IVData @IVData@makerdon.org
Joined Apr 2019
One last minute problem was the slow bubbling of soda caused the bottles to pressurize and continually leak. I thought air would slowly leak out through the pumps, but no. Stressful! Not sure why the Sprite i tested with didnt do this. Solved by putting a pinhole in the side of each bottle 🤔
So i had a party, it mostly went well! There's a few bugs, and there are definitely improvements I'd like to make - but all the patrons were happy 😁 first thing to look at is why the calibration periodically changes..
The flash gives the user some immediate feedback. Also, i can use my gym card.
Guests get a rfid tag. When the machine gets a tag it hasn't seen it asks for a name, which the guests put in arcade style with the joystick. Did I mention people are coming over this Saturday? 😂
Last night I also tested the 2 air pumps for dispensing carbonated or large volumes of liquid. They work well but don't create a vacuum when run in reverse, so those two nozzles still leak for a while.
The problem with the old prototype was the nozzle would drip heaps. Pumps now run backwards for a bit when they're done to suck liquid back up the nozzle - stole this idea from 3D printing.
Progres: new clear nozzle, rfid logo for people to tap their tags against, testing with gross green coloured water 
The first edit from our New Zealand South Island tour is out. And there's more where this came from!
https://youtu.be/2zDl5fO-7Qw
The cocktail robot now uses entity framework! I'm working on the admin/management functions first (adding recipies etc) to make testing easier. User and ingredient management is done. I also got the RFID reader working.
Is this how I should be reporting on this, replying to the first toot about it?
Success! Ran my first "recipe" - a series of steps that make a drink. Each step can run any number of pumps for any length of time.
So I've just had my first instance of the software locking up while the pumps are running. The pi is unresponsive and I cant stop the pumps spinning 😂
Im going on a 10-day road trip doing my other hobby - flying RC planes "first person view" (with video goggles on).
The hardware rework is done, and things are no longer just hot glued to the back of the machine. I am however going away for the next 10 days.
It turns out that taking a completely undocumented file format and trying to make sense of it is really hard.
Software side is using .NET Core 3.0, Razor components running on a Pi, with the IoT library for controlling Pi hardware.
Mainly went this way because C# dev is part of my day job and i like the new razor components in 3.0.
The 6 pumps you see are peristaltic pumps. Chosen for accuracy in pouring small amounts. They flatten anything carbonated though, so there's some air pumps in the back for pumping soda.
I plan on giving updates on what I'm working on here, since I'm useless at writing blogs. I'm hoping i can stick to short regular updates.
Here's my cocktail machine. I'm currently writing the software for it!
Joined Apr 2019
