Toasty's blog

Testing a pump

For some time now, I've been learning electronics. My current project is to build a plant watering system using an Arduino and a simple pump I bought. Today, I'm testing the pump itself.

An amphibious water pump, submerged in water inside a black mug. A wire extends out of the mug and connects to an empty battery pack, via a yellow and black breadboard. Scattered around the components is the usual detritus you'll find on my desk most days.

After some faffing around with a USB power bank, some AA batteries and screw terminals, I managed to determine that the pump does, indeed, work—both with three AA batteries in series, and with a USB-pin adaptor. (The pump itself will accept anything from 3-6 volts.)

A wire descends into a black mug full of water. At the bottom we can vaguely discern a white cylinder (the pump). The water is bubbling up vigorously at one end of the pump.