glennda Posted August 8, 2011 Author Posted August 8, 2011 Yeah was gonna say - keep putting it on and eventually you will have an empty kettle with a big bang and plenty of smoke to follow lol. Would need a fail safe so if the water level is below a certain point it will refuse to power on. Seeing as you are normally in a server room and have a switch that uses POE , maybe use a POE port to power the kettle as well as network comms to control it lol a normal kettle (from which this is but with a solenoid on the switch) automatically turns off if there is no water in it - so it would turn off anyway unfortuantly POE doesn't provide enough power for a kettle!
localzuk Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 Also if anybody knows of a kettle which the switch goes up that would be better! saves having to attach the solenoid to the kettle You shouldn't need a solenoid at all - wire a relay in parallel into the kettle switch, and you can turn it on/off without the switch. True, it'd mean you couldn't switch it off via the switch if you turned it on via the computer (and visa versa) but it'd eliminate a moving part.
glennda Posted August 8, 2011 Author Posted August 8, 2011 You shouldn't need a solenoid at all - wire a relay in parallel into the kettle switch, and you can turn it on/off without the switch. True, it'd mean you couldn't switch it off via the switch if you turned it on via the computer (and visa versa) but it'd eliminate a moving part. I did think about that - but would need the external switch to be able to turn it off (safety measure really)!
webman Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 Also if anybody knows of a kettle which the switch goes up that would be better! saves having to attach the solenoid to the kettle Take it apart and re-mount the switch upside down?
glennda Posted August 8, 2011 Author Posted August 8, 2011 Take it apart and re-mount the switch upside down? I could do that! just need to work out how to take it apart easily!
synaesthesia Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 Now if you can manage the same with a microwave, you've a nice little business venture Dragons Den?
webman Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 Now if you can manage the same with a microwave, you've a nice little business venture And the oven. And notify me when it's up to temperature please Email, audio, SMS, strobe light...
featured_spectre Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 The mrs asked how much to make her one and get it delivered? She works from home a lot and is on the phone a lot and it would be helpful so she can boil the kettle when she wraps up a call. This is a serious request. nephilim
glennda Posted August 8, 2011 Author Posted August 8, 2011 The web relay is expensive ( about $130) the solenoid is 20 quid and the kettle was a tenner! If we can make it cheaper ill let you know and keep the thread updated
featured_spectre Posted August 8, 2011 Posted August 8, 2011 she said for now she will do it manually, but yeh please keep us informed 1
sted Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 You could also be clever, and include a few moisture sensors inside the kettle, so you can see when the kettle is half full, a quarter full etc... Wouldnt it be easier and probably cheaper to work out via its weight?
kearton Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Very cool. Reminds me of a story I heard many many years ago whilst at Uni, about a Uni in the USA somewhere that had a Coke machine hooked up to their network, and it spat out a can of Coke if you PINGed it.
glennda Posted August 9, 2011 Author Posted August 9, 2011 Wouldnt it be easier and probably cheaper to work out via its weight? That's a good idea - will look into it
mac_shinobi Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Very cool. Reminds me of a story I heard many many years ago whilst at Uni, about a Uni in the USA somewhere that had a Coke machine hooked up to their network, and it spat out a can of Coke if you PINGed it. Network Manager : Coke machine is offline Techy : Ah, hold on, I'll ping it constant to see when it is back online Network Manager : Nooo, Wait !! Techy : Too Late !! Coke machine drops all of its cans at once when it comes back online as it can see that its been pinged multiple times. Like the microwave would be linked to the fridge and when you tried to microwave some food the microwave would communicate with the weight scales and go ppssstt end user is going to be heavier, brace yourself
Max_Power Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Best thread ive read in a while! Def get my name down for one of these - My long reaching stick is becoming a little low tech in comparison for turning the kettle on.
localzuk Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Wouldnt it be easier and probably cheaper to work out via its weight? Moisture sensors are one of the simplest circuits to create - they are basically a gap in a circuit, which is bridged by moisture. Creating a few of them would be cheaper than a weighing mechanism by far.
Achandler Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 We have a cheap kettle that's switch goes up! Its from Pound Stretcher/ In Store I believe. The switch going upwards is actually really annoying.
steveg Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Also if anybody knows of a kettle which the switch goes up that would be better! saves having to attach the solenoid to the kettle Can't you use a relay wired in series with the kettle's switch - just leave the kettle switched on ready to be used from the network? Has the advantage that anyone that doesn't know how to switch it on from the network can't use your kettle! Steve
36Degrees Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 We've setup a hot key on our keyboards so that as soon as you hit it the kettle turns on! Unintended pun or comedy genius?
localzuk Posted August 9, 2011 Posted August 9, 2011 Can't you use a relay wired in series with the kettle's switch - just leave the kettle switched on ready to be used from the network? Has the advantage that anyone that doesn't know how to switch it on from the network can't use your kettle! Steve Kettle switches will auto switch off if there is heat - they are not just switches, they are tightly integrated with the heat sensing elements of the kettle.
glennda Posted August 9, 2011 Author Posted August 9, 2011 (edited) Just ordered an Arduino ethernet board a relay and a force sensitive resistor - so hopefully we can program it to give some useful feedback as to how full the kettle is! 1 x Force Sensitive Resistor (FSR) Interlink 402 (FSR-01) 1 x Relay (DPDT 5v) (RELAY-01-BU) 1 x USB - Serial Cable (3.3v) (FTDI-01-USB) 1 x Arduino Ethernet Board (ARDE-01) Although it was £65 all together! will post results when its arrived and been made EDIT: did think about the moisture sensor but it would be harder to implement as would need to connect the top to the bottom - possibly risky Edited August 9, 2011 by glennda 1
Linux_Nut Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 Curios how you got on with this if at all Glenda
glennda Posted December 5, 2011 Author Posted December 5, 2011 Curios how you got on with this if at all Glenda Erm I we blew the Arduino board up! Connected the power to the wrong pins! Going to get another setup shortly (probs after christmas) and see how we get on!
X-13 Posted December 5, 2011 Posted December 5, 2011 Curios how you got on with this if at all Glenda It engulfed him in a myriad of molten components, resulting in his untimely demise. His headstone reads "Dagnabit, I that should have worked." The person posting as @glennda is mearly a clone. A glennda 2.0, if you will. We're trying to replicate the origional explosion, but to date, it appears to be an anomaly. On a more serious note, if Network Kettle[tm] works without any problem on a network, someone needs to make an app. Erm I we blew the Arduino board up! Connected the power to the wrong pins! Going to get another setup shortly (probs after christmas) and see how we get on! Holy Carp! [<-- Typo. But, I'll allow it.] I was joking... Seems I was eerrily accurate.
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