PUMP CONTROL BASED ON BUBBLE DETECTION

1 . A pump system comprising:

a drive motor;

a pump head including a rotor coupled to the drive motor, wherein the pump head is configured to receive tubing;

a controller coupled to the drive motor and configured to control a rotation of the drive motor and rotor, wherein rotation of the rotor compresses tubing to move a liquid within the tubing from an inlet to an outlet of the pump head; and

a bubble sensor coupled to the tubing downstream from the outlet, wherein the bubble sensor is configured to send a signal to the controller in response to presence of a gas bubble within the tubing,

wherein the controller is configured to:

determine a quantity of bubbles detected based on the signal;

determine an alert in response to the quantity of bubbles detected exceeding a threshold; and

stop the drive motor after a safe operating time from the alert, wherein the threshold and the safe operating time are based, at least in part, on a characteristic of the tubing.

2 . The pump system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive an indication of the characteristic of the tubing; and

look up the threshold and the safe operating time in a memory storing preconfigured values.

3 . The pump system of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic of the tubing includes a material formulation of the tubing.

4 . The pump system of claim 1 , wherein the characteristic of the tubing includes a manufacturer of the tubing.

5 . The pump system of claim 1 , wherein the threshold and the safe operating time are further based on one or more operating parameters of the pump system.

6 . The pump system of claim 5 , wherein the one or more operating parameters include one or more of: pressure within the tubing, flow rate within the tubing, a speed of the rotor, or a composition of the liquid.

7 . The pump system of claim 1 , wherein the controller being configured to determine the quantity of bubbles detected based on the signal includes the controller being configured to accumulate a number of detected bubbles over a time period.

8 . The pump system of claim 1 , wherein the signal indicates a size of each detected bubble, and wherein the quantity of bubbles is based on a number of bubbles and the size of each detected bubble.

9 . A method of operating a pump system, comprising:

identifying a configuration of a pump system including characteristics of a tubing;

operating the pump system according to the configuration to pump liquid to a destination via the tubing;

receiving a signal from a bubble sensor indicating presence of a gas bubble within the tubing;

determining a quantity of bubbles detected based on the signal;

determining an alert in response to the quantity of bubbles detected exceeding a threshold; and

stopping the pump system after a safe operating time from the alert, wherein the threshold and the safe operating time are based, at least in part, on the characteristics of the tubing.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein identifying the configuration of the pump system comprises:

receiving an indication of the characteristic of the tubing; and

looking up the threshold and the safe operating time in a memory storing preconfigured values.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the characteristic of the tubing includes a material formulation of the tubing.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the characteristic of the tubing includes a manufacturer of the tubing.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the threshold and the safe operating time are further based on one or more operating parameters of the pump system.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more operating parameters include one or more of: pressure within the tubing, flow rate within the tubing, a speed of a rotor, or a composition of the liquid.

15 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining the quantity of bubbles detected based on the signal comprises accumulating a number of detected bubbles over a time period.

16 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining the quantity of bubbles detected based on the signal comprises determining a volume of the bubbles.

17 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising transmitting the alert to one or more devices in the pump system.

18 . A pump controller, comprising:

a memory storing computer executable instructions; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to execute the instructions to:

identify a configuration of a pump system including characteristics of a tubing;

operate the pump system according to the configuration to pump liquid to a destination via the tubing;

receive a signal from a bubble sensor indicating presence of a gas bubble within the tubing;

determine a quantity of bubbles detected based on the signal;

determine an alert in response to the quantity of bubbles detected exceeding a threshold; and

stop the pump system after a safe operating time from the alert, wherein the threshold and the safe operating time are based, at least in part, on the characteristics of the tubing.

19 . The pump controller of claim 18 , wherein to identify the configuration of the pump system, the processor is configured to execute the instructions to:

receive an indication of the characteristic of the tubing; and

look up the threshold and the safe operating time in a second memory storing preconfigured values.

20 . The pump controller of claim 18 , wherein to determine the quantity of bubbles detected based on the signal, the processor is configured to execute the instructions to accumulate a number of detected bubbles over a time period.