Simple Hacked Dorm Coffee Machine
A mod that I made in my dorm room adds a Raspberry PI timer that automatically brews coffee at a set time
Project Date: September 2018
Background and Motivation
This is one of a few projects that I made in my dorm room during my first semester at RIT. I hated having to wait for coffee in the morning, so I added a circuit that interfaces with my coffee maker with a timer that I can set to 6:00 AM so I can have coffee ready immediately when I wake up.
I live in an over-occupied three person dorm (that was meant for two people), so I don't have my normal tools and lab supplies that I would normally have at home; I had to use what I had available to me
Design Process
The coffee machine only requires a single button to brew coffee. Naturally, I cracked open the brewer to get access to the button to see how it interfaces with the rest of the coffee brewer circuit. I noticed that the button, upon pressed, closes a 5V signal, which activates the brewing of coffee.
Since I was living in such cramped conditions, I could only use what materials I had available to me.
I had purchased optocouplers for my Nixie tube board project, and had them shipped to my dorm. I planned to create a circuit that would take a GPIO signal from a Raspberry Pi and close the button circuit (See photo). I cut the wires leading to the button so that I could remove it from the brewer circuit. I then spliced the wires into the new circuit and mounted the Raspberry Pi onto the coffee machine.
I made a simple Python program on the RPI that waits for a set time and then outputs a 5V signal out of a GPIO port.
The RPI is connected to my personal network in my dorm via ethernet so that I can interface with it through SSH
Parts
-Â Red LED
-Â HCPL2731 Optocoupler
- Jumper wires
- Raspberry PI B+