BarBuddy Is Your New Drink-Mixing Bestie
BarBuddy is a drink-mixing best friend that lives on the counter and doesn’t expect tips.
Why do people go to bars instead of drinking much more affordable alcohol at home? For the atmosphere and socialization, mostly. But why else? Probably because bartenders have the knowledge and supplies to whip up exciting drinks. It may technically be possible to make a Mai Tai at home, but where would you even start? Nobody knows what ingredients go into a Mai Tai! Sadly, if COVID taught us anything, it is that we can’t expect bars to always be there for us. That’s why Jtaggard, AKA TinyBigDogDesigns, created BarBuddy, a drink-mixing best friend that lives on the counter and doesn’t expect tips.
We’ve seen a handful of cocktail maker robots over the years and they’re all exciting, but BarBuddy looks particularly sleek and professional. Through a friendly touchscreen interface, the parched user can select a recipe. BarBuddy will then dispense the specified amount of each liquor or mixer into a shaker. The user can give that a little rattle and pour it into their glass, completing the process.
BarBuddy can pump liquid ingredients from up to eight different 16oz condiment bottles to mix up to 50 different recipes. A Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ oversees the process and displays the user interface on a 7” touchscreen. The Raspberry Pi controls dispensing by toggling power to the pump motors with an eight-channel relay board. There isn’t a scale or any other kind of closed-loop feedback, so the Raspberry Pi just runs the motors for predetermined lengths of time.
This uses diaphragm pumps, which is a somewhat unusual choice. Projects like these tend to take advantage of peristaltic pumps because the liquid only needs to make contact with the tube, so sanitization is easy. We’re not sure how easy it would be to keep diaphragm pumps sanitized. Keep that in mind if you’re considering building your own BarBuddy.
The enclosure is a combination of laser-cut plywood and acrylic. That makes it affordable and easy to fabricate, while still pretty nice-looking. Once again, sanitization could be a bit of an issue as there is some bare wood exposed. However, this is just a fun DIY prototype and so it isn’t fair to expect it to meet the same food safety standards as a commercial product.
What matters is that BarBuddy looks good on a countertop while it spits out booze at the touch of a button.
