Nespresso fans rejoice! If you like coffee (of course you do) and are a Nespresso fan, chances are you are one of two types of persons: the ones that chosen one type of capsule and stick to it or the ones that have a jar full of mixed capsules and lost track which coffee is which. Of course, there is a third, rarer, OCDish, kind. The ones that have every capsule organized neatly by color in a proper holder, full of style. In any case, if you forgot which color is which coffee because you threw the case away and forgot about it here’s an interesting weekend project for you: the Nespresso Capsule Detector.
[circuit.io team] made a neat Arduino-based project that can detect which capsule is which using an RGB color detector and display information about it on an LCD display. It’s a pretty simple project to make. If you have a 3D printer you can print the case, if not it’s fairly easy to come up with a working casing for the electronics and capsule.
The operation is simple, just drop the capsule in the hole and the Nespresso Capsule Detector will tell you which type it is, its intensity, its flavor tones and the optimal cup size for the coffee in question. We are just not sure if it can detect the Nespresso weddingbots correctly, but who knows?
Have a look:
Neat idea, though it was more useful before they printed the type of capsule on teh label.
Even so, it’s often hard to read.. and then you have to look up the intensity.
Love the 3D printed case. Nice design!
Darn! Now I’m thirsty for a cup of coffee. Thanks HaD.
How much are you selling it for?
They can’t. The color id of capsules is part of the nespresso patent family.
The name of the flavor is literally printed on the foil cap…
But not intensity, nor suggested brew volumes
Neat! a real world application for one of those RGB sensors! (The first interesting one I’ve seen)
I guess, one could build a machine to automagically sort/select capsules and brew coffee
The development tool used to put it all together looks interesting. Select your peripherals, controller board and it spits out code.?
I’ve often wondered why software development tools can’t be more graphic based than text based.
Some are like Unreal’s Blueprints.
Labview is graphical. As soon as you start doing big projects in that, you’ll be yearning for text based development.
We have huge LabVIEW probjects ranging from a measurement environment in our lab to one that controls the whole electron microscope (custom design and built in house). Some people just like to look at icons and spaghetti
There are two kinds of Nespresso drinkers. Those who only drink the red capsules, and those who only drink the red ones.
ugh, “only drink the *non*-red ones.”
You deserve more upvotes!
Exactly what I thought :D
Paying 4x the $ for your coffee – CHECK
Generating a shitload of laminated / composite material waste for no reason other than laziness – CHECK
Just get a Moka pot and find YOUR kind of locally and freshly roasted beans. If you want foamed milk, get a manual foamer.
Saved money, saved waste, got quality coffee, supported local businesses, showed nestle the finger – CHECK
Well boohoo, take your self-righteous environmental nonsense somewhere else. We’re here to enjoy the work he did.
I’m with you Stefan_Z. Let’s end this wasteful madness.
A moka pot does not create a true espresso because it is not brewed at anywhere close to the same pressure. You’re lucky if you can find a good coffee/grind/water combo to create a crema in a moka. I like my moka pot but I also like my real espresso made convenient by my Nespresso machine.
Nespresso is brilliant when you get up 5 minutes before you have to get out the door though.. After a (way too) long night of coding. Just insert pod, press buttons and coffee 30 seconds later. :9
In my life this means I actually get to have the coffee. Making one with coffee grinds would mean I wouldn’t have time to make one, at least not in the morning.
The capsules are all aluminum not laminated/composite, so they are recyclable! Nespresso offers to send you the recycle bags with your order and a prepaid shipping label!
https://www.nespresso.com/ecolaboration/us/en/home.html
Nice, hack and thank you for sharing!
Why not?
This product is for blind people. If it spoke the name and intensity you have something you can sell. I read above that it cant be sold due to some copyright/colour thing? Sad times. I know a couple of blind people who would love this.
Hi Gabriel, That’s a wonderful idea! You can add an MP3 player like this one https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1121.html to the project, and record the names of the capsules! We’ll also be adding this component to circuito.io soon so it will be even easier.
Personally, I don’t like the programming environment. I’m interested in learning as much as I can about things. That is what makes a maker/hacker in my opinion; not following directions and making someone else’s stuff with no deviation. I understand why they went that way. Making things easier for people is a natural tendency, but not in this scope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxrOYTdQTuo ARM demo of the same thing
this is cute, but I dont do the pods.
My dream is a system which processes from roast beans to coffee.
I would also think about a green bean roaster but that is for another rant
1-bulk store good beans in a freezer up in/on a cabinet
2-motorized screw or rotating ball airlock to get a dose of beans down the chute
3-bog standard ceramic slow grinder
4-dump into a pneumatically activated aeropress like mix & fast press
5-inject and mix sugar, milk, cream, flavor, or hot butter as required to be fully auto-barista
Throw it on a wakeup timer or click a key fob to get it full-auto coffee.
I love my Areopress and Hario grinder but if I am not up to using them I cheat with Starbucks Via packets though to be fair many coffee drinkers do not have 220v for a fast kettle and so need a coffee machine experience anyways. But the dream has been floating since the 90s along with the rest of my automated dream kitchen(go donut machine!).