Make inflatables or air-powered projects with this simple air pump. It's great for beginner projects and super easy to use! The pump is basically a DC motor that is powered with ~4.5V and draws about ~500 mA. 5V should be just fine, so you can power it from the same power supply you use for other DC motors or servos.
When powered, the pump sucks air in from the side of the plastic casing and pushes it out the tubing port. Reversing the motor polarity does not change the direction of air flow! If you need to both inflate and deflate something, you'll need two pumps. The flow rate is 2.5 LPM (liters per minute) and has a 'stall' max pressure of -55 kpa.
This pump isn't rated for continuous use. The specification sheet indicates the design is tested for 30,000 cycles of 10 seconds on, 5 seconds off. We would recommend a duty cycle of about 50%. We're stocking this for use by engineers, makers, students and artists who want something simple and inexpensive to create inflatable robots or art projects.
You can PWM the motor to speed up or slow down the flow rate. Works great with either a power transistor (basic on/off) or a motor driver chip such as the L293D, and with any boards from our CRICKIT series. Like all pumps, it vibrates a lot so make sure its resting against a soft foam or sponge so the vibrations don't make a lot of noise.
Please note: This is just the pump. Silicone tube is not included, so why not grab this 1 meter long silicone tubing while you're here?
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