For many of us. the holiday season is coming up and that means hosting parties and mixing drinks, which can get tiresome. [GreatScott] has come up with a solution, what he calls a crude cocktail mixing machine. But don’t be fooled — it may look crude on the surface, and vibrate a bit while working, but the mechanism is plenty sound and functional.
The machine can mix three different liquids and does so using three peristaltic pumps. In typical [GreatScott] style, while he tears apart the pumps to replace the tubes, he gives us a good glimpse of just how they work. Using a knob and LCD screen, you can enter any quantity you want for the three liquids, though you’ll have to edit the Arduino code if you want to change the liquids’ names.
How does the machine know when to stop pumping a certain liquid? Each pump is rated for a specific quantity per second, though he tests this for each liquid anyway and finds a slight variation which he accounts for in the code. After the machine turns a pump on, a load cell located under the glass tells it when liquid has started arriving at the glass. A simple calculation based on the pump’s quantity per second and the desired quantity tells it how long to leave the pump on for. When the times up, it stops the pump. The result is a machine that’s sure to be a centerpiece for any hacker-filled party. Check out his build and the pump in action in the video below.
But parties need more than just drinks, they also need cookies. So to that end, check out [Ben Krasnow]’s equally cool cookie making machine.
So this is what all the buzzed people are about.
This is neat and all, but merely pouring some liquids together does not result in a cocktail. Time to bring these machines to the next level – I’d really love to see a shakin’ stirrin’ robot!
“Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.”
The lemon peel dispenser seems like the tricky part.
Shaken, not stirred.
Why would I want a weak watered down vodka martini? All shaking does is dilutes something tasteless (the vodka) with water (the ice).
Water is roughly ice*time*heat. If you shake and drink it fast enough there won’t be a lot of water to dilute the mix :)
The real $ is in slow drip infusing cocktails – https://hackaday.com/2014/10/14/margarita-drip-infuser-ensures-a-perfect-mix/
Food safety is important! The good news is they have the good sense to replace the pump tubing with a food safe silicone tube! :)
I have this thing made of an enclosed volume with a pouring spout and handle, all you have to do is put a quart of vodka and a cup of OJ in it and work the handle right and it pours perfect screwdrivers every time.
I have a briefcase that does the same thing by pressing buttons on the combination lock pad. I should get it out and bring it into the 21st century.
I’m not sure you can call them perfect cocktails using peristaltic pumps.
Friend of mine works at a bio-lab. They do this every year for their Christmal party.
Of cause they use industry leading equipment – so expect your drink to be mixed within 2 seconds and 0,002ml accuracy.
And yes, those machines use 100% disposable materials for hoses and containers and cost more than a house. But they sure make a hell of a martini!
He could add the human touch by letting some random values slightly change the quantities every time, then after adding a shaking!stirring mechanism, he could implement the “tired barman mode” so that say after 4 hours quantities get even more random and mixing become progressively inadequate.
That’s awesome