Introduction: Solenoid Wine Rack

This is how I made a wine rack that uses solenoids to strike the wine bottles. In addition, this project also incorporated LEDs, switches and pressure sensors all with the aid of the Arduino Diecimila, the Et-DOUCT8 optoisolator, and Max/MSP.

Step 1: Make a Wine Rack

The wine rack is 31 1/4" tall, 24 3/4" wide, and 9" deep. I basically made a box out of 1/4" plywood, a piece of wood lattice, two pieces of 1 by 4, and two pieces of 2 by 2. I then took three 2 by 2's and used a jig-saw to cut four semi-circles for the bodies of the wine bottoms to rest. Make sure to line up the semi-circles with the wholes in the lattice - glass bottles don't bend very easily. Lastly, I used half-inch corner trim to conceal the seams around the box.

Step 2: Make a Bracket to Hold the Solenoids

I made a bracket out of two angle pieces of 1/16" alluminum and 2 small pieces of 2 by 2 and adhered them together with four screws. I then used a 5/8" metal cutting drill bit to make the four holes, one for each 12 volt solenoid. I used eight solenoids so I had to make two brackets.

Step 3: Creating the Circuit and Installing Bracket

The circuit is quite simple as the diagram suggests. Place the solenoids into the drilled holes and tighten with a nut. Then wrap some tape around itself and attach it to the bottom inside of the bracket, directly below each solenoid so that the little piston rests on it when inactive, enabling it to work and dampening the sound. After determining where to exactly put the bracket so that all solenoids work properly, just screw the bracket into place through the outer walls of the rack.The switch is to be glued or taped to the front facing side of the 2 by 2. It should reveal above the bottle rest just enough so that when the bottle is placed on it, the switch is depressed and completes the circuit. The LED is taped to the bottom of the bracket so that the light shines towards the front.
Amendment - The LEDs took too much power from the solenoids, causing them not too function sufficiently or at all. For the final presentation, I took out the LEDs in the circuit so that could at least make some sound.

Step 4: Interfacing With Hardware

All eight solenoid circuits terminate at the optoisolator board. They then run into the digital ins of the Arduino. I am then able to control each solenoid individually by using the Max/MSP patch Maxuino.

Step 5: Controlling Solenoids With a Sensor

Tape four pressure sensors to a piece of 1 by 4 (7 1/2" in length) to create a hand-set controller (decorative scrap aluminum sides are optional). Each sensor can turn on/off a particular solenoid via Max/MSP. The sensors go into four of the Ardiuno analog ins. Make sure each sensor also connects (via breadboard) to 5v power and ground.
On the max patch the lefthand portion controls the individual solenoids and the righthand portion is a default ambient setting that randomly plays bottles using the fitting object drunk.

Attachments

Step 6: Video

Here is a video of the wine rack working without the LEDs: