Whenever I’m grocery shopping, I always find myself trying to remember whether I still have enough beer in the fridge. Inevitably, I end up buying another case because, well, you can never have too much beer.
If you’d like to know how many beers are left in your fridge while you are at the store, or if you’d like to know if anyone is helping themselves to your Cold Ones while you are at work, or if you just want to track your drinking habits, David Sulpy has a great DIYÂ project that turns a Raspberry Pi and Wii Balance board into a beer-measuring system.
The “Fridge of Awesomeness” is a beer fridge that is connected to your laptop, desktop, or mobile device using a handful of sensors and a Rasberry Pi connected to a cloud service run by Initial State. Once installed, you can access data regarding your mini fridge from anywhere.
The project requires a Raspberry Pi 2 starter kit that includes a few items, like 8 GB MicroSD card, Breadboard, a 40-pin breakout board with ribbon cable, two 10K Ohm resistors, and a MicroUSB power supply.
You’ll also need a Wii Balance Board, a Wii Fit rechargeable battery pack, and a Bluetooth adapter so the Raspberry Pi can talk to the Wii Balance Board. Plus, a few more sensors, like a digital temperature sensor and a contact switch. And, don’t forget a mini fridge.
Following the detailed instructions on GitHub, you’ll set up the Wii Balance Board and connect it to the Raspberry Pi via Bluetooth. Then, add action sensors to the door and temperature sensors inside the fridge. Install Initial State to connect the data to a cloud service that is accessible from your mobile device or computer.
Finally, access the data on your personal dashboard. The dashboard will include such information as the temperature, number of bottles in the fridge, number of bottles that have been removed since the sensors were installed, and when the door is open.
It also tracks data via a wave visualizer. The sensors will register how often a beer has been removed and how many were removed at specific times on specific days. So, if you are curious as to your daily drinking habits, you even know what time of the evening is your favorite.
The wave visualizer also shows you when your fridge has been opened on specific dates and times. So, if your kids get home from school before you get home from work, you will know if they have been sneaking any sips while you are away.
Check out Sulpy’s informative DIY tutorial to learn how to make your own connected Awesome Fridge.
Via: Adafruit
This type of hacks are awesome.