the simplicity of the Python language and a great module by Monk Makes, writing code to control motors is as simple as typing rr.forward(). The peristaltic pump is another great component for electronics project, which we touched on in our last tutorial on making an automated solution pH adjuster for science labs. These pumps can be bought cheaply on Amazon and in maker stores such as Adafruit, for as little as £10.
What you’ll need
- Raspberry Pi (any model should do, including Pi 2)
- RaspiRobot board v2 (Monk Makes)
- 6V DC Peristaltic pump
- HC-SR-04 ultrasonic rangefinder (link)
- 7.4 V DC battery (recommended) / 9 V DC battery / 6x AA batteries with compartment
See the full tutorial here.
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!