Sure, Red Bull may have gotten a lot of attention by sponsoring Felix Baumgartner's space dive, but it's not the only beverage-maker that has made some great accomplishments possible. The Prague-based brewery Staropramen was a sponsor at the recent Webstock 2012 conference, where the folks from Robofun Create showed off this so-called Beer Keyboard built with the brewer's backing. As you can see, it's more beer than keyboard, with 40 cans of Staropramen serving as "keys" that just need to be gently pressed to input a letter. To make that actually work, Robofun paired an Arduino board with some capacitive controllers for the base, and connected that to a Raspberry Pi that linked the keyboard to the TV. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the keyboard has since gone missing. Head on past the break for a video.

Continue reading Beer Keyboard combines Arduino and Raspberry Pi... and beer

Filed under: Peripherals

Beer Keyboard combines Arduino and Raspberry Pi... and beer originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 20:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Quite possibly the two greatest things in the world -- beer and Arduino -- have been married once again in a hack does them both justice. Accomplished maker and alcohol enthusiast Jeff Karpinski turned a spare Uno and an Ethernet shield into a gadget that automatically checks him in on Untappd. The build is connected to his kegerator through a hall-effect flow sensor that sits in his tap lines. Every time he pulls himself a pint of homebrew, the Aruino makes an API call to the so-called Foursquare for beer nerds, and updates his profile. Obviously, publishing to the site every time the keg is tapped could get messy, so there's an automatic five minute time out to avoid getting repeat hits just for topping off. There's also a button that manually engages the five minute lock out, allowing Jeff to pour his buddies a cold one without claiming the drink for himself on Untappd. And updating is a snap thanks to the simple web server that's integrated. Changing what beer is on tap in the API call is as simple as opening a web browser. Interested in upgrading your own kegerator? Check out the source link for complete instructions and a parts list.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Internet

Arduino Kegerator hack checks in your homebrews on Untappd originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

[Jeff] admits that he’s pretty well addicted to Untappd, a site he describes as a Foursquare for beer. Like his fellow beer nerds, he enjoys reporting the pints he’s had, even if they happen to be from his own stash of homebrew kegs. Untappd certainly supports this level of dedication, but it seemed silly to [Jeff] that he needed to grab his phone each time he poured himself a cold one in the comfort of his own home.

He took a look around the room and spied an Arduino doing a whole lot of nothing, so he set off to build a system that would allow him to automatically record his drinking habits without the use of his smartphone. The system is not overly complex, and measures pours using flow sensors, uploading the results to Untappd using their “check-in” API. [Jeff] was sure to include several other useful features into his build, including a lockout timer that prevents multiple check-ins when simply topping off a pint, as well as “neighbor mode” which lets you pour a round for friends without recording the pour.

Be sure to check out the build in its entirety on [Jeff’s] site, and let us know if you’re doing something equally cool with your keg setup at home.

Happy to see the KegBot Project adding a new fancy Android shell as casing.

“If you are looking for an exciting hardware project, KegDroid deserves a look. It is a sophisticated system that involves Android, Arduino, NFC, plumbing and — beer. Perhaps the final stroke of genius is to package the whole thing in a Droid body. Some how the little green fella looks at home on the bar. You have heard of desktop and laptop apps now we have bartop apps to add to the list“

via [SlashDot]

The next time while organizing a barcamp you can display this cool hack for two great reasons: The obvious being to look cool, the other reason being well, there is Arduino and beer involved! Where both are cool.

Aptly named KegDroid, this beautiful beer dispenser was built by a google employee, Pall Carff, uses NFC reader to identify users and dispense beer.

It’s not just the beer dispensing that sounds awesome to us, oh no. KegDroid is packed to the brim with all sorts of clever tech, mostly from Google’s labs. The giant robot has a Motorola XOOM tablet running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich jammed into its belly, which runs a custom app designed by Paul.

An NFC reader sits between the two drip-catchers and interfaces with specially made NFC tokens, sending a message to an Arduino computer board that’s inside the case, which then controls the beer pouring from the taps situated in the arms of the Android robot.

So the next step can be a humanoid beer robot fetching us beer to our table when tweeted with an @RestaurantName with #tablenumber ?

Via:[GadgetHelpline]

Here's an instance of NFC technology that's more exciting than yet another tap-to-pay scenario. Google employee Paul Carff combined a Motorola Xoom running ICS with an Arduino microcontroller to create KegDroid, a friendly green beer dispenser. The Xoom acts as a gatekeeper to that brewed goodness, only letting the bot dispense drinks after users swipe an authorized badge. The badge is read by an NFC scanner on the bottom of the case and is then authenticated (or rejected) by the Arduino board. Once the system grants access, users can choose from two selections on tap via a custom Android application displayed on the Xoom's screen. As Android Community points out -- and as you'll see in the video below -- the KegDroid hasn't mastered a bartender-level pour (read: there's way too much foam). Still, this is oodles cooler than your average keg, wouldn't you agree?

Continue reading KegDroid dispenses beer with the help of a Xoom tablet and an Arduino board

KegDroid dispenses beer with the help of a Xoom tablet and an Arduino board originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.