“Are you tired of sorting your m&ms by hand? Looking for a silly way to spend your time and 3D printer filament? Then this is the Instructable for you.
This is a project that I built for one of my engineering courses, in which we were challenged to use an Arduino, some basic electrical components, and a 3D printer to build something creative that implemented sensing, actuation, and autonomous sequencing. I chose to tackle the important problem of unsorted m&m candies.
This project took several weeks of testing and iteration, so in this Instructable I will just be explaining my final design, with notes on the design process and tips for how to build one yourself.
Since I was building this project in my apartment with limited access to basic tools, I designed this project to maximize the use of my one tool, the 3D printer. Virtually no other tools are necessary, and the required electrical components are listed below.
Supplies
Arduino Uno
Stepper Motor (part# 28BYJ-48)
Stepper Motor Driver (part# ULN2003)
Servo Motor (part# SG90)
Limit Switch (part # DBWDKG-FT01)
Photo-resistor
RGB LED
White LED
220 Ohm Resistors (4)
10 Kilo Ohm Resistor
3” 6-32 bolts and nuts (3)
Jam Jar (Brand: Bonne Mamon)
Plastic Water Bottle (Brand: SmartWater)
0.8mm plexiglass
A BUNCH OF M&MS (for experimentation, of course)”