Projects

Expecto Patron! v1.0

Say the magic words, "Expecto Patron!" This was an attempt to make a magic drink fountain for a Harry Potter themed New Years Eve party which we threw. The premise was that by waving a wand at it, liquor would pour out into a shot glass.

Hydraulics

Hydraulically the fountain was gravity fed. When you wave the wand which contained a retro-reflective tip in front of the camera in a specific pattern it would open the solenoid valve for a set amount of time to allow the shot glass to fill.

3D Printed

I designed the fountain from scratch except for the wizards head which I chameless stole from Thingiverse and modified to mount onto the back and connect to the tubing. I then printed it in Marble PLA filament on my old Dremel 3D20 FDM printer.

Raspberry Pi

Controlled via a Raspberry Pi. The program was borrowed from a lamp project online and re-purposed. My friends Simon and Chris did the coding for this.

Lessons Learned and Future work

Hydraulics

For the next iteration I plan to use a pump to dispense the alcohol so that it doesn't need to be gravity fed and is more portable in that sense.

3D Printed stand

Since this project was last completed I have purchased a larger printer and can print a larger fountain to contain both the components and the liquor as well.

IR Blaster

We discovered that the single IR LED did not supply enough IR light to get a clear reading on the camera. For the party we added a separate array which worked but the next iteration will have the array built into the body of the fountain.

Bonus images from party

Floating lantern bar

3D Printed Wands and Crest

Quidditch Pong

Print all the wands!

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