Top 5 Constraints – Drink Maker

4 years ago

The largest constraint on this project is going to be time… Theres really not much of it. My project is very multi-faceted. Im going to need to construct the shell itself, figure out the placement of the containers, insulate the box as well as figure out a cooling system for the drinks, set up the motors with relays, hook up the tubing and implement some mechanism for mixing the drinks, and finally write the software. These are a lot of tasks for one person. Luckily I do have plans on how to solve all of these, now it’s just about doing them.
The second constraint is cost. I have already determined that I’m probably going to go over the $150 budget. However, this is a project Ive wanted to do for a while so I am alright with that. But I still will need to find cheep solutions to a lot of problems.
The next constraint is size. I want this drink maker to house 8 containers, motors, relays, a power supply, and all the tubing, and it still needs to fit on a normal counter. Is this possible? We’re going to find out…
Another constraint is going to be pouring speed. How fast will this be able to make a drink? If it takes 5 times longer than a human, is it even worth it?
Last but not least, I am constrained by trying to figure out how to give this a modern aesthetic with cheep materials. Many modern appliances use stainless steel which I obviously cannot. I have a couple cheeper alternatives that will also make this easier to manufacture.