But the big thing that I'm really excited about for the upgrade is something I've thought up as an integrated kegerator security system. It is completely my idea and my design. I haven't seen or heard of anything like it and I think it could possibly be marketable.
So my son recently turned 14. I have no reason at all to believe he's ever gotten into my beer, but there's currently nothing stopping him. He's also home alone pretty often. Then there are the concerns of what would happen if one of his friends got into the beer that I had done nothing to secure. So, anyway I want to summarize the idea.
The system would be arduino based and involve electric solenoid valves on each of the beer lines leading to the taps. On the front of the kegerator there would be five momentary push button switches. The switches would be used to enter a three part combination (each part would be any one button press to multiple simultaneous button presses) which would open the solenoid valves and allow beer to be dispensed. With the arduino I could set the duration the the valves remain open. I think normally I would set it for something like 5 minutes, but if I had guests over I could easily set it to last for several hours. So without any additional intervention the kegerator would normally not function.
The alternative are locks that can be used on the tap handles. My problem with that is that I think I would typically remove the locks when I wanted to use the kegerator and more often than not forget to put them back on. Plus they are about as expensive as the system I plan to build, they don't look very good, I question their effectiveness and I'd have to carry around or keep track of the keys for each one.
I know based on my description it might be hard to picture what I'm trying to do, but once I start putting it together I'll post pics. I'm really really excited about it. I'm excited for it for my own use but there is the possibility that this is something a lot of kegging homebrewers would want.
So my son recently turned 14. I have no reason at all to believe he's ever gotten into my beer, but there's currently nothing stopping him. He's also home alone pretty often. Then there are the concerns of what would happen if one of his friends got into the beer that I had done nothing to secure. So, anyway I want to summarize the idea.
The system would be arduino based and involve electric solenoid valves on each of the beer lines leading to the taps. On the front of the kegerator there would be five momentary push button switches. The switches would be used to enter a three part combination (each part would be any one button press to multiple simultaneous button presses) which would open the solenoid valves and allow beer to be dispensed. With the arduino I could set the duration the the valves remain open. I think normally I would set it for something like 5 minutes, but if I had guests over I could easily set it to last for several hours. So without any additional intervention the kegerator would normally not function.
The alternative are locks that can be used on the tap handles. My problem with that is that I think I would typically remove the locks when I wanted to use the kegerator and more often than not forget to put them back on. Plus they are about as expensive as the system I plan to build, they don't look very good, I question their effectiveness and I'd have to carry around or keep track of the keys for each one.
I know based on my description it might be hard to picture what I'm trying to do, but once I start putting it together I'll post pics. I'm really really excited about it. I'm excited for it for my own use but there is the possibility that this is something a lot of kegging homebrewers would want.
