Man Builds Automatic Candy Dispenser Machine
This man built an automatic candy dispenser machine, keeping in mind Covid and social distancing. With a couple of home depot buckets and a festival around the corner, he wanted to build something fun. So, the machine he built was contactless, spooky, and absolutely futuristic.
Transcript
00:00Hey guys, I built an automatic Halloween candy dispenser.
00:04So, Halloween is just around the corner and I thought to myself, why not build an automatic
00:33candy dispenser and so I did.
00:35You activate it with this button here.
00:36You can also place it on the ground to step on it with your foot.
00:40And then candy comes out here and when some candy comes out the sensor is triggered and
00:44the ball goes on.
00:45And after 25 seconds the whole thing shuts down and you can activate it again.
00:50There's like 3 different sound effects and here we go.
01:20In a second I will show you how it works and if you want to build it by yourself there's
01:33also a step-by-step tutorial afterwards.
01:35I also will give away 40 PCBs if you want to build it by yourself.
01:39You just need to subscribe and leave a comment.
01:42And that's all for me.
01:43Thanks so much for watching.
01:44Bye bye.
01:45And this is how it looks like with some better lighting.
01:50And here it is without the pumpkin decoration.
02:06It's just a bucket from Home Depot because the color matches the Halloween theme.
02:10And here you go.
02:27And this is how it looks like from the inside.
02:29Normally there's a wall like this so you can fill it up with candy to the top but I removed
02:34it so you can see the action better.
02:36There's a turntable here which spins this way and by spinning it pushes the candy out
02:41to the hole here.
02:42And here are two sensors which are getting triggered when some candy falls over.
02:47When this happens the turntable spins backwards and prevents the other candy from falling
02:51out and also to loosen up the other candy.
02:55And that's about it.
02:57And here's how it looks like.
03:04I also tried different size candies and you can pretty much use everything that will fit
03:09to the hole here even like full size candy bars if you want to do this.
03:13If you want to build it by yourself there's a step by step guide coming next.
03:18I will give away 40 of those PCBs if you want to build your own Halloween candy dispensers.
03:23If you want to win just like, subscribe and leave a comment and in one week I will send
03:28out all the PCBs to the winners.
03:32Okay let's start assemble the turntable.
03:36This is the base.
03:37I already mounted the stepper motor.
03:42You can see I just used two screws that's more than enough.
03:51This is the turntable.
03:57As you can see I mounted the reinforcements here and here.
04:07First you also need like the little spacer here.
04:19And the big gear.
04:28And the lazy susan bearing.
04:44So and now the turntable is assembled.
04:56Now we need to put this on the base.
05:15To mount the nut you have to get like a little plier or something and you need to fill it
05:25around here.
05:47So to get this turntable into the bucket the best method is to flip it around and then
06:02lower the bucket upside down.
06:10Make sure the cables are not in the way.
06:17There you go.
06:26The best way to see where you need to cut the hole is to put in the turntable and then
06:32place it under a bright light like here so you can see where the line is of the turntable.
06:39I don't know if you can see it good in the video but here is the line.
06:44And then just put on the little exit thingy and trace around.
06:53I would suggest to go a little bit lower than the turntable so the candy can go out more
06:59easily.
07:02I would say maybe 5mm below the turntable.
07:08It's a little bit blurry but you can always adjust the hole afterwards.
07:15Just a good starting point.
07:31And here is the section I need to cut out.
07:35And here you go.
07:36Here is the hole and you see we are maybe a little bit too low but I think that's fine.
07:44If you put the exit right here the candy will fall out really easy.
07:54And it looks pretty good.
08:02Next I install this little thing that will flatten out the candy when it's going through
08:09this hole here so it doesn't get too stacked up.
08:15And this side will force the candy to go outside the hole here.
08:22I created a little paper ring here to put here inside so there is a little bit space
08:30in between and doesn't sit directly on the turntable.
08:35And we can adjust the height later with this thing.
08:40I don't know what it's called but you get the idea.
08:45So, we put it in here and now we need to mark where we put the holes.
09:027.1
09:16There is a little bit too much plastic here but we can easily scrape this away with the
09:34x-acto knife.
09:37Candy comes from here and it spins, spins, spins.
09:41And spin, spin, spin, spin, spin.
09:45There you go.
10:02So and that's it.
10:04So you can see how it looks from the inside.
10:11We can lower this so it will be flush with those things and no candy can go underneath here.
10:41Ta-da!
10:55And those are the two sensors to stop the motion when a candy will fall out.
11:02Like this.
11:12Okay, so I disassembled the bucket again because I want to add a little maintenance opening
11:19here when everything is assembled.
11:22There is like an easy way in without disassembling everything again.
11:27And for that I used the little thing we cut out for the opening here.
11:34And I already made some markings here.
11:37That's the other side and I just like made something here and here.
11:43So there is a little bit left for the screws and we can close this.
11:49So let me go to the garage and cut it out and see you soon.
11:53So here is the opening.
11:56Let's also cut some, drill some holes for the screws.
12:08Okay, so next thing we need to do is like drill some holes in the bottom to fixate the whole thing
12:19so it doesn't turn around on itself.
12:22And for that I already marked, I don't know if you see it, here and here.
12:31I did this by shining a bright light from here and then I put the bucket over the edge here
12:41and made the marking from beneath so you can see the stand quite nice from down there.
12:50But it's really hard to film so I didn't film it.
13:00And that's the two screws.
13:08You can see now it's just the motor is moving not the whole assembly.
13:16Here is the little circuit I made and now let's test if this still works.
13:23Okay, so now if I press the button here it should spin in this direction.
13:30And then if the sensor is triggered here it stops because this sensor will later be here
13:38and triggers when some candy falls out and then it spins a little bit backwards
13:44so that other candy doesn't come out.
13:50Okay, let's test it.
14:00Looks good and the sound is extra scary for the kids.
14:05Here you can see how I adjusted the height of the thing, I don't know the name.
14:13So it will be flush with the screws and also like this.
14:20So there will be a wall here.
14:25That's this part so you can fill it up to the top with candy.
14:41Okay, some kids made this.
14:44Okay, some kids maybe more lucky than the other ones but let's see.
15:07That looks like a successful test, right?
15:10That looks like a successful test, right?
15:14So some kids will get like three or four and some kids will just get one but I think that's okay.
15:22So this is the pumpkin I bought from Lowes.
15:28And it has already a built-in sound effect.
15:40And I need to remove this plate here with the sound effect and also create a bigger hole
15:46so the bucket will fit in like this.
15:56I will use the lid for the bucket as a template.
16:10Okay.
16:23So I also decided to make a hole here because it makes refilling the candy much easier
16:28and also to install the whole bucket inside of it.
16:34And for that reason I will use the cutout we did on the bottom and use this as a lid.
16:42So I will make the hole like this.
16:47And the rest I will rivet it to the pumpkin so the top will have a place to sit on.
16:55Maybe I will use some magnets to keep it there but I don't know yet.
17:04Okay, I think that's fine.
17:24Okay, and here is the hole.
17:33So I finished putting the ring here.
17:37And now that...
17:42Like this.
17:44Now we have like a lid and can put in candy and install the bucket and whatnot.
17:51So I also found this little guy here that's a little skeleton.
17:55And I think it looks very funny when the pumpkin head is like on top of it
18:00but it's not really stable so I cut out a little hole here.
18:06And on the top as well.
18:09And I found like this from an old project and I just sprayed a little black paint here on the sides.
18:14And I mounted a 2x4 in the middle with three screws.
18:20And now this will fit perfectly.
18:30And on top will go this round thing that's like the same size as the bottom of the bucket.
18:36And it will go here and now we have a really stable base for our candy dispenser.
18:43Okay, so the pumpkin decoration I bought had also this little sound device in the bottom.
18:51It's like a little PCB speaker.
18:57And a switch.
19:00So I removed it from the casing here.
19:09And I made another one.
19:14Okay, so I soldered the new cables onto the PCB.
19:20This is 5 volts, ground and here's the signal.
19:25The signal needs to be grounded to activate the sound effect.
19:31So let's mount it in the new casing and see if this still works.
19:48I think it works.
19:55I also made a little lid with just clips on it.
20:03And there you have it.
20:10I also found this really cool bowl and it has a light effect.
20:15And I want to trigger it when the candy falls out of the pumpkin.
20:22Then the light in this bowl will light up.
20:27So I think it makes a nice effect.
20:33It also came with like this little button to test it.
20:38And then if you press the button, it will go on.
20:44So I think we can use this to trigger it with Arduino as well.
20:50Okay, so here's the bowl with the gadget inserts.
20:55And I installed like this relay here.
20:59So I can put the candy in here.
21:03And I installed like this relay here.
21:07So I can trigger it with an output from the Arduino.
21:13And you get this power from here and it's the signal cable from the Arduino.
21:19And it's patched through here.
21:22And when the relay gets on, it connects it to the power.
21:29And let's demonstrate that for you.
21:33Let's get 5V to the input.
21:37You can hear the relay triggering.
21:47There you go.
21:50So here's the button which will activate the candy dispenser.
21:55It's quite big so you can really tap it with your foot.
21:59So here it's just like a spring loaded button.
22:04And here is like a micro switch that will go inside here.
22:08And when you press here, the micro switch here will activate.
22:15And I also added some LEDs.
22:20I had them left over from another project.
22:23It's RGB LEDs.
22:25And to control them, I added a little Arduino Nano.
22:32And this is how it looks like.
22:42So when the button is on the ground, it's easy to spot.
22:56And I maybe filled the holes here with some epoxy to make it watertight.
23:03But I don't know yet.
23:06And I installed them with a little bit of duct tape.
23:10And that's it.
23:13And this is how it looks assembled.
23:18I hooked it up to my multimeter so you should hear a beep now.
23:25It works.
23:30Okay, the PCB just arrived two days earlier. That's great.
23:34And here is the finished PCB.
23:39Looks great.
23:46At the end of the video, I will also give away 40 of the PCBs.
23:51So stay tuned and I will tell you later how to get one of those.
23:55Now let's assemble those.
23:59Here are all the items needed.
24:03And with the magic of video cutting...
24:08Okay, and here it is.
24:12Here is the Arduino. Here is the stepper motor driver.
24:17Here are all the terminals to connect the stuff.
24:20Here is for the button. Here is for the sensors.
24:22Here is for the extra items like the sound effect and also the ball.
24:33And here are some exits or ports not used yet.
24:39For maybe future stuff to hook onto. Maybe some other effects.
24:44And here is the power in.
24:47And this is power out 5 volts and here 20 volts goes in.
24:52And this is the voltage regulator.
24:55It will regulate the 20 volts down to 5 volts so it can support the Arduino
25:01and also the effects like the sound effect it runs on 5 volts
25:06and also the ball runs on 5 volts.
25:10So, not very complex.
25:14And now let's put everything together.
25:17So here is the chute and I already installed the sensors here and here.
25:23And on the back you can see it's not pretty but it works.
25:27I used a lot of hot glue to fix the sensors to the chute.
25:35And it's dry now. Let's see if it still works.
25:38It still works.
25:41So the LEDs go on and if you trigger the sensor it will go green.
25:54Okay, so let's assemble everything and test the candy dispenser.
25:59Okay, so here is the whole thing assembled but not put together.
26:05So let's see if this works.
26:09Now we put in the power.
26:16You can see the lights come on at the button.
26:21And if you press here.
26:24And if the chocolate comes out, the ball goes on.
26:42And after 10 seconds the ball goes out again.
26:45And after 10 seconds the ball goes out again and is ready for the next kit.