Tomorrow I'm honored to be a panelist on Talking to the Future, an all-day event at the Computer History Museum ( Read more... )

The one last thing I'd hoped to add to ThinBot for Robogames this year was motion, to swing the glass in and out from under the spout, making it easier to place a glass and pick up the finished drink.

I'm happy to report I got it working!

( Photos and Video under the cut )

Last night I got pumps 9 and 10 wired and mounted. They will cantilever off the back of ThinBot's frame to be less obtrusive.

( Photos under the cut )

Today I made the nozzle jets for the heat exchanger. The final 2" is bent (electropolished=food-safe) stainless 1/8" OD tubing. This constriction at the end of the line (the rest is all 3/16" ID) should accelerate the ingredients into a set of streams that mix better in the glass.

( Pix under the cut )

Today I finished milling the new glass stand for Thinbot, and test assembled it. I still have to wire up the switch and update the code to recognize it.

( Pix under the cut. )

I've made the first pass with the milling machine on the glass rest. It now has a slot to pass the stem of an up glass or other stemware.

( photo under the cut )

Yesterday I did a complete assembly of the heat exchanger. It's so shiny :-)

( Photos under the cut )

The parts came back from the anodizing shop. I'm really pleased.
( photo )

I've been working on a replacement chiller (heat exchanger) to replace the steel-tubes-through-cocktail-shaker assembly on the front of ThinBot. I just dropped it off at PK Selective Metal Finishing to be blue anodized.

Before I could do that, though, I had to do a test assembly to make sure it actually went together.

( Photos under the cut )

One of the upgrades I finished in time for BarBot: Automatic! 2013 was the artwork for the pump-mounting panels on ThinBot. This was done by trimming the panels to the right height, then masking each panel with adhesive vinyl (Cut on the CNC vinyl cutter at TechShop SJ) and sandblasting. The result looks like a fusion of white milk glass and shiny ( Read more... )