Have you ever gotten up off the couch to get a beer for the umpteenth time and thought, "What if instead of ME going to get the BEER, the BEER came to ME???" Well, that was how I first conceived of the beer launching fridge. About 3 months and several hundred dollars later I have a fully automated, remote controlled, catapulting, man-pit approved, beer launching mini-fridge. It holds 10 beers in its magazine with 14 more in reserve to store a full case. It is controlled by a keyless entry system. Pressing unlock will start the catapult rotating and when it is aiming at your target, pressing unlock again will stop it. Then the lock button can be pressed to launch a beer in the selected direction.

Almost all of the raw materials for the refrigerator were purchased from McMaster-Carr, some motors came from Jameco, and the switches/potentiometer were purchased at RadioShack. In total the beer launching refrigerator uses 3 limit switches. Two of which are triggered when the elevator reaches the top or bottom of its travel, and one is triggered when the catapult arm is fully ****ed. I also have a potentiometer that is connected to the rotating catapult platform. The voltage across the potentiometer is read by the microcontroller to sense the angle of the catapult platform.

The Beer Launching Fridge Video

The beer launching refrigerator.

Above is an image of the 10 beer magazine fully loaded.

When the elevator is bringing a beer up, the next beer in line is held back by a spring loaded retaining arm as shown above.

The catapult ****ing mechanism is shown in the picture above. The large sprocket rotates freely on the main shaft. The screw sticking out of the big sprocket contacts the other machine screw, which is attached firmly to the shaft. The sprocket rotates the catapult arm until it latches and contacts a limit switch, and then rotates out of the way so the arm can spring forward unhindered.

Here is an image of the circuit board I had made from expresspcb for the beer fridge. It uses an ATMEGA8535 for the main microprocessor, 3 intelligent H-bridges to control the motors, a Darlington transistor array to control the solenoid, and a MAX232 for RS232 debug io.

Here is the catapult ****ed and ready. The solenoid which releases the arm is out of view on the left.

This is a view of the springs with the ****ing motor in the background. At full extension the springs have a torque of about 40 inch-pounds.

When the beer elevator is at its top position the spring loaded bottom portion is tilted down to empty the beer can into the catapult.

Here is a view of the motor which rotates the catapult platform via a gear/gear rack. The solenoid which triggers the launch as well as the Pyle Watchdog remote entry receiver are also visible.

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-- Edited by Ruby at 20:34, 2007-02-26