
Yelp Hackathon results in an iPad-powered KegBot - martian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwVoir5HSo4
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ardit33
That is actually pretty impressive if done in 2 days only. Did they had a lot
of experience with Arduino before? I can't see somebody that just picks the
arduino stuff and does this right away without being a bit experienced on it.

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bkbleikamp
Two of the people on the team were experienced hardware hackers, others were
experienced iPhone developers.

I believe they did some minor planning beforehand to get the write components
to build things.

(I work at Yelp)

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gcheong
Nice work. What libraries did you use for the iPhone to Arduino serial
connection?

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johnboiles
The arduino firmware was based on kegbot.org's. We added RFID support as well
as analog temperature sensor support (normally kegbot.org uses a separate usb
rfid reader and a one wire digital temperature sensor). We wrote all the iPad
software ourselves. After jailbreaking the iPad, it's possible to interact
with the serial port in the dock connector just like you would in any POSIX
(linux, unix, etc) system.

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towndrunk
What would be cool is if you had a RFID ring and the RFID reader was in the
handle to the keg so you could skip the swiping of the card step.

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ck2
I feel stupid sometimes for not understanding (mostly men's) love of alcohol.

I mean it must be the alcohol right, because otherwise non-alcoholic beer
would be just as popular?

But not to take away from the project which was impressive from a analog to
digital stance - I would have liked to see more of how they wrote custom code
for a locked device? Did they jailbreak it?

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WiseWeasel
Hey Yelp geeks, this would be quite a bit more impressive if you could select
from a range of kegs in a properly sized kegerator using the touch-screen,
possibly including custom blends mixed from different kegs. It could keep
track of your favorite beer, so you could just swipe your RFID and pour
exactly what you want. Hurry and get to work on version 2.0, and be sure to
keep us posted.

I could see this being popular at bars; self-serve beer stations with an
electronic tab, used with a swipe of an RFID wrist band they give you at the
door. Flag your friends' accounts and buy them a round of drinks with the tap
of a button. Add an augmented reality iPhone app to buy a girl across the bar
a drink (credit her RFID account), and things are looking pretty futuristic
all of a sudden.

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rhettg
Custom blends of beer ? Have you had a beer before ?

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wriq
What about Black & Tan's?

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rcavezza
This looks really impressive. I'm a software guy (Lamp Stack), where would I
even begin to learn how to do something like this?

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johnboiles
If you're looking to get started with hardware, I'd check out SparkFun's
Arduino Inventor's Kit.
[http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_i...](http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9951)

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mkramlich
er, is Yelp hiring?

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derwiki
<http://www.yelp.com/careers>

