MehGuyver: inSite Child Locator edition Part 2: Our task
8Welcome to part two of my chronicled escapades in hardware hackery! If you haven't read part one yet... whats wrong with you? Go give it quick look if you want to see the innards of an inSite child locator. In this episode, were going to take a quick look at the appliance I plan to hack & make a gameplan.
Our subject: A Hamilton Beach 1.7 Liter Electric Kettle
My goal is simple: trigger the kettle boil cycle remotely. This may seem like a super lazy idea, but I make tea 3-5 times a day at the office. Its super annoying to get up from my desk, walk to the kitchen, wait 5 minutes watching water boil while awkwardly chatting with whoever wanders through the kitchen while I'm waiting, and finally make my tea. If I can start this remotely, I can reduce tea making to a 30 second task, and save myself 15 minutes a day. Plus, it sounded fun and I am super lazy.
Luckily, when I bought this kettle I already had a similar project in mind, so I got the only model on amazon where the controls are in the base station. I don't need to work on the part with the heating element, or the part that touches the water I drink. Were just going to make a remote switch for the on/off button.
First things first, getting it open. I didn't take a bunch of photos/notes here, but I will say that it was particularly annoying. Super hard to find security screws, screws hidden by plastic covers, and annoying plastic tabs were keeping the thing together. The security screws weren't in my ifixit toolkit, and weren't in the pile of assorted screwdriver sets my really handy friend had in his toolbox, so I had to special order some bits on amazon.
Those screws took a weeks wait to actually deal with. I could have ripped the thing open of course, but remember when I mentioned I use this 3-5 times a day? I'm trying to be gentle here. Once I got the base station open, though, I was pleasantly surprised.
Very nice and neat, much more space than I expected. Hopefully its roomy enough to fit the inSite receiver. A quick look at the board & I have no idea what voltage this circuit board is running at.
The kettle portion certainly uses high current power, so wiring my inSite to the wrong spot can easily cause combustion (note: I haven't had any of my electronics projects burst into flame yet, and I hope none of them do). I have 6 inSites but only 1 kettle, so I want to avoid that. We'll stick to battery power, at least for now. There are, however, some pretty accessible solder points for the button.
(note: it is really hard to use a multi-meter while also taking photos)
And just like that, we have the basics of our plan. Secure inSite receiver to kettle base. Wire up receiver so that it triggers the on/off button when the inSite keyfob is used. Put it all back together, hope it doesn't burst into flame, and drink some tea.
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I am genuinely impressed and excited about this project!
Ummm, isn't the button just completing a circuit on the kettle base? What portion of the receiver are you planning to use to do that? The receiver beeps 20 times when it is triggered, in case you haven't counted it yet.
@tightwad Since I keep doing this at midnight I haven't actually tested the beeper yet, so thats info I did not have. I figured I would need to add some basic components (maybe just a transistor) to make the receiver complete the circuit. I've done a lot of electronics projects but I've actually never done something like this before, and I might fail and end up at the local hackerspace for help. Time will tell.
And you will have to remember to always leave water in this (and hope no one empties it out) so you don't remotely turn on an empty tea kettle... maybe add an empty kettle sensor that doesn't allow you to remotely trigger it on while empty?
@Kidsandliz I will probably fill it up in the morning and hope it doesn't run out without being refilled.
Originally I bought this planing to make it internet connected, but I never got around to it. Empty sensors and such were part of that plan, but it would be hard. Maybe a weight sensor? anyway, going for the basics right now.
Needs Amazon Echo integration so you really can say, "Alexa. Tea. Earl grey. Hot."