We made a cute version of the shotbot! This project uses a light sensor to automatically pour you a shot when a glass is placed on the stand.

We wanted to make a cute shot pouring station that knew when you put a shot glass down to be refilled. In this instructable we will show you how to pick an animal (or anything!) of your choice and create an arduino shot pouring robot.

We modified code from the original ShotBot to create this fun project.

Step 1: Parts List

Step 2: Designing the Elephant

To create a pouring spout you first need to find an animal or object that you want to work with that can house the pump. We suggest searching Thingiverse which has thousands of cool 3D files to choose from.

We chose an elephant because the trunk can act as a natural spout and the body is large so we can hide the pump inside.

We used this elephant as a base, scaled it up a little bit to fit the pump inside, and modified the trunk to fit over a shot glass.

We knew that we would have to change the trunk in order to make a pouring spout, so we cut off the existing spout.

To work with the elephant it is easiest to cut it in half. The pump and tubing is going to be put in the center of the elephant and sandwiched in between the two halves. We can work with just one half and mirror it at the end to make our two halves.

Step 3: Import Mesh STL File

After downloading an STL file from thingiverse, you will import the file for editing. We used Fusion 360 for all modeling, so these steps may be different for other CAD software.

Import the STL file, then right click on Document Settings and turn off Capture Design History. Next, right click on the body and hit Mesh to BRep. You will see that the body turns grey and is now able to be edited.

Step 4: Making the Trunk Spout

After cutting off the given trunk, we used the spline tool to draw a new trunk that ended at the height of a shot glass, around 7cm. After a spline is created the dots can be moved to get the desired shape. Using the spline tool, we drew the shape of a trunk connecting to the body, extruded it to the desired width, and rounded the edges using the fillet tool. The area where the trunk connects to the body may need some extra material added and/or additional smoothing.

Step 5: Adding Leg Support

To make printing easier, we extended the width of the legs to meet in the center. From the front of the elephant, we drew and cut a rectangle shape from the legs, then extruded the flat cutout area to the center of the body.

Step 6: Making Space for the Pump

To make a space for the pump inside the elephant, we took a model of the pump, added some extra material on the end to account for the wires, and scaled it up by 4% to make a cutout tool.

We inserted this tool into the elephant model and placed it in a position that would allow space for both hoses to fit without too much bend. Make sure the pump cutout tool is centered width-wise in the elephant. We had to play around with the placement of the pump, and even scale up the elephant, before finding a position that fit the hoses and the wiring in the back.

Step 7: Making Space for Hoses and Wires

To make holes for the hoses and the wires, again we used the spline tool (so useful!) to draw a center-line for the desired path, then used the pipe tool on the line to hollow out an area. For the pipes we found that 7.2mm is a decent diameter to use so they have room to bend (because our tubing is 6.5mm OD).

Step 8: Finishing the Elephant

We added mounting holes in the feet and a screw hole behind the ears to keep the two halves together.

Finally, we cut out extra space where the hoses connect to the pump, and used the fillet tool on the edges where the hoses fit. Some extra tweaking may also be needed at the end to smooth out edges or add material where needed.

Step 9: Making the Sensor Stand

To make the sensor stand for the shot glass to sit on, we used the sensor model as a cutout tool and extruded a hole for the sensor through the top of the stand.