Suppliment / Pill dispenser

The Brief:

We take many suppliments and I want a way to dump new packets of tablets into a single bin and then dispense a controlled number from the machine according to the dosage.

I dont want to need to seperate them, i dont want to sort them into days, I dont want to need to worry about getting the right amount.

The Design:
I searched high and low from industrial machines to hobbiest eps32 powered systems and beyond, I stumbled upon the (i assume) university project for a product called the Medi-Pal, a small scale pill dispenser with adaptable pill sizes, their example (linked) was powered and controlled via a remote app.

This project inspired me (and others) to recreate it as i searched for any commercial version of this MediPal with no success, in designing the version i have here, i see why there is no commercial version as the method for sorting is really inflexible for new pill types, meaning the machine needs individual parts redesigning per pill type. This i can see make it unviable in the market place.

However for a small scale use with a limited number of predictable shaped suppliments it still fit my need, so this is my take on that basic design with refinements and rethinks to make it work for my scenario.

The pills this unit is designed to dispense are "Nutrient Geeks" suppliments, specifically Vitamin D, Biotin Growth, Iron and Tumeric.

The System:
There are 3 main components to the system:

The Caddy - this component composes of the Caddy Lid, the Caddy itself and the flush mount t slots for the skadis board. This utilises the T clip system and the flush fit remix

The Can - multipart components including: gearbox, control dial, the Caddy, the Shield is universal for all pill types and is included in this generic can component.

The Sorting stuff - A collection of parts which are bespoked to the pills, this is generally composed of the Puck, a Puck slot insert and the sorting cone. Smaller suppliments also have puck slip parts added to fit the pills in question.

The Suppliments:

There are 5 suppliments in this set of files Based on the Nutrition Geeks suppliments , going from large to small they are:

• Feel capsules

• Iron

• Tumeric

• Vitamin D

• Biotin Growth

The system is designed to match Feel suppliments being the biggest it can handle, and everything smaller needs additional parts to reduce the sorting holes to match the pill.

Example:

• The Feel suppliment uses the feel puck, feel puckslot and feel cone

• Iron uses the iron puck, iron puckslot, iron cone and iron puck slip

• Vitamin D, Biotin Growth and Tumeric all use the same iron puck slip plus the additional DBT puck slip, and the DBT Puck.

• Biotin Growth and Vitamin D both use the same DB cone and the same DB puck slot

• Tumeric uses a specific tumeric puck slot and a specific tumeric cone

Can construction:

• Slot the internal gear over the axel with the smoothest surface toward the rounded end of the axel

• Thread one of the 20mm m3 bolts through the top of the control dial so the bolt head sits inside the recess

• Place the control dial and gear into the gear box, then add the axel and gear assembly to the gearbox.

• Slot over the top the main can, holding them tightly together use two 20mm m3 bolts to secure the gearbox to the bottom of the can.

Puck building:

• Make sure you get them the right way round, they should only fit one way, when pressing them together, ensure they are flush fitting - press them against a hard flat surface to get them to mesh flat.

Suppliment fitting:

• Feel - Add the combined feel puck to the can, threading over the axel, add the Feel cone - lining a cone ridge up with the slot in the puck.

• Iron - add the Iron slip to the can - ensuring the slips spout slots into the cans exit hole, add the combined puck with the sloped section on the top, finally line up a cone ridge with the slot in the puck

• Biotin, Vitamin D and Tumeric all follow the same pattern with their own parts, add the iron slip, then the DBT slip slotting into the iron slip, add the puck with the sloping side upwards and lastly top with the appropriate cone, ensuring a ridge points at the slot.

• slide in the shield to the can

The can - once assembled - has the additional label added for the supplement (layer 9 for filament change), slot the can into the caddy - the caddy lid links the can and caddy together.

How to Use:

One of the challenges here was getting the tolorences to fit, so some parts are intentionally very snug, and others the distances are close enough that they will rub, because of this taking things gentle when you're using it is key - specifically if you find the dial binding, back it out a bit and retrying often breaks the deadlock.

Tumeric posed specific problems in that its width is almost the same as its hieght, meaning less than a mil play can jam these up, i've tried to perfect this but as everything turns yellow in test, i am kinda calling this particular set of options a bit experimental and will revisit it after using for a while.

• Pop the cap off the caddy, pour in a pack of suppliment, replace the cap.

• hold a glass under the exit hole and slowly turn the dial in the direction the arrows point, after a couple rotations a pill will be dispensed from the back of the unit.

To Note:

• Tumeric can jam up if the tablets land across the gap

• Biotin can drop 2 at once occassionally due to their tinyness

• The system seems to work best with a single packet of pills added, adding multiple stops the pills shifting around and leads to jams / binds.