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• Week 12 - Final details and testing

  ana.pacheco-aparicio • 01/11/2024 at 22:37 • 0 comments

  January 8,  2023

  This is the week before the final presentation. The curved tower was redesigned to fit well with the base and all the components were assembled properly inside the main tower.

  Several testings were made and finally everything was working perfectly. Figure 16 shows the final product and there is also a video of the machine working very well with the jars full of water.

                                                                     a)
  

                                                                       b)

                                                                      c)

                                                                      d)

  Figure 16. Final product; a) Front view, b) Top view, c) Side view, d) Back view 
  

  Here is a video that shows the final project working.

  https://drive.google.com/file/d/15jQscFch0JmtZes798Ls7OwaJM7au_d6/view?usp=sharing
  

• Week 11 - Project assembly in a physical prototype and mechanism testing

  ana.pacheco-aparicio • 01/10/2024 at 20:26 • 0 comments

  December 14, 2023  - January 4, 2024

  The final project assembly started this week by cutting the new model of the curved tower with the inner holes for the pumps, but it did not fit very well with the base because of a miscalculation that did not consider the space for the led string.

  Nevertheless, by the end of the week we had a working prototype that could prepare cocktails automatically just by pressing a button on the touch screen. As it can be seen in Figure 15, this prototype could not stand by itself, so this design must be fixed after the holidays.

  Figure 15. Physical prototype with working mechanism

  Here is a short video that shows this prototype working correctly

  https://drive.google.com/file/d/16t_D6zocC2k_YxlfiUsiyJq-K4rUyr5i/view?usp=sharing

  
  

• Week 10 - Prototype 7

  ana.pacheco-aparicio • 01/10/2024 at 20:03 • 0 comments

  December 7, 2023
  

  This week was dedicated to continuing with the manufacturing process. In order to give more stability to the components in the structure, it was decided to add a top horizontal plane with holes to fit the pumps, as it can be seen in the final model, Prototype 7 (Figure 11).

  Figure 11. Prototype 7: Horizontal plane to fit the pumps
  

  Figure 12. Prototype 7: Complete final model

  A LED strip was added to the outline of the base to get a more attractive design (Figure 13).

  Figure 13. LED strip addition to structure base
  

  The touch screen is working perfectly as shown in Figure 14. The Arduino code is almost ready. The main function of the code reads the signal of the touch screen. Then, there is a specific function for each drink that opens the pumps for a certain time. The time depends on the specified amount of shots (each shot activates the pump for 5 seconds), and the name of the variable which can be: rhum, tequila, coca-cola, grapefruit juice, lemon juice, or orange juice. During this time. the screen shows a message that says "Preparing your drink" followed by "Ready!" to indicate to the user that  their cocktail is ready. The user can press the "Menu" button to go back to the main page and order another drink.

  Figure 14. Touch screen

• Week 9 - Manufacturing, coding, and display design

  ana.pacheco-aparicio • 01/10/2024 at 19:55 • 0 comments

  November 30, 2023
  

  The main objective this week is to develop the structure based on the final design (Figure 8, previous log). It will be printed from 3mm MDF boards and will have castellated edges to assemble the parts. Tests were made to find the accurate thickness of the teeth to get the perfect fit between the walls. The finished base of the machine is seen in Figure 9. 

                                                                        a)

                                                                        b)

                                                                      c)

  Figure 9. Wooden base. a) top view, b) bottom view, and c) lateral view
  

  The Arduino and screen programming was started. The screen will present a mexican-themed menu which the user will be able to explore by pressing on the arrows on the bottom corners of the screen. Each page will contain a drink title as well as the ingredients. The user can choose the desired cocktail by pressing on the "SELECT" button located in the bottom center of the screen. This selection will serve as the input signal to activate the Arduino, which has a program that, according to the selected cocktail, activates relays to close the circuit of the corresponding pumps for an interval of time to pour the exact amount of each ingredient in the glass. 

  In order to provide the user with a friendly experience, each drink page will have a unique design. An example of a menu page can be seen in Figure 10. The complete digital menu can be seen in Appendix 3.

  Figure 10. Example of a page from the digital menu
  

• Week 8 - Prototype 6

  ana.pacheco-aparicio • 01/10/2024 at 19:45 • 0 comments

  November 23, 2023
  

  The rest of the bill of materials has been delivered, including the laser ring, 6 relays and the e-switch. Meaning we are ready to start the coding and manufacturing process. 

  The design of the main tower was adapted to be curved and more aesthetic for the Prototype 6 (Figure 8). The curvature was made by cutting small lines with a separation of 2 mm between them.

  Figure 8. Prototype 6: Curved tower 
  

• Week 7 - Prototype 5

  ana.pacheco-aparicio • 01/10/2024 at 19:38 • 0 comments

  November 16, 2023
  

  Half of the bill of materials has been received, including the 6 peristaltic pumps, the power supply, and micro SD card. 

  The peristaltic pumps are tested. These work at a maximum of 5A with 12V (seen in Figure 6) and have an average flux of 72.2 ml/min.

  Figure 6. Persitaltic pump testing
  

  Pump dimensions fit well with Prototype 4.

  Some details were added to Prototype 4 in order to make the base of the structure more stable as it can be seen in Prototype 5 (Figure 7). These details consisted of 3 traverse columns under the main base and several extra supports that give enough stiffness to the structure, as well as enough space to store cabling.

  Figure 7. Prototype 5: Extra support strength
  

• Week 6 - Prototype 4

  Tanya • 01/07/2024 at 23:06 • 0 comments

  October 26, 2023
  

  After some feedback from professors, a slight modification was made on Prototype 3. The Prototype 4 will follow the previous model’s structure but the alcohol and mixers will be in uniform glass containers (Figure 5). This modification will give the drink mixer a cleaner look. In addition, it was decided that the main structure be made out of wood, with castellated edges or with 3D printed corner brackets to assemble. Available materials on campus are 3 mm thick MDF sheets of 30 x 40 cm dimensions, and PLA for 3D printing.

  Figure 5. PROTOTYPE 4: Lateral uniform jars and MDF structure 

  During this week, the final bill of materials was sent to be approved. Considering the only modification made to Prototype 3 was purely a change in the containers, the components needed for Prototype 4 are the same that were listed before. After receiving approval from our professors it was sent to the department responsible for ordering material. Some trouble was encountered due to the modification of the original file, however after solving these issues the components were ordered and expected to arrive after holidays. The final BOM is included in Appendix 2.

• Week 5 - Prototype 3

  Tanya • 01/05/2024 at 17:49 • 0 comments

  October 19, 2023

  Based on the second model, a new design for the drink mixer was developed. Prototype 3 is inspired by a coffee machine and has a similar shape. The drink mixer will have 6 bottles, three different alcohols and three different mixers. The main structure will be mounted on a base which will have the alcohol and mixer bottles on both sides of the main structure as it can be seen in Figure 4. Electronics, including the peristaltic pumps and the power supply, will be stored inside of the structure to make it more aesthetic. Users will be able to choose their desired drink by using the touch screen located on the front face of the main structure.

  Figure 4. PROTOTYPE 3: Side bottles.

  Having this new model, the components that will be needed could be determined. These are listed in the components section of the website. During this week the bill of materials (BOM) was a work in progress as the team took some time to explore the different models of the components we needed. The focus was both on dimensions as well as voltage needed. 

• Week 4 - Prototype 2

  Tanya • 01/05/2024 at 13:01 • 0 comments

  October 12, 2023

  This week included some further project development, specially on the design as well as some research for parts and their functionality. After some consideration, the cocktail mixer design and structure was changed as it can be seen in the PROTOTYPE 2 (Figure 3). 

  The main difference in this new design is that the glass will not be moving because the mobile cart will only increase the time to prepare the drink and the risk of spillage. Keeping in mind that the objective of this machine is to prepare cocktails automatically, it was decided that the most efficient way to do it is by placing a glass manually in the cabin and selecting the cocktail from the menu on a touch screen. The glass will be filled by hoses on the top of the structure.  

  Figure 3. PROTOTYPE 2: Fixed glass and touch screen.

  One of the main problems that we managed to solve this week was to determine the type of pumps to be used, and considering our design, the best ones will be peristaltic pumps. Peristaltic pumps are a type of positive displacement pump that use the biological principle of peristalsis as a basis for their design. Inside the pump, rollers compress the tube, creating a vacuum which draws fluid through the tube.  Since the only component that will be in contact with the fluid is the tube, the risk of the pump contaminating the fluid is eliminated (Watson Marlow Limited, 2023).

• Week 3 - Prototype 1

  Tanya • 01/05/2024 at 12:58 • 0 comments

  October 5, 2023

  Week 1 and 2 were the inspiration period of our project, where we experimented with arduino, manufacturing, and fusion360. This week is the main project kickoff. The main objective for the project was provided as well as some details. 

  We explored different ideas in different areas and finally decided to make an automatic cocktail maker. The first prototype which can be seen in Figure 2, consisted of a mobile cart with the glass, which would be moving forward by using an endless screw, and depending on the desired drink it would stop for some seconds under the corresponding hose by the action of limit switches.

  a) 
  

  b)
  c)

  Figure 2. PROTOTYPE 1 a) External structure, b) mobile cart for glass, and c) internal view.

  Having defined the project, the next step is to identify the sensors and actuators that would be needed to develop the whole mechanism, as well as the manufacturing process.

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