Automated DVD dispenser

posted Mar 5th 2009 11:48am by
filed under: classic hacks, home entertainment hacks, robots hacks

dvd

[Andrew] made this DVD dispenser for his senior project in high school. It is using an ATmega8515 for the brains, and a custom coded driver for the LCD. As you can see in the video, after the break, you can select a DVD by various identifiers such as genre or title. It then pushes that DVD out of the rack so you can grab it. Right now, all the DVDs have to be placed in predetermined positions, but it’s not a bad start at all. Thanks for sending this in [Andrew].

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24 Responses to Automated DVD dispenser

  • The MPAA says:
    March 5, 2009 at 12:14 pm

    Hey, those DVDs look pirated. We know where you live, Andrew

    Reply Report comment
  • urlax says:
    March 5, 2009 at 12:51 pm

    It’s a nice project,
    tough, a bit slow.
    he could have built a rotary dispenser, a la

    http://www.hifimuseum.info/tn_tombox.JPG

    p.s.
    the LCD is well done!
    how are the menu’s updated when he expands his collection?

    Reply Report comment
  • hum4n says:
    March 5, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    somehow i doubt he could have.

    Reply Report comment
  • Andrew says:
    March 5, 2009 at 1:51 pm

    Yeah it is slow, I used a stepper that my school already had, so in order to get enough torque I had to slow it down.

    Reply Report comment
  • bob says:
    March 5, 2009 at 3:19 pm

    why not make xvid backups of all your dvd’s and store your DVD’s here:
    http://www.millionmemberassembly.com/images/Disaster%20emptyBox.jpg

    and your backups here:
    http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/8e50/

    Reply Report comment
  • RomanSB says:
    March 5, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    Now lets see what your CS masters project is gonna be ;)

    Reply Report comment
  • joshuadg1 says:
    March 5, 2009 at 5:59 pm

    ba. good luck at MIT…you magnificent bastard :P
    really, nice work you should be very proud, and i’m sure there are greater things to come from you…

    Reply Report comment
  • jaded says:
    March 5, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    Nice work! I hope you get an excellent grade on it.

    Reply Report comment
  • ngth says:
    March 5, 2009 at 8:37 pm

    pirated movies!

    Pretty neat if you can get the setup in an enclosure to protect it from the elements of your home. The bar that the pickup arm moves on can definitely be optimized for its seek time.

    Reply Report comment
  • compufobia says:
    March 5, 2009 at 10:04 pm

    seems like a great project for the sake of doing but there ae commercial versions of this already out there that I think are a bit better. the link has one that has a usb link for a computer database and can be daisy chained, also had a built in dvd reader and burner, pretty slick if you have the need for that sort of thing.

    http://www.cyberguys.com/product-details/?productID=29999

    Reply Report comment
  • Jared connell says:
    March 6, 2009 at 12:34 am

    That’s an awesome project! Of couse it could be better… It could make coffee and check your email… But I think it’s a great start! Keep it up!

    Reply Report comment
  • TJ says:
    March 6, 2009 at 1:54 am

    RE: Pirated DVDS

    Would you test with originals? haha

    Reply Report comment
  • PKM says:
    March 6, 2009 at 3:41 am

    It’s pretty nice as a proof of concept- the title on the LCD is neat as well :)

    Now all it needs is a little SAPI automation so you can say “Computer: retrieve a random DVD from genre action film”

    Reply Report comment
  • strider_mt2k says:
    March 6, 2009 at 7:09 am

    -Nice- project!

    MIT is getting another good one. :)

    -and i love the dimwits suggesting alternate storage when the project was clearly for school.

    this place rocks on so many levels.

    Reply Report comment
  • kyle says:
    March 6, 2009 at 7:43 am

    hmm quite a cool senior project. mine was a flash video star wars scene, no i am not swk.

    one thought to improve the speed and size, get an old computerized plotter for the guts. I see them all the time at auctions for various businesses and they usually go for a few bucks.

    take the roller feed out and just use the x-axis and the pen up-down to push it. i am sure a quick mod of some open source plotting software would handle the selection easily

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  • peter says:
    March 6, 2009 at 8:10 am

    how is this automatic if it doesnt just hand you DVDs on its own? i think that would be way more automated. getting a cup of coffee and RUSH HOUR 2!!! gee thanks DVD dispenser, you predicted my every need! oh wait its not automatic its automated. nvm. nice job.

    Reply Report comment
  • Ste@l says:
    March 6, 2009 at 9:14 am

    @ compufobia but that only holds 100, with customization it could probably range from 500+…

    *HINT HINT Andrew*

    Reply Report comment
  • FunCardGames says:
    March 6, 2009 at 10:31 am

    good one, thanks

    Reply Report comment
  • Rick says:
    March 6, 2009 at 11:00 am

    Nicely done.

    Reply Report comment
  • Mic says:
    March 6, 2009 at 11:56 am

    Hideously slow but a very good start, with greater speed this could be seriously usefull for managing lots of CD’s. Good luck.

    Reply Report comment
  • gabriel says:
    March 6, 2009 at 3:02 pm

    the worst thing with all those solutions is that it’s a pain in the ass to put them back.

    Reply Report comment
  • compufobia says:
    March 6, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    @Ste@l but you can daisy chain like 127 of them together so could be a crap ton of dvds/cds. 12,700 but the big question is, why not just buy a hard drive.

    Reply Report comment
  • cyberpunk says:
    March 7, 2009 at 11:24 am

    apparently most people didnt get it. i would love to have something like that for my games, so they dont get scratched, lost. great for making sure no disk got lost. simple sensor to make sure the disk is there, and a bit of more effort, and it could inventory the disks! if i could buy something like that, i would. the only down side, it doesnt put the disk in a drive :( all well. still is cool, especially the lcd display :)

    Reply Report comment
  • xhriscarbon says:
    May 2, 2009 at 9:03 am

    Pretty cool, now just add a slot loading cd/dvd drive to push them into.

    Reply Report comment

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