I am a programmer by trade, but I have never made anything using Arduino and I have very little electronics experience.
I have an idea for my first Arduino project and I would like your input on the feasibility and total cost for the project.
I want to make an Automatic Tea Maker. This would consist of two containers to hold water stacked one on top of the other. Water would be poured into the top container. Inside that container would be a submersible heating element and a temperature probe. When a start button is pushed, the heating element would come on and heat the water up as quickly as possible. Once a certain water temperature is reached, the heating element would turn off and a valve would open that would drain the water into the 2nd container which would already have tea leaves/bags inside of it.
As soon as the valve opened to drain the water into the 2nd container a timer would start. After X number of seconds, the tea would be finished steeping and a 2nd valve would open. This 2nd valve would drain the water into a tea pot that is placed underneath.
As a bonus, I would like to have a display that would allow me to set the temperature in degrees fahrenheit and the timer in seconds.
Based on my initial thoughts, I would need the following items:
high powered heating element
temperature probe that can read up to 212 degrees F
2 gravity fed water valves
button to start the whole process
display unit
knob to adjust temperature
knob to adjust timer
Arduino controller to handle everything
Is this sort of project feasible/possible with Arduino?
Are the parts I need available for a relatively cheap price?
What am I missing/not thinking about?
As I said, I have never worked with Arduino before. This project doesn't seem too complicated but maybe I am just oversimplifying it.
Any input/feedback/constructive criticism is welcomed.
At least PaulS didn't comment on your planned use of buttons rather than switches.
(in-joke, sorry).
The idea sounds OK, I would be wondering how you would clean the second container. Also you need some sort of filter, right?, or the tea leaves will come out with the tea, in which case the teapot may as well be the second container.
Hi, A TeasMaid...(I think that's how they spell it, or not spell it).
There are a couple of arduino based projects if you Google, the ones I found use a kettle and tip it when it boiled.
But it looks a bit dangerous because you have exposed heated liquids etc.
Your idea can keep everything in a compact enclosure, small volume (cup size I assume) and you aren't asking it to pour the tea in to a cup.
The heating element can be a cup sized immersion heater, places sell them as a car accessory.
Your valve would need to have a 100DegC plus heat rating
You can't make a decent cuppa below water's sea level boiling point, hence to make a cup of tea on Mt Everest you need a pressure cooker.
Tom...
ps. Mike, I drive into my tea and coffee maker each morning on way to work, its the golden arches that make me do it.
TomGeorge:
Your idea can keep everything in a compact enclosure, small volume (cup size I assume) and you aren't asking it to pour the tea in to a cup.
The heating element can be a cup sized immersion heater, places sell them as a car accessory.
Your valve would need to have a 100DegC plus heat rating
I want to make a pot of tea not just a single cup. I was thinking more along the lines of 24 to 32 ounces.
Note the cunning trick: The kettle is closed and has a siphon; When the water boils, it builds up steam pressure which causes the water to siphon from the kettle into the teapot (why do you need a second transfer? You make the tea in the pot); when most of the water has transferred, a balance switch under the kettle turns off the heater (and starts your "steep" timer).
There was another version of the teasmaid, where you just had a kettle with a small shallow "boat" into which you put the tea bag, floating the boat on the water.
The clock turned on the power, heated the water and when the water boiled, the boat was swamped by the bubbling water and sank to the bottom, where a magnet on the bottom of the boat tripped a switch and turned off the power.
No pump, no valves.
Paul__B:
When the water boils, it builds up steam pressure which causes the water to siphon from the kettle into the teapot (why do you need a second transfer? You make the tea in the pot)
AWOL:
...when the water boiled, the boat was swamped by the bubbling water and sank to the bottom, where a magnet on the bottom of the boat tripped a switch and turned off the power.
No pump, no valves.
These are all good ideas, but not viable for what jkruer01 proposed. His tea-maker is meant to make different (and presumably quite special) teas and not only regular retail bagged "tea". This is why temp control is there and why solutions that work with boiling water being poured over your tea, or with tea being in the water for uncontrollable amount of time, are no use. For example Japanese sencha is infused with 70°C water for about 60-90 seconds.
