Drink Dispenser

RE: Drink Dispenser

jw0752 — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 02:37:49 GMT

Hi Brian,

Three years ago I built a drink dispenser for my Mom who was in a nursing home with Parkinson's which made it difficult for her to get a drink when she needed it. Here a a link to that blog.

https://www.element14.com/community/people/jw0752/blog/2016/10/31/power-straw

The first design which was in the main body of the blog did not work out but if you scroll down you will see where I upgraded the design and used a peristaltic pump. This second design worked very well for her as long as she was still able to push the dispenser's actuator button.

John

RE: Drink Dispenser

shabaz — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 01:08:11 GMT

Something like this should work (the diagram shows a 5V rail and 5V relay, but you can choose a 12V supply rail and 12V relay if you wish).

[View:/resized-image/__size/620x435/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-27679f8b-6686-4803-bba4-17928fc06f5a/0211.contentimage_5F00_205152.png:620:435]

Or you could do it all using semiconductors (MOSFETs) and ditch the relay, but from an ease of construction/simplicity point of view, the relay method is probably most straightforward.

RE: Drink Dispenser

phoenixcomm — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 00:38:49 GMT

[mention:27d39c70cc104ad9b560ed1340f0da1c:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] Sir that is what relays are for! Since you don't know the glass you can use ultrasonics, to measure the fluid in the glass, this way it should not matter what glass you put there, stem, yete, beer mug, etc.

You would use the ultrasonics or photo recognition for the top and bottom of the empty glass, then start the pump and by monitoring the ultrasonics you can tell how full the glass is...

RE: Drink Dispenser

genebren — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:34:18 GMT

Here is another drink mixing project:

https://www.element14.com/community/community/design-challenges/pichef/blog/2018/01/22/itender#comment-122047

RE: Drink Dispenser

BigG — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 21:33:13 GMT

Not sure if this makes life easier buy Adafruit sell a lower voltage version. Here is link to 5-6V pump: https://www.adafruit.com/product/3910

RE: Drink Dispenser

beacon_dave — Fri, 15 Nov 2019 20:30:43 GMT

Have you seen this one ?

The Drinkmotizer - a Raspberry Pi Drink Mixing Robot