GrooveTail - Cocktail-Machine

Stop waisting your time by having to make a cocktail and google all the ingrediënts. Just make yourself a cocktail machine. That's what was running through my head when I came on the idea of making this project.

I wanted to do something I would love working for, and this is exactly it. After making my own cocktailmachine I feel great because I can now drink cocktails all summer without even having to do anything.

This project is controlled completely by a simple website that is responsive and very easy to use. The ingrediënts and cocktails u put in the project is entirely up to yourself.

This cocktail machine is amazing and I will show you how I made it.

Step 1: Supplies

Sadly enough this project is not free.... You will need to buy some supplies that are needed to controll the app and the pumps.

There is a full Supply List (Bill Of Materials (BOM)) attached.

1. The "Raspberry Pi" is needed to control everything you will code.
2. We need a "12V power supply" to make sure everything is powered up. This also comes with a power cable.
3. I ordered 6 "12V Perialistic Pumps" to pump the liquid into the glass.
4. 7.5 meters of silicone tubes to transfrom the liquid to the pump and then to the glass.
5. We also need a "8 channel Relay" to control the power (on/off) mode of the perialistic pumps.
6. The "5V Regulator" is used to connect the 12V power supply to the 5V Raspberry Pi.
7. In this project I used a "Power Distribution Board" to control my + and - but you can also do this on a breadboard.
8. I also ordered a "OLED display" to show the ip you are going to have to type in in your browser.
9. For the housing of project I went to a local shop and bought 2 wooden beams of 27x27mm and 210cm high and 2 wooden plates of 125x62,5cm
10. For the drinks I also went to a local shop and bought the necessary drinks for my cocktails.

Step 2: The Fritzing Scheme

The first thing I did was making my scheme's. This program is very easy to use and it helps you a lot when you are actually connecting all your components together.

You can always check which pins I used and how I connected everything in the attached files.

Step 3: Database

After I finished my scheme's I made my database. My database is used to connect my ingrediënts and my cocktails together. The database also stored the temperature taken from the ds1820 sensor.

I started drawing a model and once my model was completed well, I forward engineered it.

Step 4: Wireframes & Design

I already had an idea for the structure of the website from when I began with this project. So I drew it out on wireframes at first and after that I added the colors. I chose dark colors because the cocktails would pop out more.

This is also the moment that I had to think about what features I was going to put in my project. I added a cancel button, so if u press make cocktail on accident u can still cancel your action. I also felt like it was necessary to put in a cleaning function so there would be less bacterial life in the tubes.

Step 5: Wiring Everything Up

It's time to wire everything up. Make sure you use your Fritzing scheme's for this as they make this a lot easier to do and you won't make as many mistakes.

Make sure you put the 5V regulator between the 12V power supply and the Raspberry Pi. Otherwise your Raspberry Pi will be overvoltaged and he will die. Also make sure all your + and - wires are in the correct place since the Raspberry Pi is very fragile for this kind of stuff.

Step 6: Frontend & Backend Code

After making my wireframes en design. I started writing my html en css. This all went really well and should go fairly quick.

The frontend code was written in Visual Studio Code with javascript and the backend code was written in Python3.5.

In my frontend I wrote some features like the countdown process when making a cocktail.
In my backend I wrote everything to link with my database, the temperature display, the display of the ingrediënts and the activating and de-activating of the pumps.

The difficult part comes when u need to link your frontend code with the backend code. I used sockets for this. Sockets are fairly easy to use and worked well for me.

Github Repository

Step 7: The Housing

After a big part of my coding was done, I started making the housing of this project. I bought everything at a local store.

1. 2 wooden beams of 27x27mm and 210cm high
2. 2 wooden plates of 125x62,5cm

I started by cutting out al the right sizes of the wooden beams and the wooden plates. My Housing is 40x40cm and 62,5cm high.

After cutting out al the right sizes I made a rectangle with the wooden beams. Once the rectangle was made I put on the wooden plates around it with some screws. I made sure there was a plate in the middle of the housing to fit my electronics in. That part will later be closed and only the lower part of the case will be shown.

After most of the main stuff from the housing was done I started screwing in some holes where the perialistic pumps would be and I put them in place.

At the backside of the housing a drew I hole for the power cabble to fit through. In the middle platform I drew 6 holes for the silicone tubes to go through and go inside the drinks.

I also drew a hole in the middle of the platform and put a white tube through it I had laying around in my house, a little bit of improvisation. This tube is where all the silicone tubes will go in.

Step 8: The Finishing Touch

After the outside of the housing was finished. I screwed and taped in all my components. This was a lot of work and takes a lot of time since you have to do this very carefully and precise to not damage the components.

After putting in all my components I attached my Perialistic Pumps to the housing and attached the silicone tubes to it.

I put the silicone tubes through the holes I drew in on one side. And on the other side I put it in the white tube so all the silicone tubes would come together. This is where the glass comes to stand.

The OLED screen is one of the last things I attached to my housing. I screwed it in and also screwed in a small hole for all the wires to go inside the component part.

After wiring everything up and testing if it works, I closed up the upper part of the front-side of the case and it looked very nice. I am very proud of the project I created.