This ingenious candy sorting machine can blitz through Skittles or M&Ms in minutes, made with Arduino, RGB sensors, and 3D printed parts.

Don’t Miss: 3D Printed Skittles Sorting Machine, Powered by Arduino

Maker Willem Pennings has devised a candy sorting machine that separates M&Ms or Skittles into their respective colors.

Sweet-toothed pedants simply pour the unsorted candies into a hopper at the top of the machine. A nozzle at the base then spits out the sorted candy into a ramekin dish. There’s even an RGB color strip that reflects the color of the candy it’s sorting.

Pennings’ inspiration was a YouTube video featuring another candy sorting concept, whereupon he set himself the challenge of devising one of his own. On his project page, he explains:

“The machine is able to sort M&Ms and Skittles by colour by performing optical measurements using the RGB sensor. It can be modified to sort any type of coloured object, as long as the individual pieces have a regular shape with even dimensions. It takes approximately 2-3 minutes to sort a 300 g bag of Skittles / M&M’s and sorts about 2 pieces per second. The machine is 250 mm in diameter and approximately 300 mm in height.”

Here’s a video of the candy sorting machine in action. The “plink plink” sound of the candy landing in the dish is rather soothing.

Candy Sorting Machine is Perfect for Demanding Tour Riders

Control of the machine is via a pair of Arduino Nano boards, plus two EasyDrivers and an RGB sensor. Meanwhile, the exterior is a beautiful wooden case. Inside are plastic mechanical components which were fabricated by an online 3D printing service. Each part was modeled using NX10 CAD design software.

Overall, the project took Pennings around 8 months to complete. And there’s no doubt that this candy sorting machine is an amazing feat of engineering and design. But is there a practical purpose?

In actual fact, it would be a huge asset when dealing with temperamental musicians. According to Snopes, when eighties hair metal band Van Halen went on tour, their contract rider would specify a bowl of M&Ms with the brown candies removed.

“The presence of even a single brown M&M in that bowl, rumor had it, was sufficient legal cause for Van Halen to peremptorily cancel a scheduled appearance without advance notice (and usually an excuse for them to go on a destructive rampage as well).”

Sorting M&Ms and Skittles sounds like a crazy request, but it’s a simple and effective way to determine if the small print of a contract has been thoroughly read. So, any concert promoters reading this with a screaming diva on your hands? Pennings has just the thing you’re looking for.