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The Kegbot Ideas are back on the Drawing Board

October 17th, 2008 Greg Leave a comment Go to comments

It’s been over two years since I built the kegerator and I remember thinking the next step was to turn it into a keg bot with many features connecting beer and internet. I read about a presentation where someone had created a device that served mixed drinks. I was again inspired to transform the kegerator into something more.

The basic feature: a way of measuring how much beer is dispensed and getting that data online.

A bit more advanced: record who is pouring a glass and send a twitter @ message to them saying “I’m fueling your addiction” or something clever. Maybe tie in with Foamee.

Maybe too expensive: use RFIDs to make it easier for the drinkers to get their beer without a hassle of inputting a twitter account.

I’ve been curious to know what percentage of the beer in each keg is drank by myself. It always seems like I drink more than everyone else.

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  • Arduinos are pretty fun. There is already plenty of code for sending tweets from an Arduino, but I'm not sure what hardware you would want to use for dispensing. If you already have some sort of electronic tap in mind, that would be best, although a servo on the handle could work too.

    Sparkfun has some fingerprint scanners that may be the way to go for IDing your drinkers.

    http://www.sparkfun.com/com...

    It's kinda pricy, but once it is setup, it just spits out a unique serial string, which is perfect for bringing into an Arduino.

    I would probably use a flex sensor to detect both when a glass is under the tap (whatever your glasses weigh) and when it has dispensed the right amount ("A pint's a pound the world around!")

    http://www.sparkfun.com/com...

    Glass on sensor
    Swipe Fingerprint
    Dispense frothy goodness
    weigh out a pound
    wait for flex sensor to register glass leaving
    send gratz via tweet

  • Thanks for the links. I'll probably go without the weight detection and automatic pour since I would like to be able to tilt the glass and I don't have all standard sized glasses. I think measuring how much flows out will be the method I use.

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