The Morning Machine

Have you ever woken up in the morning to your annoying alarm and then walked all the way to the kitchen just to go through the effort of pouring your on drink. Well look no further! This instructable will teach you how to make a machine that can not only tell you the temperature, it will also pour you a drink just like one of those soda machines you see in fast food restaurants!

This machine consists of several parts that are comparable with an Arduino and this project does require you to have an LED screen as well as some spare cardboard. As long as you have these, you'll be able to make your own morning machine!

Step 1: Gather Materials

Before starting, you will obviously need to make sure you have the following materials:

- Spare Cardboard

- Arduino Compatible Pump

- Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

- Jumper Wires

- Pressure Pump

- Batteries

- Temperature Sensor

Step 2: Determine Your Layout

It is important that you first determine how you are going to lay each of the components and in what shape you will lay them in before starting to make the machine. I first started this project by designing what the machine would look like on the inside and the outside.

As shown in the first image, it is evident that I wanted the machine to have a similar structure to that of a house. The battery would be placed vertically to save space and the Arduino would lay on top of it. The pressure pad will be stuck to the wall of the cardboard on the right side with one of the tubes sticking from the top to pour the drink from and the pump will be placed next to the battery. The left side will be covered so that it has a better appearance to the viewer.

The second image shows the side view of the machine. As evident, the bottle of the drink of the consumer's choice will be placed at the back of the machine with a tub that will extend into the drink. This tube will suck the drink and carry it towards the other side of the machine to dispense it into the consumer's cup as the pressure pad is pushed.

The third image shows what the machine will look like finally with the LCD placed on the roof that will display "GOOD MORNING" and the temperature using a temperature sensor that will be placed inside the roof.

Step 3: Inserting the Pump

The first thing I did was to get the pump working with a 12 volt battery. After getting it working, I used the design I had made to place this where I had planned to place it in the machine. I then inserted the battery and placed the Arduino above the battery as I said I would in my design. I was able to do all of this with the use of duct tape and hot glue. Just looking at the image, it is very easy to see that the wires are not organised at all, however, in the next picture, there is a door that closes and covers the wires, battery, Arduino and pump making only the pressure sensor visible.

After inserting the pump, I then taped the pressure sensor carefully to the wall of the box so that the user can use a cup to press against it and get their drink poured out from the tube above.

You will also see two diagrams showing how to connect the wires for the water pump and the pressure pad. PLEASE DO NOT COPY THOSE DIAGRAMS AS THE CODE PROVIDED IS NOT CORRELATED TO THAT.

Step 4: Inserting the LCD

After implementing the pump into the machine, it was time for phase 2: implementing the LCD. The LCD will read "GOOD MORNING" and provide the temperature using the temperature sensor. For this, I have made use of another Arduino and placed this in the roof of the Machine. Doing this will allow me to receive a more accurate temperature of the surroundings as it is better if it is further up on the machine than on the bottom being covered. I dedicated this Arduino to connect to both the LCD and the temperature sensor as the Arduino will need the information that is needed to be sent to the LCD.

I have also posted the diagram for the LCD and temperature sensor. You CAN use this diagram for reference as it is correlated to the code provided.

Step 5: Finishing Touches

Now that the project is done, you can do whatever you would like to personalise it yourself. I did not have time to personalise mine but I like mine just the way it is: ugly :) . Feel free to paint over the cardboard and even try to implement other stuff you would want on your morning machine. Such as implementing a piezo buzzer for the alarm to wake you up in the morning.

Hope you enjoyed!