I have severe ME and I want to make an air powered lymphatic massage machine, because it's so expensive to get this treatment(lymph massage) privately. It would be made of multiple air bladders that inflate with air from (1) a compressor, or (2) an air pump. Only ~10PSI should be needed. I was wondering what kind of actuator valves I could use to be controlled by an arduino. The air bladders would be in a suit that a person (Me) would wear. The bladders would inflate from bottom of the suit to the top, like squeezing toothpaste out of the tube (and the process repeated over and over).
-I'd need about 25 actuators; But what kind? Small and cheap are best. To fit ~5mm ID tubing. It would be cool to be able to vary the pressure of each one, but that's not necessary.
-Which type of air supply do you think would work best for this application, (1) or (2)?
Actually, I think about one PSI or 50 torr would be more than adequate. The "calf compressors" used in wards and theatre would be even less than this (but I haven't looked - can do so on Monday). A large aquarium pump would be suitable.
I think you can find valves on eBay! You want "changeover" valves to "vent" when released. If you want the pressure profile to be cumulative, then previous valves in sequence would remain activated. As the bladders should at that point be full, those would not lose pressure. It may however be adequate to release the second or third previous as each is inflated to create a "wave".
I'm not familiar with that sort of equipment, but it seems to me that a single compressor and accumulator with valves to connect to the various bladders would be the way to go. I would expect to be able to find small inexpensive solenoid valves that could be controlled by an Arduino. Are there any other requirements, such as power consumption, noise, size/weight, need to be portable etc to be considered or are you able to consider 'iron lung' type solutions where you just take the simplest solution and don't worry about practicality?
a solenoid model BVS-33C1-12D
I am not sure of the flow and levels and pressures, but this could be a start.
there are dozens of manufactures and suppliers of solenoids. easy to find 12 and 24V coils.
just treat them like a relay when driving from an output.
There are quite a few solenoid valves listed on eBay, from a few dollars and up (plenty below $20 US, including shipping), many say they are suitable for air, and many have no minimum pressure requirement.. Search term "solenoid valve" (no need to enter quotes).
Hey thanks for the replies and suggestions!
It takes me a long time to get anything done because of the low energy.. i'm like an ant moving a cake one crumb at a time XD. Yeah, ME is also known as CFS, though they're trying to stop calling it "chronic fatigue syndrome" because it's a real neurological disease that gets balls all funding for research because it was thought to be lazyness/just in peoples heads at first, that's why the stupid name, DOH! so that sucks.
Onto the fun building ideas bit:
To answer a couple of previous questions: Noise, size, and power consumption aren't a big deal. It's for home use. Although noise would be best kept low, but the other two factors really aren't so important. I'll use a PC power supply probably.
So I've ended up trying to stick with a 4mm pneumatic format. Here's the solenoid, tubing, and a (possible) pump I've come up with so far(see links below).
I was thinking of either heat sealing or using an adhesive to seal material from, perhaps an air bed to make the air bladders. I've had difficulty sourcing inflaiton valves with burrs or hose attachments. Any ideas? bicycle inner tube valve? I have to attach the 4mm OD tubing to the bladder somehow.
I also realised that I can cut down on solenoids by using a Y splitter to make inflations symmetric on both sides(arms and legs) with the use of Y splitters.
My concern is not the flow, but the pressure. You said you're aiming for about 10psi which is quite a lot of pressure, and massively more than you'd need to dribble air into an aquarium. (You're look for the equivalent of a head of water of about twenty three feet.) To get that sort of pressure I think you would need a positive displacement pump (of the sort used for portable tyre compressors etc). This means the pump is likely to provide a very low flow rate so it's going to take ages to bring that much volume up to 10 psi.
Given that this thing will be big enough to enclose arms and legs that's going to contain quite a lot of energy when it's pressurised. Have you considered using water instead? I know there are some obvious disadvantages - it's going to be cold, and leaks are going to be a real pain - but at 10 psi you can't afford to have any leaks anyway.
XD. Yeah, ME is also known as CFS, though they're trying to stop calling it "chronic fatigue syndrome" because it's a real neurological disease that gets balls all funding for research because it was thought to be lazyness/just in peoples heads at first, that's why the stupid name, DOH! so that sucks.