Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks

289

15

15. How to Build an

Internet Coffeemaker

Cost

Time

Difficulty

$50–100

a weekend

moderate

Back in the late 1980s when the Internet was a “new” phenomenon, vari-

ous groups of people began to connect all sorts of appliances and objects

to it. One of the more famous appliances connected to the Internet was a

coffeemaker at Cambridge University. The students in the computer science

department pointed a camera at the department coffee machine and made

the resulting images available via a web page. In this way, sleepy students in

need of a caffeine fix could simply open up a web page on their browser and

see if there was any coffee to be had.

The Cambridge setup allowed you to see if there was any coffee, but it did

not provide any other information about the coffee. It also required its own

PC to play host for the camera hardware and the web server.

I will show you how to build your own Internet-connected coffeemaker that

does not require a PC host, and which will report not only the existence of

coffee but also its temperature. You are therefore assured that you will not

walk across the office only to find an empty coffee pot or cold coffee.

Credits

All photographs copyright © 2003 Scott Fullam.

What You Need

• A coffeemaker

• SitePlayer embedded

web server

• Temperature sensor

• AD converter

• Wire

• Food-safe plastic tubing

• Silicone sealant

• Five conductor-shielded wires

• Other items ...