Automatic Espresso Loader for those Late Night Hack Sessions

[Diablo]

For [Roy's] graduate electronics class, he decided to make something that many in and out of the hacking world would certainly love, an automatic espresso loader.* One can choose from three flavors available. In order to accomplish this, a Parralax Propeller board is used to control three servos that regulate the amount of coffee dispensed, chosen by a handy LCD HMI (human machine interface).

After the coffee is dispensed, the chute swings out of the way. A modified inkjet cartridge carrier (from a dead printer) is then used to compact the beans. Check out the video of this machine in action after the break.

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Not only is this machine well built with what appears to be a clear polycarbonate shell, It uses other standard hacker fare, including: servos, recycled printer parts, a Parallax processor, and a LCD display. This machine has only been tested with salt so far, and the “valves” are only simple flat plates attached to servos.* This machine is still somewhat of a prototype, but it’s a really neat hack nonetheless.


Filed under: cooking hacks