Automatic Beverage Mixing Machine
In every semester, students in the Software Engineering major work on some practical software projects of their choices. Most projects intend to let students apply their knowledge in the respective course by building or making a system or product. This article will cover about an outstanding project in Microprocessors and Interfacing course, class of 2018: Automatic Beverage Mixing Machine, by two third-year Software Engineering students Sitinut Waisara and Warakorn Jetlohasiri.
Automatic Beverage Mixing Machine aims to mix beverages from various base ingredients in the right proportion. This machine helps people to produce “perfect-tasting” drinks by combining the precise, consistent amount of ingredients.
This project uses LPCXpresso 1769 microcontroller from NXP as the main processing unit which controls all the system. Alongside with the LPC board, the developers make use of 12-volt pump motor, L298N motor driver and rubber tubes for fluid pumping mechanism, also buttons and colour LED screen for the user interface. The developers deployed responsive software in this machine’s computer, by using non-blocking input-output through the concepts of interrupt and timer.
In the testing and demonstration period, the Automatic Beverage Mixing Machine is capable to mix four different base ingredients, namely lime soda, cola, vodka (not in use) and Blue Hawaii. It can produce four types of beverages: Lime soda (from only lime soda), Cola lemon (cola + lime soda), Blue Hawaii (Blue Hawaii + lime soda) and All-in-one (combining all ingredients). After specifying the quantity to make, the machine starts to pump out the required beverages out of tubes, into a cup.
Sitinut’s and Warakorn’s project was finished successfully on time. Automatic Beverage Mixing Machine can correctly produce a drink specified by the user’s request. Although there are still some imperfections, such as slow interface image loading and material durability, they are satisfied with this achievement.
Written by Damian Satya Wibowo, a student in B.Eng. In Software Engineering, International College, KMITL.
Course title: Microprocessors and Interfacing
Project Team: Sitinut Waisara and Warakorn Jetlohasiri.
