IR Breakbeam Candy Dispenser with Zelda Music

Categories: Beginner

Originally published at https://www.hackster.io/nickericlester/ir-breakbeam-candy-dispenser-with-zelda-music-c76e65.

Motivation:

Have you ever really had fun just pulling candy out of a bag? I haven’t. Instead, I would sometimes come up with games to make eating my candy more fun. I would eat different colors in groups, try to toss Skittles into my mouth, etc. This motivated me to build a dispenser that would make eating Skittles more enjoyable. I combined the fun of using automated machines with my favorite game series The Legend of Zelda to create this device. It automatically activates when you place your hand in the beam and plays a Zelda song while it dispenses! I personally use it for dispensing Skittles, but it can be used for candies of similar size or easily adapted to other candies.

Overview:

This candy dispenser activates when you place your hand underneath the dispensing slot and break the IR beam. When you break the beam, it will play a song from The Legend of Zelda. When the song finishes and you are now happy from having listened to the song, it will make you even happier when the servo turns and gives you candy! While all of this is going on, a force sensitive resistor inside the candy storage chamber will take weight measurements that will be converted to "fill percentage." This "fill percentage" will then be displayed on a hex display in the dispensing area. The dispenser can play every song that can be played on the ocarina in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

The front of the candy dispenser

Electronics, Hardware:

There are six main electronics hardware components: a
Pocketbeagle
, an
IR breakbeam sensor
, a
Force Sensitive Resistor
, a
standard servo
, a
piezo element
, and an
i2c backpack hex display
. The piezo element and servo are connected to pwm pins and take signals for sound and movement respectively. The Force Sensitive Resistor is connected to an analog input pin and reads force as an input from 0 to 1. The IR breakbeam sensor is connected to a GPIO and reads a 0 for broken and 1 for connected. The i2c backpack hex display is connected to a GPIO set to out. The components are connected to the Pocketbeagle using jumper wires for ease of use.

Electronics, Wiring:

The fritzing diagram for the candy dispenser is shown below:

Candy Dispenser Fritzing Diagram

Servo Connections:

PWM –> P2_1

GND –> GND

VCC –> 5V

IR Transmitter Connections:

GND –> GND

VCC –> 3.3V

IR Receiver Connections:

SIG –> P2_2

GND –> GND

VCC –> 3.3V

Note:
10k Ohm pull up to 3.3V for SIG

Force Sensitive Resistor Connections:

Output –> P2_35

VCC –> 3.3V

Note:
15k Ohm pull down to ground for output

Piezo Element Connections:

PWM –> P2_3

GND –> GND

Hex Display Connections:

SCL –> P2_9

SDA –> P2_11

GND –> GND

VCC –> 5V

Note:
10k Ohm pull up to 3.3V for SCL

Note:
10k Ohm pull up to 3.3V for SDA

Device Enclosure:

The device enclosure consists of two halves with one resting on top of the other. There are slots to pass wires through and press fitted slots and holes to place the hardware components. The top candy storage area has two ramps that funnel the candy towards the dispensing slots.

The top candy storage compartment

The entire enclosure was cut out of 5.1 mm plywood using a laser cutter. It is all press-fit with no glue used. The Adobe Illustrator files for the enclosure are attached below.

The two thing you will need to make yourself is a hinge mechanism for the dispensing door and a connection mechanism between the dispensing door and the servo. This connector can be made with a rigid object of the proper size and length. In my version, this is done using a skinny dowel.

Skinny wooden dowel connecting the dispensing door and servo