Color By Code Paint Mixing

Trying to replicate a color that you’ve manually mixed before when painting is largely an exercise in frustration. Frida Moreno and Asmat Kaur Taunque's Color By Code automatic mixing machine, however – which uses an Arduino plus a series of four peristaltic pumps to add just the right amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK coloring) to your paint mixture – lets you produce a specific paint color every time.

Color By Code was designed in Fusion 360, and 3D-printed to resemble a Keurig coffee machine. While not coffee-themed per se, the size and shape seemed optimal for dispensing fluid while keeping the pumps hidden inside. The device also has an optional magnetic stirring setup in the base, allowing for further automation of the mixing process.

An Arduino Nano Every controls everything and a notebook computer serves as the user interface. Color values are input as percentages. A 12V battery powers the device, and two L298N driver boards actuate the four peristaltic pumps.

While a functional build now, future iterations could include a microcontroller with Bluetooth capabilities, enabling a more advanced phone/app interface via a color selection grid. Implementing a weight sensor for paint measurement (rather than the flow control used now) might also be considered for enhanced color accuracy.

The mixing process is shown in the two videos below. This starts out with the actual paint mixing, then finishes with a cleaning cycle where it flushes the lines out with water.