ZlodeiBaal April 16, 2012 at 19:31

Geller's Alcoholic Organ

^{Galleger played without notes and without looking at the keyboard. It would be completely natural if he were a musician, but Galleger was an inventor. A drunkard and a madman, but a good inventor. He wanted to be an experimental engineer, and probably would have achieved outstanding success in this, since moments dawned on him. Unfortunately, he did not have enough funds for systematic research, so Galleger, a conservator of integrators by profession, kept his laboratory for the soul. It was the worst nightmare laboratory in all the states. He spent ten months creating a device, which he called an alcoholic organ, and now he could, lying on a comfortable soft sofa and pressing buttons, pour drinks of any quality and in any quantity into his tinned throat. Only now he made this organ, while being intoxicated, and, of course, now did not remember the principle of its action. It's a pity...}
(c) Henry Kuttner , Tales of Geller .

About a year ago, my friends and I decided to make a short film. Naturally, up to this point, none of us have ever made films. And what can the graduates of the physics and technology college make a film about? Well, of course! About science fiction and about alcohol. Therefore, without further ado, the favorite book was taken - Henry Suttner's “ Robot-Sneak ”.
But this article is not about a film that has not yet been completed and is not finished, but one of the devices from the film, which I decided to make. Of course, a film could have been used in the film. But who will refuse the opportunity to have fun with this device! So, Alcoorgan and its creation ...

In a book, an organ is an almost individualistic machine. Gelleger squeezes the keyboard and a finished drink is injected into his mouth through the tube. I decided that in my body the drink would not be served in the mouth, but in the glass. It’s somehow more hygienic all the same, because many friends will want to try the device. And in the film, no one will notice a big difference. Now you can often meet robotic bartenders: first , second, third, etc. But I did not go to extremes and move away from the original, making a robotic cocktail mixer. In the creation of the organ, I wanted something that would look like a disgrace assembled from improvised means and replete with references to the retro futures. In my opinion, such a thing must necessarily have manual control from something similar to a piano keyboard.
Also, I decided to add one additional Wow factor. Since there is a keyboard, then besides controlling the supply of alcohol, this keyboard plays notes. Hardly anyone tried to drink according to the notes and try a properly constructed musical cocktail. In addition, remembering not the recipe of the drink, but its melody ... This is definitely an opportunity to feel like a synesthetic. The result of the entertainment is at the end of the article. And now a description of the elements of the organ and the process of its manufacture.

Flow control

The heart of the device is an electromechanical device that will be responsible for supplying fluid. Initially, as soon as I started to come up with the design of an alkaloorgan, I wanted to use some kind of simple motor capable of pumping fluids. But, delving into the problem, I realized that solenoid locks would be the best device for the price / ease of production . Of course, they cannot pump liquid, but they are easy to use and not particularly expensive. And it is enough to suspend liquid from above and to let on a hose.

When using solenoids, they must be connected to the tube system. If the tubes are flexible, fittings are used for this (two for each solenoid). The fittings must be screwed in first by wrapping them with a fluoroplastic thread, or its substitute. The tubes are attached to the fittings by means of clamps.

Handsets

An epic laboratory device is not epic if it does not have many tubes. In my opinion, the tubes should be transparent to see the gurgling of the desired fluid. For some reason, they are very rare on sale. Yes! If suddenly someone will assemble a similar device - I advise you to check the hose for compatibility with alcohol: pour a piece of it with vodka, which you should carefully try after three days. Some hoses may dissolve!

Dishes for alcohol

At the initial stage of the design, I didn’t particularly bother about which dishes to pour alcohol into. It seemed to me that ordinary bottles would come down. But the closer the moment the assembly began, the more it became clear to me that this would not work. In bottles there are not only various fasteners of caps. They often have dividers that would interfere with the return air flow. The idea that I needed to do something overtook me more and more often, until I understood how to solve the problem. To do this, it was enough to recall that virtually any kind of glassware exists in laboratory glassware stores. Most of all I liked dividing laboratory funnels. They come in different sizes, like the tubes of a real organ, it’s convenient to bring tubes to them, they have a natural flow of air into the vessel. The only modification that needs to be done is to lightly wind the electrical tape over that part of the tube to which the hose will be attached with a hose clamp. Without this, there is a chance to damage the tube or not be able to firmly fix the clamp.

Sound

Let's finish with hydraulics and move on to an electronics much closer to the techie’s heart. I had a lot of ideas on how to make a sound. The first of these was the idea of soldering seven multivibrators. But my laziness did not allow me to do this. The second idea was to put some processor on which to generate the output signal. I’ll probably come back to this idea in the future if I want to patch the current version of the organ. I realized a much simpler idea. For about half a year now I had Arduino ... Why not generate a signal on it? And then there's the corresponding poston a subject in a subject. But, I could not get the desired speed. In addition, the output signal is somehow clumsy, the sound is disgusting. But the Arduino had a tone function. Unfortunately, it can produce only 1 sound at a time. So there are no chords in the current version of the organ. The sound is produced by the program written below (a small modification of the tone example). Also added a switch so that you can play in two keys:

 #include "pitches.h"
int melody[] = {
  NOTE_C4, NOTE_D4,NOTE_E4, NOTE_F4, NOTE_G4,0, NOTE_A4, NOTE_B4, NOTE_B4};
  int melody2[] = {
  NOTE_C3, NOTE_D3,NOTE_E3, NOTE_F3, NOTE_G3,0, NOTE_A3, NOTE_B3, NOTE_B3};
  int start = 0;
// note durations: 4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note, etc.:
int noteDurations[] = {
  4, 8, 8, 4,4,4,4,4 };
void setup() {
  pinMode(2, INPUT);  pinMode(3, INPUT);
  pinMode(4, INPUT);  pinMode(5, INPUT);
  pinMode(6, INPUT);  pinMode(8, INPUT);
  pinMode(9, INPUT);  pinMode(10, INPUT);
  for (int thisNote = 0; thisNote < 8; thisNote++) {
    int noteDuration = 1000/noteDurations[thisNote];
    tone(11, melody[thisNote],noteDuration);
    int pauseBetweenNotes = noteDuration * 1.30;
    delay(pauseBetweenNotes);
    noTone(11);
  }
  start = 1;
}
void loop() {
  if (start = 1)
  {
    int j =0;
    int note = 0;
    for (int i=2;i<10;i++)
    {
      if (digitalRead(i)!=0)
      {
        if (j<1)
        {
          note=i;
          j++;
        }
      }
    }
    if (digitalRead(10)==1)
    {
    if (note!=0)
      tone(11, melody[note-2], 220);
    }
    else
    {
          if (note!=0)
      tone(11, melody2[note-2], 220);
    }
      delay(0.2);
  }
}

As a device making a sound, I decided to use old speakers, which almost died five years ago, but my hand did not rise. It is quite enough to give out a sound of constant frequency. In addition, convenient power from 12 volts.

Nutrition

By the way, to the issue of nutrition. Solenoids and speakers were powered by 12 volts, which is very convenient. As a power supply, I took nes-15-12 .
Arduino is powered by 5 volts, so I had to use the l7805cv, which is connected according to a well-known scheme:

Keyboard

Ideas on how to make the keyboard also rushed back and forth. At first I planned to use some kind of keyboard, broken out of a children's toy. But finding something suitable turned out to be beyond my strength. I did not want to order via the Internet (little is clear from the photo). A walk around a dozen children's stores yielded nothing but a positive sensation from the eyes of sellers:
"-You have a piano for a girl or for a boy?
-For an alcohol organ!"
Desperate, I went to Chip and Deep, to look at the proposed switches. And suddenly there an insight opened up for me! Using a small amount of hot-melt adhesive and wood from microswitches B180EYou can make a wonderful keyboard! Of course, there was a slight perversion - I put one switch on the sound, and the second on the solenoid, where one could get by. But on the other hand, the buttons on the two microswitches are more stable. Oh yes! And also a wonderful mechanical response! From minor flaws: when I made the board to which I connected the power and Arduino, I assumed that the switch would just open the circuit. Therefore, I did braces to zero. But in the B180E they were not needed. So now it looks a little strange. As a result, after connecting to the Arduino, the music block worked like this:

Alcoorgan!

What. So we got to the very organ. I can’t say that it looks exactly the way I originally wanted it. But something close to Kuttner's work is felt in it.

So far, I have made him a temporary leg to stand on the floor. In the film, he will hang on the wall. A couple of photos of the device: