Spice rack

Design

Automatically dispense measured spices. Load sensor to measure how much is dispensed. I'm not sure if it would be cheaper to put a small motor on each output or do some sort of multiplexing. I do want to make sure that the whole thing is top-loading, bottom-dispensing.

One microcontroller will directly control the rack - which spice to dispense, how much to dispense including the weight difference calculation.

The big challenge is UI. It needs to be able to take a recipe or specific request. I'll probably want to put a simple web-server in place to manage this. The question is how to do this; I could put something like a rasPi in the spice rack and have it run a server. Or I could just add an FTDI chip and have it read commands right off the network - but this still comes with the complication that I need to give it a password.

As I'm looking at this option, it may be the most practical - I can add voice control. This would allow me to make simple requests (1/2 teaspoon salt) and input a wifi password.

Trickler Design

Each spice container will have a powder trickler at the bottom with an exposed drive wheel. At the center, we have 3 motors. One spins the whole thing to select a spice. A linear actuator moves a stepper in contact with the drive wheel. This should make the individual containers fairly cheap. The design can either be radial or axial. I'm leaning towards axial, it will be fairly long (~3 ft) but neither tall nor deep.

A miniature version of this may work well.

Spices

• salt
• basil
• oregano
• cinnamon
• baking soda
• baking powder
• ginger
• nutmeg
• paprika
• black pepper
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• cayenne

So maybe plan on 20

Staples

If it works, I may build a second for staples:

• white flour
• whole flour
• white sugar
• brown sugar
• rice