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24 May 2010
Author: Giorgos Lazaridis
Instant Cold Coffee Machine





Worklog - The sugar - coffee dispenser (July 20 2009)

It was just about time. Too long have i been waiting for some parts. I received my powerful 12V steppers and my favorite IRF540 mosfets. After several hours of brainstorming and many many failures, i came up with the final dispenser mechanism. I tried some more complicated ways, yet once more it proved that, "mechanics loves simplicity because it works".





So, first of all, i had to make a controller for my stepper motors. The motors i got are unipolar hybrids with 7.5o step. I only want to rotate to one direction, so i made a very simple full-step controller. I did not want to have half-step, as this accuracy (7.5/2) would be way too much for my application. So, here is my simple unipolar hybrid full step stepper motor controller (as usual, i consider such circuits or theories as stand-alone entities and therefore i present them i different pages).

Then, i made a quick model to see if my idea works. It should work, as i have seen it working several times, yet i do not know if the motor, the speed and the worm pitch would fit my needs. oh i forgot to mention the design. I will use a worm from an old printer that i chopped once. This worm was pushing the ink. After 3 days of soaking inside some cleaning fluids, it was as clean as new. For my temporary model, i used a 0.5 lt water bottle and a 14mm plastic tube.:


I cut the top of the water bottle I cut the tube to about 15cm length, and with the angle grinder i removed a piece from the middle With the cone drills i made 2 holes one opposite the other for the tube to fit This is the first test module


Then i had to somehow fix the worm to the motor shaft. Easy:


For such jobs, i use the cable connectors! Perfect and cheap coupling for low speed applications. This is the motor assy


Using the stepper controller, i run a first test. The results were more than great! Full success. The motor torque is more than needed for this application, and the speed is high enough to empty the whole 0.5lt bottle in less than a minute. So, i began making the final module:


My new materials: A pair of 800ml PET containers with rotate-to-lock caps, the worms and an aluminum tube (not plastic). I cut the aluminum tube to size, and drilled with the cone drill the container. The tube fits perfectly and firmly! With the dremel i removed the piece from the tube This is the assy with the worm inside. Looks great!


It took me so many days of thinking and theoretical problem solving of this module! And yet it took me less than 2 hours to make it work. I really cannot tell you how difficult it was to come to this final design. It looks ridiculously easy but it is not. So, i made a temporary base to test it once more, and here it is:





Absolutely ready to be mounted to the coffee machine! And of course, i made another one exactly the same as this one for the coffee... The project is coming to an end!





A better base for the module (August 27 2009)

The base that i had above was only for test. Here is the final version of this module:


The new base is made of waterproof wood 16mm and 8mm acrylic glass I cut a piece from the acrylic glass and marked-drilled the motor holes on paper tape The motor is fixed on the acrylic glass plate and the plate itself on the wooden base This is more rigid than before isn't it?


Now a base for the tank:


From the same acrylic glass i cut a longer piece Marked and drilled 4 holes on the corners I used the same piece as template to drill the same pieces on the wooden base I made these holes through, and from the bottom side drilled them larger diameter to sink the nuts
4 M3 pieces from a ling screw will hold the tank platform I used 2 screws for each one to fix it on the wood, one above and one bellow, sinked in the hole. Then i put an extra nut on each one. The platform will be placed on these nuts... ...like this. Now i can level the platform parallel to the wooden base (and parallel to the motor shaft!)


And finally...


Using a precision measuring tool i leveled the platform with the base in all 4 corners And then i placed the tank on the platform I used hot-melt glue to fix it on the platform. The platform has larger in diameter holes, so that it can be moved (and adjusted) to it's plane... ...and it can also be adjusted to the plane of the base... After some adjustments, the shaft rotates absolutely free!

















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  • At 3 July 2015, 6:23:11 user Alex wrote:   [reply @ Alex]
    • Still watching this space every other month only to find the project still not being updated. Hoping to see some progress soon. :)


  • At 28 March 2014, 3:28:25 user Nikos wrote:   [reply @ Nikos]
    • re si, nomizo the "redux" version should have an optional milk stage too for those of us who prefer it a bit easier to drink :)

      subscribed on YT, keep up the good work!


  • At 18 January 2014, 7:31:43 user Giorgos Lazaridis wrote:   [reply @ Giorgos Lazaridis]
    • @Alex In Greece during the Ancient times there was this saying: "Oyden monimoteron ek toy prosorinoy" which means that "nothing is more permanent than the temporary".
      But now that you said that again, i think i should restart this project, shouldn't I? Hopefully within this year.


  • At 17 January 2014, 19:59:52 user Alex wrote:   [reply @ Alex]
    • Dude what happened with this project, there hasn't been any updates for quite some time now. Looking forward to see the end result :)


  • At 13 November 2013, 17:56:48 user Robert wrote:   [reply @ Robert]
    • This is a great invention! I especially like the straw delivery, it is perfect. how wonderfully useless! you are a genious!


  • At 16 September 2013, 15:38:37 user praveen wrote:   [reply @ praveen]
    • excellent job......


  • At 14 June 2013, 17:45:35 user Amir wrote:   [reply @ Amir]
    • Hi ,

      Great work . From where did you buy the worm gear extruder ? Can you give me a website for that .

      Many thanks
      Amir


  • At 29 March 2012, 21:03:02 user alex wrote:   [reply @ alex]
    • Hi you have a nice coffee Instant Cold Coffee Machine but you wanted to use a fridge for cold water but no water cooler that you use waron also in coffee automaaten is where you can get I know old water out of if not the name but it can look for you we have that built-in devices greetings alex
      mail alex.heijkens@kpnmail.nl


  • At 6 March 2012, 10:25:13 user Giorgos Lazaridis wrote:   [reply @ Giorgos Lazaridis]
    • @steve salvaged from an old photo copier. it was used to push the toner


  • At 5 March 2012, 13:56:29 user steve wrote:   [reply @ steve]
    • Where did you found the worm gear for the sugar and coffee supply?And awesome project.Good Job


  • At 9 January 2012, 9:40:16 user qwerty wrote:   [reply @ qwerty]
    • Tromeri i frapediera sou.bravo sou


  • At 24 August 2011, 11:38:08 user a.mira@vmcogulf.com wrote:   [reply @ a.mira@vmcogulf.com]
    • niccccccce i like this machine :) did you manufacuter it ???


  • At 26 July 2011, 17:53:16 user Sergio wrote:   [reply @ Sergio]
    • Excelent Job! Very good videos an explanations.

      Congratulations!


      Segio from Argentina


  • At 24 May 2011, 15:00:24 user Kammenos wrote:   [reply @ Kammenos]
    • @Fung no of course not. i will have different programs for different sizes. there are 4 sizes of cups (in respect to the volume)


  • At 24 May 2011, 14:24:55 user Fung wrote:   [reply @ Fung]
    • Do the cups which being used are restricted to the same size and same volume? (ie other cups are not allowed?)


  • At 14 May 2011, 19:27:58 user Ivan wrote:   [reply @ Ivan]
    • Great work.....


  • At 27 April 2011, 4:54:19 user Kammenos wrote:   [reply @ Kammenos]
    • @Dimitris it was part of an old photo copier, used to push the toner.


  • At 26 April 2011, 20:23:01 user Dimitris wrote:   [reply @ Dimitris]
    • Congratulations man!
      Awesome machine!
      Can you tell me, where did you find the 'worm' thing
      for the dispenser mechanisms?


  • At 27 March 2011, 6:16:30 user Kammenos wrote:   [reply @ Kammenos]
    • Hello George. Regarding the elements, these are hardware wiring to indicate wire connections between the modules. The orange boxes indicate wires coming from the output module (Digital Output Module - DOM), and the green indicate wires going to the Digital Input Modules. Notice that for example, from module "Rotary table", 4 wires comes out, then 2 of them arrive from the DOM and 2 goes to the CPU.
      As far as the diode is concerned, this is only for polarity protection. It is the same as the D2. But you are right, It is not necessary and i may not put it after all.


  • At 27 March 2011, 5:57:10 user George Hadley wrote:   [reply @ George Hadley]
    • I think your architecture diagram (first figure) is slightly confusing, because it seems to include elements of code (the elements above the CPU) with hardware elements. Ideally, you would have a system-level block diagram detailing your hardware and a separate functional block diagram to describe your code. If I'm misreading your architecture diagram, feel free to ignore this.

      Secondly, looking at your reset circuitry, I see you have a 1N4148 diode between your microcontroller pin and your ICSP header (pin 1). I'm fairly certain this diode is not necessary, so you may want to double check that.

      --George


  • At 25 March 2011, 11:45:30 user Fung wrote:   [reply @ Fung]
    • Why does PIC16F1937 have 2 Vdd's and 2 Vss's?


  • At 12 March 2011, 16:40:13 user de.das.dude wrote:   [reply @ de.das.dude]
    • you are sooooo awesome!!!

      there are no words to describe your awesomeness!

      i hope i can be as awesome as you!


  • At 25 May 2010, 1:53:39 user Tom Hargrave wrote:   [reply @ Tom Hargrave]
    • Frappé has become very popular here in the States. The difference is we use fresh coffee grounds to make coffee then we chill the hot coffee. But we tend to make more fresh coffee here while Europeans tend to make more instant coffee.

      To serve we pour some in a glass and add chipped ice.

      We also tend to add flavors to our frappé in the States. We can't leave a good thing alone - we have to tinker with it to make it more sellable.



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