Schlagwort: Tea

  • A splendid steampunk tea maker

    A splendid steampunk tea maker

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Arduino Team — April 14th, 2021

    Steampunk Tea Timer Arduino Project

    Prolific project maker and Arduino lover Alain Mauer has made a rather splendid tea maker project with a steampunk twist. Despite Mauer being based in Luxemburg, we’d have to say this feels like a very British Arduino application.

    Crumpets or Battenburg, anyone?

    Putting the “Tea” in “Steampunk”

    The Tea Timer is a classic Arduino project. A simple idea with a simple execution, beautifully presented.

    Mauer’s put together a timer that submerges a teabag for a preset period. We all have our preferences for the strength of tea, and everyone knows an entire day can be ruined if the teabag’s left in for too long (right?). So a five-stage timer lets you determine just how strong your tea will be.

    Arduino Nano and servo in steampunk tea maker project

    Once the timer’s run down, an Arduino Nano fires up the servo, which turns the gears and lifts the bag out so you don’t forget. Adjusted correctly, this also means you can consistently make the perfect cup of brown joy.

    And just like the perfect cuppa, presentation is everything. Mauer didn’t need to add the gears, wooden housing or the brass finish. But the steampunk aesthetic really completes the project, and makes it into a work of art as well as an essential kitchen appliance. Now we just need to hook it up to a home automation system.

    Mauer has provided all the CAD parts on his GitHub along with the Arduino code, so it’s easy to replicate.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7B7aF6yfE8?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    Tea is a subject of great significance to the British. It can cause arguments, hysteria and family feuds that last for generations. All in a very civilized manner, of course. No Brit would be uncouth enough to have cross words in public about the proper way to drink tea. But we do reserve the right to tut and roll our eyes behind closed doors afterwards, should someone get it wrong.

    Check out the steampunk Tea Timer and automatic teabag remover on Mauer’s blog. And let’s leave the last word on the vital importance of a cup o’ brown joy to the immortal Professor Elemental.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eELH0ivexKA?feature=oembed&w=500&h=375]

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    Website: LINK

  • Intelli-T Raspberry Pi sensor alarm | The MagPi issue 81

    Intelli-T Raspberry Pi sensor alarm | The MagPi issue 81

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    Never knowingly run out of tea-bags again with this ingenious system, using a Raspberry Pi and Arduino to create a weight sensor and alarm.

    The Intelli-T Raspberry Pi sensor alarm

    Faced with the, almost unthinkable, problem of no tea-bags in the house, Robin Mitchell was inspired to contrive an invention that would eliminate the possibility of that scenario ever happening again, and the Intelli-T Raspberry Pi Sensor Alarm was born. As he explains, “One of the biggest problems that faces many British homes, as well as my own, is having a stable supply of tea… an issue with knowing how many tea-bags are available in the house. Hence, an intelligent tea-bag container was needed!”

    Simplici-tea

    Simple in its design, the project consists of only a few elements, as Robin tells us: “The first element is the weight sensor itself, which weighs the tea-bag container. This weight sensor is connected to a standard HX711 ADC, which is then read by an Arduino. The Arduino then sends the weight data to the Raspberry Pi, which can keep track of how many bags there are, and play interesting facts about tea when a tea-bag is removed.”

    The Intelli-T Raspberry Pi sensor alarm

    Clever, but as with many inventions, not entirely straightforward to construct, with the weight sensor providing the main issue, as Robin elaborates: “The problem with weight sensors is that they require plenty of fine-tuning and can be very noisy. While this is not a problem for heavier items, trying to accurately weigh tea-bags is a nightmare. On reflection, it would have been better to use a much smaller weight sensor, so that the weight of the individual tea-bags is larger with respect to the minimum weight that the sensor can register (this would improve the accuracy).”

    Brewing ideas

    Undeterred, Robin successfully completed his tea-bag detection system, and feels that this kind of weight-sensing system could easily be used in other projects. “One area that could benefit from a similar system would be industrial systems that need to count parts such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, and even potentiometers. Of course, part counting can also be useful for the everyday hobbyist who wants to keep check of their component stock, and someone like myself who stocks many thousands of parts needs to keep an accurate check on inventory regularly (as I own a small electronics business).”

    There certainly appears to be some scope here for future projects but, as for tea-bag detection, Robin thinks he has taken that particular piece of work as far as he can. “The project was great fun, but since I no longer drink bagged tea (lemon tea rules!), I don’t have a use for it any more.”

    Not that Robin is short of ideas for other projects. “Each day of my life is all about creating projects around many platforms, with the Raspberry Pi included. Only recently, I designed a simple IoT monitoring station for an IoT sensor that can be affixed to a drill, and the vibration data streamed to the Raspberry Pi via a local network. All I can say is that the Raspberry Pi is a fantastic platform for prototyping and project building!”

    The MagPi magazine issue 81

    This article is from the latest issue of The MagPi magazine, which is out today and can be purchased online, at the Raspberry Pi Store, or from many independent bookshops, such as WHSmith and Barnes & Noble.

    The MagPi magazine issue 81

    You can also download issue 81 for free from The MagPi website, where you’ll also find information on subscription options, and the complete MagPi catalogue, including Essentials guides and books, all available to download for free.

    the MagPi subscription

    Website: LINK

  • The robotic teapot from your nightmares

    The robotic teapot from your nightmares

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    For those moments when you wish the cast of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was real, only to realise what a nightmare that would be, here’s Paul-Louis Ageneau’s robotic teapot!

    Paul-Louis Ageneau Robotic teapot Raspberry Pi Zero

    See what I mean?

    Tale as old as time…

    It’s the classic story of guy meets digital killer teapot, digital killer teapot inspires him to 3D print his own. Loosely based on a boss level of the video game Alice: Madness Returns, Paul-Louis’s creation is a one-eyed walking teapot robot with a (possible) thirst for blood.

    Kill Build the beast

    “My new robot is based on a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a camera.” Paul-Louis explains in his blog. “It is connected via a serial link to an Arduino Pro Mini board, which drives servos.”

    Each leg has two points of articulation, one for the knee and one for the ankle. In order to move each of the joints, the teapot uses eight servo motor in total.

    Paul-Louis Ageneau Robotic teapot Raspberry Pi Zero

    Paul-Louis designed and 3D printed the body of the teapot to fit the components needed. So if you’re considering this build as a means of acquiring tea on your laziest of days, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the most you’ll get from your pour will be jumper leads and Pi.

    While the Arduino board controls the legs, it’s the Raspberry Pi’s job to receive user commands and tell the board how to direct the servos. The protocol for moving the servos is simple, with short lines of characters specifying instructions. First a digit from 0 to 7 selects a servo; next the angle of movement, such as 45 or 90, is input; and finally, the use of C commits the instruction.

    Typing in commands is great for debugging, but you don’t want to be glued to a keyboard. Therefore, Paul-Louis continued to work on the code in order to string together several lines to create larger movements.

    Paul-Louis Ageneau Robotic teapot Raspberry Pi Zero

    The final control system of the teapot runs on a web browser as a standard four-axis arrow pad, with two extra arrows for turning.

    Something there that wasn’t there before

    Jean-Paul also included an ‘eye’ in the side of the pot to fit the Raspberry Pi Camera Module as another nod to the walking teapot from the video game, but with a purpose other than evil and wrong-doing. As you can see from the image above, the camera live-streams footage, allowing for remote control of the monster teapot regardless of your location.

    If you like it all that much, it’s yours

    In case you fancy yourself as an inventor, Paul-Louis has provided the entire build process and the code on his blog, documenting how to bring your own teapot to life. And if you’ve created any robotic household items or any props from video games or movies, we’d love to see them, so leave a link in the comments or share it with us across social media using the hashtag #IBuiltThisAndNowIThinkItIsTryingToKillMe.

    Website: LINK