There have been machines that can mix drinks. These machines
will mix several drinks together in a 'part' fashion (one part
vodka, two parts sprite). Our goal however was to make a
machine that could mix any strength drink imaginable, ranging in
size from a short ball glass (4 ounces) to a plastic container (20
ounces). For example, if I was getting ready to attend a
Georgia Tech football game and wanted to make a large, strong
drink before the game, I want something that can fill a 20 ounce
bottle with a 20% alcoholic mix of Jack Daniels and Coca Cola.
Or if I was just sitting around playing cards with friends I would
prefer several small mixes that are a little less potent, around
10% alcohol. This is how the idea for the Alcohol Beverage
Controller was born...
There are
two main parts to this project: software and hardware. When
deciding how to approach this project we had several milestones we
had to overcome for each part. For the software we decided
on making a simple GUI made with Visual C++. The GUI was to
handle the container contents, the desired mixture, and the timing
algorithm for mixing the drinks. The software took some
time, however it was a bit more difficult deciding how to approach
the hardware. Our initial machine schematic was to look like
this:
As you can
see the GUI interacts through the USB port of the PC using the
USBI2CIO converter, a device we used in lab throughout the
semester. Through some sort of trigger (a power transistor
network) the signal is to turn
on/off the valves to control the flow of the liquids. As we
researched this designs feasibility we discovered that valves were
not the best approach for the flow control. Instead we
decided to use small pumps that are used in automobiles for
windshield wiper fluid. The use of pumps eliminate the need
for pressure on the valves, a problem that is not easily
fixed. Once the pumps and transistors are all in place all
that is needed is the 12 Volt 10 Amp Power Source (10 Amps isn't
needed to run the pumps, but the power source needs to be able to
handle the initial spike in Amps required to turn on the pumps).
Click
here for more information on the software.
Click here for more information on the
hardware.
