Flask Breathalyzer
January 2017
I. Motivation
For Lunar New Year, a colleague in Taipei gifted me a limited edition bottle of 金門高粱酒, a.k.a. Taiwanese moonshine. I figured that building a breathalyzer would be a fun and practical way of quantifying its overproof alcohol content (63% ABV), and comparing it to beer, wine, and whiskey.
II. Inspiration
Tucker Max's “Sushi Pants” story, and
This classic video:
III. Materials
Arduino Pro Nano
MQ-3 alcohol sensor module
WS2812B RGB individually-addressable LED strip
Old Crow® Kentucky Bourbon (375ml plastic bottle)
Portable USB charger
Micro-USB breakout board
Micro-USB cable
Small breadboard
Jumper wires
IV. Circuit layout
[Insert image from Fritzing here]
V. Code
VI. Testing
VII. Next steps
The breathalyzer successfully correlated drinks with known alcohol content with x lights - beer and wine yielded 3 to 4 LEDs, while the Kaoliang liquor maxed out the LEDs on the light strip.
Changes to be implemented in future revisions:
Implement logarithmic mapping to accommodate a larger range of sensor readings
Install waterproof/breathable membrane over the sensor module to reduce sensor contamination
XIII. Acknowledgements
Special thanks to my friend and former colleague Timgo Chang for the bottle of 高粱酒!