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Another Ambassador Moment: Google Home-Enabled Smart Barista

2021-05-14 | By Will Siffer

License: Attribution Non-commercial Raspberry Pi

Design Justification

When cramming for an exam or working on completing a difficult homework assignment, college students often find themselves in need of a caffeine fix. This project, inspired by a Hackershack post, uses a Google home to dispense coffee on demand, demonstrating the ability to connect a python script to the internet and control Raspberry Pi GPIO pins through the internet.

 

Bill of Materials 

Construction

The construction of the barista was intentionally simple. The best part of designs like this one is that you can change the way it looks in order to fit your needs best. For me, that meant putting the electronics in the top of the barista so they were safe from possible spills. If I were to make this again, I would make the enclosure for the electronics larger so I could accommodate upgrades in the future.

Wireframe%20Dimensions

The above picture shows my process of brainstorming and working through the design for the barista. Below is the schematic that I used. This schematic was pulled from the Hackershack article linked in the beginning of this post. 

Rpi%20Schematic

Network Communication Chain

For the Google Home command to reach the barista, it must pass through various channels. The command begins at the Google Home device, which is linked to If-This-Then-That (IFTTT). The IFTTT service is designed to give signals from one internet-enabled device to another, so the Google Home drink signal gets sent to the IFTTT applet, which routes the signal to whatever output is defined. In this case, the output of the IFTTT applet is at webhook sent to Webhook Relay. 

Once the webhook arrives at Webhook Relay, it is “relayed” to the barista, which runs the webhook receiver software locally. Finally, the local Barista Webhook Relay software sends the command to the barista control code, and the drink is made.

Cleaning the Barista

The barista has a built-in command for cleaning that turns on the pumps so water can be run through the lines and the drink components can be purged from the system. This keeps the barista clean in most cases, but if lines are ever in too bad of a condition, they can be easily replaced at little cost to the user. 

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