William Schaller

Computer Scientist, Software Development Engineer



Bubble Machine


The Idea

My dog loved bubbles. I ended up purchasing a bubble machine from target which became my dogs favorite thing in the world. I started to feel bad about leaving my dog at home while I was at work and wished I could leave bubbles going all day. Then I remebered I had a spare arduino kit from my intro to robotics class. I was going to make an automated bubble machine!



The Design

I started by taking apart the bubble machine, and writing a quick arduino program.

 

I rewired the bubble machine to my arduino and made sure it still worked.

 
 

Then I needed a way to store all the components in a case. First I tried to make one from some spare wood I had. But I suck at wood working. I ended up using an old paint can, and everything fell right into place.

 

The blue bottle holds the soap for the bubbles. I was able to drill little holes in the side of the can for some switches and lights. I ended up adding an extra battery pack that the arduino controlled. That way I could power the bubbles without draining the arduino battery in a day.

 

I had a finished product. At the top of every hour from 9 to 5 the bubbles would run for 5 minutes. The external switches allowed me to turn it on without a timer as well as deactive it without any other steps. My dog loved that paint can.




Hera

Thank you for reading. I made this bubble machine out of love for my goofy dog Hera. Hera passed away in her sleep from a brain tumor on 9/5/15. She did not get to play with her bubble machine for long. I like to think she is in a world filled with bubbles and hot dogs now.









Parts


The Idea

The Design

Hera