There was a waiting list for them a few weeks ago so I signed up for their email notification. They sent me an email last week and I ordered three of them withing 30 minutes of getting the email. A few hours more and they were totally sold out. I will get into the setup in a few days when I get everything mounted correctly. Until then you will have to setting for a few iPhone photos.

I have to redesign the Pint Tracker UI now that I have this sweet little monitor. The new version will take up the entire screen unlike the photos above.

I now have Pint Tracker running as an AIR app. It is working out great. I have a shortcut down in my dock so it make it really convenient to start and stop Pint Tracker as needed. I found a real nice pint icon over at http://www.iconspedia.com
that I am using. Take a look at my dock and you can see the icon sixth from the right.

I also have Pint Tracker starting up when I boot or log in to the home theater computer. Now that Pint Tracker is an AIR app, I want to update the wood background. Give it rounded edges and maybe a border around it. I want to also work in a nice reduce and close icon. The only real changes I had to make to Pint Tracker to get it running as an AIR app were to make sure my links pointing to the PHP files were absolute. Otherwise Pint Tracker can’t find them. Then the last change was adding this bit of code so that I could drag the app around on the desktop.

Previously I had been running Pint Tracker as a Mac widget. The problem with the Mac widget is that the widget is always on top of all other windows. Running Pint Tracker as a AIR app is a much better option since I can launch, reduce and quit with ease and it goes behind other open apps.

After Justin and I worked on this website for a while Ryan stopped by to see what we were up to. I had a fob ready for him as well. Here are a few “security” photos that Pint Tracker snapped when they scanned their fob for a pint.

Right now I have the camera on top of the TV mounted to the wall. Since I know it is there it is easy for me to get a good photo. Or a better framed photo anyway.

Last night just proved that people look at the fob reader and not the camera. So I need to come up with a way to have the camera and the fob reader in a box or case. Kevin suggested a cigar box so I will give that a try first. I would ideally like the camera to be up at head level. So maybe I will add a shelf next to the TV just for the fob setup. Look for an update on that in the next few weeks.

Here is the leader board after Justin and Ryan had a couple.

We did run out of beer after just 4 pints last night. I knew we were close since Pint Tracker tells me the pint count. Well kind of. Right now Pint Tracker keeps track of individual people totals and beer type totals. Since this is only the second keg I have been tracking and the first was a Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat, I could tell how many we have been pulled from the tap. But it doesn’t keep track of the current keg totals just overall totals for a particular keg type. As soon as I add another keg of Pale Ale or Unfiltered Wheat I won’t know current keg totals. So I need to show current keg total on a new screen. I will have to come up with some kind of meter to show current keg % full. Only thing I can think of is a pint decreasing it’s beer level with each tap pull. Then show a warning when it drops down below a certain level. If you have a better idea let me know. Or maybe a keg photo with a break away cut out on it to show the inside and the beer level.

I was able to get 50 pints out of the last full keg. I buy the 5.5 gallon smaller kegs since they are easy to handle and lets me swap them out quicker for more variety. Also one thing to think about is different pint sizes. I use the following three glasses most of the time.

I would like to standardize to the two far left glasses since they are the same oz. size. That will give me a better reading on a keg’s pint count. Also I have to drain off a little with each session to get the warm beer out of the line. I would estimate that is about 3-5 pints over the life of a keg or a quarter pint with each session.

With a 5.5 gallon keg there are 704 oz. Using 16 oz glasses that is 44 pints, with 12oz pints that is about 59 pints, and with an average of 14oz per pint that is 50 pints. I had 50 pints out of this keg of Pale Ale and that is not counting drain off pints. I may be off a few pints this time because I have been testing and deleting those records from the database. I will get a new keg today of Fat Time so it adds another beer on the leader board. It will be interesting to see the beer count with another full keg. Also I need to start showing recent keg lifespans. I can see a few new screens being added very soon.

Sorry for such a long post but this is exciting (geek) stuff! Do you have any ideas to enhance the system? Let me hear them if you do!

Also on Pint Tracker I exported as a Adobe Air App so I am now running that full time now on my media center PC. Here is the latest beer totals.

The web cam idea was one of the things on the TO DO list. I am happy to say that is workign 100%. When anyone swipes a valid fob the app now snaps a photo. It really makes the app a lot more fun. I just need to have people over so I can start gathering a bunch of photos from different people in the pub. I was able to adapt some code that others had already written so it was pretty easy. Kevin shared some of his Flash camera code with me and blog.vamapaull.com has some example code online as well. From those two examples I was able to make my own photo functionality from within Flash.

Here is now it works. You swipe your fob and Pint Tracker verifies that you are a valid member of the pub. Then the app fires off the quick cam and snaps your photo. A nice camera nap sounds is played for effect. Pint Tracker then uses some PHP to save the photo to the web server in a predefined directory. The photo is displayed on your profile page along with your beer stats. I have also added a new rotating display that shows the ‘Latest Security Photo’ witch is the last photo taken with the quick cam. There is a unfinished screen shot below of what that looks like.

I also had time to polish up a few other screens and add a more sexy look to the app. Thus the I’m Too Sexy for my Beer note above. There is now a check mark animation on the opening screen that I really like. 5 pints are shown and 5 check marks animate. Check out the screens below.

The above screen is the new opening screen. It also cycles this screen as part of waiting on a fob to be scanned animation. The check marks animate as a bonus. Pretty sexy don’t you think?

The above screen is the new ‘On Tap’ view or second screen in the waiting process. The beer glass label tells you what is currently on tap and changes with each new keg.

This is an unfinished screen but I had to show it. It shows the last photo that was captured and saved when a valid fob is scanned.

So there you have part of the new look of Pint Tracker v1.1. I still have work to do on the new stats screens that is not pictured above. As soon as I get v1.1 done I will get a new video up to show the features in action.

Also, the Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat was finished off on Sunday. We put in a keg of Boulevard Pale Ale last night. Also, I only get the smaller 6 gallon kegs not a full keg. Just in case you were wondering.

I will have a web page up dedicated just to the Pint Logger app and the stats it is generating. Look for a post on that very soon with the URL.

Here are a few quick photos from my iPhone of just me on the leader board. The current beer on tap is Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat. That is only on tap because my wife had girls over from work this week. They needed a girly beer on tap for their consumption. Lightweights. But trust me, I am working hard to empty the 5 gallon keg after they had their 6 beers.

Until I get the dedicate page up for Pint Tracker here is what is on my mind for updates.

1. Twitter updates on how and when they consume beer. If you are not on twitter what better reason could you want to join!?

2. Photo taken when someone swipes their fob. These will be posted to the web and Twitter.

3. Control the tap flow based by the fob swipe.

Thing on the functional side that I want to do.

1. Don’t load anything if I cannot connect to the database. Right now it loads and doesn’t display anything.

2. close and open the doors when a fob is swiped for nothing more than a visual effect.

That is all I have for right now. My pint is empty so I need to swipe my fob and get a refill. Too bad you are not here, I know that is what you are thinking right now. Anyway.

A few things to come in future versions….

1. Tweet with each beer server. Who, What and When with a link back to the dedicated page.
2. Take a photo via an attached quick cam with each fob beer served and load it to the web.
3. Control the flow of beer with a servo motor and ball value. This will be the hardest of the 3 major upgrades for sure.

Watch the video and let me know what you think.

Kevin has a few posts on this blog that will give you more detail on what is possible so make sure you swing over there and read a few posts. Start here to get a better idea of what all this is really about. Many of the projects he showed at MAX are detailed on his blog as well. Read SparkFun USB Weather Board and Phidgets RFID and JavaScript. After that maybe you will be as excited as I am to get started on a few Phidgets projects.

What are Phidgets?

Phidgets are a set of “plug and play” building blocks for low cost USB sensing and control from your PC. All the USB complexity is taken care of by our robust API. Applications can be developed quickly by programmers using their favorite language: C/C++, C#, Cocoa, Delphi, Flash AS3, Flex AS3, Java, LabVIEW, MATLAB, Max/MSP, MRS, Python, REALBasic, Visual Basic.NET, Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Basic for Applications, Visual Basic Script, and Visual C/C++/Borland.NET.

If your head is spinning with all the possibilities and you have goose bumps then welcome to the club. Let’s get started with what I have planned. For my first project that I am going to attempt something for my home pub better knows as The House of Husar.

Fireplace Phidget Project

For the first project I want to create a secret panel in my fireplace that opens by swiping an access card or fob in front of it. The secret panel will open to reveal my Mac Mini and external hard drives, router and cable modem, and xBox 360.

Adding the secret panel will clean up the look of the fireplace and hide all the gear. Currently on the mantel are a Mac Mini, Xbox 360 and The Dude Bobble-head. All the other gear I mentioned is behind the fireplace on a shelf I built into the back or the fireplace. Problem now is that I have to pull the fireplace out to reset the cable or plug stuff in. Here is a photo of the fireplace. The secret panel will be the area I have outlined in a red box.

If you have ever worked for a company that issues a fob to access the building then you are already familiar with Radio Frequency Identification Technology or RFID. You swipe the fob or access card and it identifies who are you, determines if you have access to the building or a particular room, and then tracks your access in a database somewhere. This is exactly what I want to do for the secret panel. Just to geek this out even further a web cam will take a photo of the person accessing the secret panel and save it to my server.

The system will track access back to a MySQL database telling me when and who accessed the secret panel. I will give my son a fob as well so he can get to the Xbox 360. The system will also send me an email when someone does swipe their fob. The tracking is not really necessary but it is prep for the second project I have in mind to trick out my beer tap setup. This first project will be a learning experience.

The project will be run from either a Flash, Flex or Air app. I have not determined which one just yet. Since I already have my Mac Mini for the entertainment system I don’t need another computer.

To get started I ordered a bunch of phidgets this week and they arrived today. Here is what I picked up.

Above is the RFID reader and a few fobs to try out.

Above is the servo motor and controller to open the secret panel. Also there are a few attachments to try.

Above is a the PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8. This is the brains of the system that allows you to connect analog controllers. Also pictured are two magnetic sensors and magnets but these are for a third project that I want to build.

Everything is powered off of USB and will connect to my Mac Mini as I have mentioned. If you are interested in starting your own Phidgets project go to http://www.phidgets.com. I ordered all my gear from http://www.trossenrobotics.com/ because they are in Chicago and it is only a day for them to ship right to my door. If you are scratching your head and not sure what is going on here then read everything you can on Kevin Hoyt blog and it should start to make sense.

Only thing for me to do now is get busy building. Look for more updates over the next few weeks on my Phidgets adventure.