Bar2D2 Drink Droid

I figured I would throw this link on here for anyone interested in the ongoing development of Bar2D2 the Drink Droid. My bud and I had the idea a couple years back but I have just gotten time in the last month to really get it off the ground. The concept is a self contained bar-bot that can drive around, dispense drinks, entertain, and just look cool:

http://www.flickr.com...

Stats:
60" tall
18" round
motorized 6 bottle liquor carousel (via remote)
motorized 18 beer bottle carousel that will dispense them one at a time (via remote)
(2) 15" blue neon circles for lighting
(5) LED color shift bar glasses
Motorized ice drawer (via remote)
R2D2 sounds actuated via remote
12 volt system
(2) Victor 883 speed controllers
6-channel Futaba RC system
2 DC gear motors will propel the robot
Main structure from 3/4" plywood with poplar vertical stringers
coating is black spray-on truck bed liner
Mp3 player and speakers to be added


As for completion date, it HAS to be done by August 28 when we will take it to Dragon.con to party. After that, there is talk of it going to Roboexotica in Vienna in December (see: http://www.roboexotic... ) Apparently, there are other nuts like myself that build bar bots. We will see how the Grant funding goes for American builders on this one...

Questions, comments, suggestions?
jamie

Jamie thats awesome man. I love it. Can you build two You mentioned something about a conveyor or elevator lift type system. How do you plan on dispensing the drinks/beers? I have a bunch of 12V Lead Acid Batteries I am giving away for free. If you can use some let me know.

Patrick

Patrick - Thanks for the compliments! As for the conveyer/elevator, imagine looking down the barrel of a pistol and turn that so it point up. There will be a circle that is on the lazy susan that holds and separates the beers. Under that, there will be a plunger that, once a beer comes over the top of it and stops, the plunger will go up and take the beer to the top deck out of a hole. I am looking for a suitable actuator now. I will knock the mechanics of this out with no problem, but the sensor and sequencing of movement is where I will want to pick your brain. ie - I can't have the plunger come up until it lines up with a hole and a beer.

As for the batteries, I am VERY interested! How many do you have?, how big are they?, and what kind of amp hour? I am thinking that I will need about 20+ amp hours.

jamie

might have to hit DragonCon for the first time in @ 7 years just to see Bar2D2 in action!

Dragon.con is a great excuse to go party with 20,000 fun (and vastly different) people. :)

jamie

Jamie, I see more what you are talking about now. I think maybe something like a Fairchild QRB1134 Sensor could work fine. You could paint the bottom of the lazy Susan black and just one spot white where the hole in the lazy Susan lines up with the hole for the plunger . Once it lines up it with the white part it sends a signal to stop rotation of the lazy Susan and trigger your receiver/actuator plunger. You could adjust the plunger height manually or add another sensor on the top to turn the plunger off of make it go back down.

Something even simpler is maybe using a U shaped IR sensor and a "L" bracket. Mount the "L" bracket under or on top of the lazy Susan. When the leg of the bracket breaks the path of the IR sensor (bracket leg passes between the "U") it tells the lazy Susan to stop rotating and trigger your plunger. Both fairly simple to wire up. Just the senor, a couple resistors, and capacitors. I could probably get you a couple of the sensors from some scrap equipment I have.

As far as the batteries go I have a bunch of 12V 2.3AH(20Hr.) Just tell me how many you need. They come with charging circuit board and wall adapter. Here is a link to some identical ones except for the brand. Same specs. http://www.allelectro...

Let me know.

Patrick

Patrick - Thanks for the offer on the batteries! I think those will work perfectly. I will see how many I can cram into the base once the drive components are installed. I need to get some drive motors ordered today.

Your sensor ideas sound like what we need. I will get the lazy susan all rigged up here in the next week or so.

jamie

Bar2D2 Update -

I have been trying to come up with a good off the shelf solution to the beer elevator and came up with a solution last night.

I picked up the Harbor Freight cordless caulk gun and tore it open and it will make a perfect beer elevator. Stock unit is 4.8 volts, but it ran fine at 12 volts. Plus, it will have a short duty cycle with very little load. Full extension of the rod is around 10". It has one limit switch built in and I will add another. See updated pics here:

http://www.flickr.com...

I hooked the unit up to a Team Delta rce220 board to control the beer elevator remotely: http://www.teamdelta....

The lazy susan motion will be controlled separately with a motor and sensors and or limit switches that will allow it to advance and position the next beer automatically. The whole mechanism is based on a revolver pistol design.

jamie

Good find!. Was just there myself today looking for some stuff. Haven't seen one of those though. Looks like it will interface with the RCE220 Board just fine.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend next weeks meeting. Received notice yesterday that I am needed in Puerto Rico for work for 2 weeks and leaving Monday.
I will not be returning until July 25th. If you need those batteries before then let me know and maybe we can arrange a meet.

Patrick

Brilliant! I'm glad to have you as a part of the group.

Side note, I'm not going to be able to make it either. Last minute notice of baby shower. :(