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Linux-Based Bar-Monkey

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the no-awkward-tipping-decisions dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Bar-Monkey is a bar built around a 486 running linux that can dispense an 8 ounce mixed drink in under 10 seconds. It uses a Matrix Orbital Serial LCD panel with a keypad built into the bar surface for user input. Three Harvey Mudd College students built the bar in their spare time last semester. The bar holds 16 ingredients with which it can currently mix 188 drinks stored in its drink database. Total project cost: $235."

19 of 540 comments (clear)

  1. kind of pianocktail ? by mirko · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Boris Vian fans will remember this jazz piano which was modified to create such drinks...
    Hey, in this time, nerds use to do jazz :-)

    --
    Trolling using another account since 2005.
  2. Linux good for you health! by GreyPoopon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Coupled with the latest study on alcohol and the heart, it looks like we can now officially say that Linux is good for your health!

    --

    GreyPoopon
    --
    Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?

  3. Needs ice by D3 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I didn't see ice being dispensed. How about a Lego robotic arm to grab a couple cubes and toss them in the glass!

    --
    Do really dense people warp space more than others?
  4. Re:Finally! by saskboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now if we combine those 3D printers with this project, and come up with a cheap material for the printer to use that can produce Crown Royal and Coke, then we're in business...

    --
    Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
  5. Re:Nice concept by j_kenpo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now that I think about it, this is actually a very good money making idea. This could work wonders in resturaunts and bars where heavy volume is a problem. Id probally do it a little differently so instead of reservoirs you just attach the actual bottle to it (similar to the Jaggermeister dispensers if youve ever seen one), but if youve ever seen resturaunt employees who have to wait on an overworked bar staff, you could imagine the potential for this. This is actually a very interesting idea, I give props to the creators..

  6. If they were smart... by Thud457 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    they'd make sure that they put the 'tip jar' server on a more robust machine!

    hmmmm.... I wonder if they're set up so I can use paypal to buy those guys a drink?

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  7. Re:Harvey Mudd? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I forget whether it was Henry or Harvey Mudd - but yes, it was. The story goes that the relevant Mudd was friends with a Star Trek writer. He is (or was, I believe he's dead now) a real person, and part of the Mudd family who founded the college.

    Anonymous HMC alum

  8. Liquor, Liquor, everywhere by wizarddc · · Score: 3, Interesting
    And not a drop (of water) to drink. GUess they like their drinks pretty strong at Harvey Mudd.


    The Bar Monkey, simply put, is a vending machine that serves mixed drinks. It houses 16 reservoirs which currently contain the following ingredients:

    * Vodka
    * Rum
    * Tequila
    * Whiskey
    * Gin
    * Amaretto
    * Triple Sec
    * Kahlua (or coffee liqueur)
    * Midori (or melon liqueur)
    * Orange Juice
    * Pineapple Juice
    * Cranberry Juice
    * Sour Mix
    * Cola*
    * Tonic*
    * Grenadine*
    --
    Th
  9. Windshield washer pumps! by wowbagger · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This guy is using windshield washer pumps to move the fluids.

    YUCK!

    Sorry, I'd rather use something less likely to contaminate the fluid I was moving.

    A peristaltic pump would be far better - you get volumetric measuring free, and you can use medical grade non-contaminating tubing.

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    www.eFax.com are spammers
    1. Re:Windshield washer pumps! by Juggle · · Score: 3, Interesting

      From the materials in the pump - windshield washer pumps are not food-safe and are not a very good choice for this project.

      That was one of my big questions when I first read this - how do they transfer the liquids.

      Why even bother with pumps in the first place. Why not use gravity and solenoids food grade solenoids are a LOT cheaper than food grade pumps and you can get them for about $10 each at most RV dealers - sometimes less if you buy in bulk. Then just use a PWM setup like a fuel injector to measure out the amounts of each liquid.

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      --- Juggle juggle@hitesman.com
    2. Re:Windshield washer pumps! by labratuk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah I think those would be great. Unfortunately the ones you were pointing to were specialised and very expensive. I think a good alternative would be to go to your local model shop and buy a fuel pump. These are used for getting the fuel into model planes etc. These are almost always peristaltic pumps. You can either get a ready motorised one or get a manual one and hook up a stepper motor to it for precision.

      As long as they've never been used to pump fuel they should be fine, plus as they are designed to pump fuels the alchohol should not make it perish or degrade.

      --
      Malike Bamiyi wanted my assistance.
    3. Re:Windshield washer pumps! by F00F · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There's a good story about the windshield washer pumps that I haven't seem anybody tell yet. Before I tell it, though, I need to say a few quick things. The first is that I've spent a fair amount of time with Harvey Mudd students recently, and they tend to be seriously gifted individuals. I've also spent time with M.I.T., CalTech, and Rose Hulman students (to name a few), and I have to say that the Mudders are seriously underrated on the global undergraduate stage. These folks are personable, inquisitive, dedicated, and enormously talented. And funny. Really funny.

      Forgive me if I'm telling it wrong, this is second- and third-hand information.

      Not long after the bar monkey became operational, it was being used over the course of an evening to serve cocktails in the lounge. When the students retired for the evening, they deactivated the monkey and left to finish their 'stems homework and whatnot. Later that night, there was a localized power disruption, though I don't know its duration. What I do know is that the monkey wasn't on a UPS of any sort (and for $200, can you really blame them?) and lost power.

      When power was restored, and the machine booted back into linux, the parallel port data bits were apparently all lifted high at some point in the boot process. This, unfortunately, meant that all of the liquor-dispensing windshield wiper pumps were briefly activated. Now, as someone who has hooked a large inductive load to a DC power supply can attest, the momentary current draw of having all of these pumps simultaneously active was not negligible. In fact, it overwhelmed the power supply, but only after a shot of Bottle 1 + Bottle 2 had been dispensed onto the floor. Vodka and rum, I believe it was.

      Now, when the power supply sensed its overcurrent condition (I believe this is how the story goes), it did the noble thing and: rebooted. You can see where this is going: lather, rinse, repeat. The rebooting webmonkey once again lifted its data pins high, once again tripped the power supply overcurrent sensor, and once again rebooted the monkey (all the while dispensing yet another tasty shot of Bottle 1+Bottle 2 onto the floor).

      By the time someone came back to check on the monkey in the morning (a few hours later), the monkey had apparently drenched the floor in vodka, and was still rebooting. I'm told only bottles 1 and 2 were drained, and that the rest of the precious nectar was left intact inside the monkey.

      I'm convinced that nobody who witnessed the aftermath of this event will ever again neglect the power cycling / bootstrapping phase of an electronic device. I don't have a link to it, but I seem to remember AT&T having a similar problem with their switching software across the Atlantic seaboard, maybe six or seven years ago. You can draw your own conclusions, but if I were trying to hire a hardware engineer (not that there's really any other kind, you wimpy IT CS MIS MSCE slashdot derelicts), I'd give much greater weight to their ability to explain the projects they've completed (and the associated lessons learned), than I would to a 4.0 GPA or a Cisco certificate of trainability.

      Mudd grads (math, science, engineering, and other) are presently worth four times their weight in silver the first year after they graduate -- and that's a bargain. They should be worth at least one twenty-fifth their weight in rhodium.

  10. I want one! by davidmcn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is awesome! This has plausable commercial implications. How nice would it be to goto a bar and not have to worry about tipping someone, you just slide your credit card or insert your money and select your drink and you get it in 10 seconds. If I owned a bar I would consider it. After all, the money stuff would be pretty standard to implement, people have been doing stuff like that for years. So say you need 3 for your bar to operate efficiently and you would normally have 2 bartenders working. So you spend $500 a piece on the robots, and you normally pay 2 bartenders $5/hour+tips to work the bar and your bar is open from noon to 3 am each day. That accounts for $150/day in employee expenses.

    Now you implement the robots and your initial investment in them is $1500 and cost to run is literally nothing but electricity. In addition you would need 1 person there responsible for checking IDs and swapping out liquours, so that is say $100/day because you aren't giving the person tips anymore. You've saved yourself approximately $50/day in operating costs which means in 30 days the robots have paid for themselves and you see profits increase by $50/day which over the course of the year is $18,250. I'd say this is a bloody good idea if someone had the resources to market and mass produce this.

    --
    Memories become legend, Legend fades to myth, and even myth is forgotten by the time that age comes again.-Robert Jordan
  11. How about the code and the parts list? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Hey, isn't it required that if its writen for Linux and posted on /. that they post the freaking source code. This page is devoid of any meaningful details, how about supplying some for those of us who'd like to give a go at building our own.

  12. Slightly OT by BitHive · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've always wanted to do little projects like this, where a computer controls various relays. The only thing I don't know how to do is get the computer to control them! Are there inexpensive kits that connect to, say, a serial port? I'd love it if anyone who has experience with similar things can tell me how to do this cheaply.

  13. Speed? by perfects · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > The Bar-Monkey is a bar built around a 486 running
    > linux that can dispense an 8 ounce mixed drink in
    > under 10 seconds

    I know, I know... If it used Windows it would take much longer.

    Doesn't the dispensing speed have a lot more to do with the pump than the OS or CPU? Why put that artificial slant on the opening paragraph?

    I mean, a GWBASIC program on a 4.77MHz XT running MS-DOS 2.0 could find an item in a list of 188 and send a control string to a pump in a very small fraction of a second.

  14. Some Suggested Improvements by bluveinr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1. Random Mode:

    -Dispenses a random drink of the 188 to the indecisive party-goer.

    2. Random Mix Mode:

    -Randomly mixes the available ingredients for the adventurous party-goer

    3. Breathalyzer based cutoff

    - Prevents users from drinking when they reach a certain BAL. Or makes a fun game to see who can blow the highest.

    4. Built in Drinking Games

    - Electronic quarters, name that TV theme, etc. Penalty drinks automatically assessed.

  15. Scratch Monkey by FunkyRat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ahh! I used up my mod points yesterday... Please someone mod the parent up -- this is really funny! And for those who don't get the reference...

    Long version: http://www.acme.com/jef/netgems/scratch_monkey.htm l
    Short version: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/scrat ch-monkey.html

  16. Re:Combinations... by Captain+Large+Face · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That should really be 16! (2, 092, 278, 988, 000), not 16^2 - 16, as a drink may consist of more than two ingredients (whether or not the glass could contain 16 measures is another matter). However, I hope it wouldn't suggest Coke and Tonic, 'cos that'd be nasty.