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The Cooking Pot

a way to warn about boiling water and open lids

Made by Pedro Mendes

Imagine a cooking pot that can warn the user, from a distance and with the use of visual cues, if the water inside it (to cook pasta, for instance) is boiling, by getting data from a temperature sensor, and blinking a green LED if temperature was above 212F. Also, it would blink a red LED if the lid was improperly closed, since it requires more energy to boil water with an open lid and there's a danger in handling the pot with an unsecured lid. The way to do this would be by using a photosensitive sensor to detect any openings through which light would penetrate around the connection between pot and lid.

Created: January 27th, 2015

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GOAL:

A) Give a visual cue, through a green LED, to warn user that water is above boiling temperature (temperature sensor reads if water is above 212F);

b) Give visual cue, through a green LED, to warn user that lid on cooking pot is not properly closed (light sensor detects light coming from openings between pot and lid);


Process documentation:

Spark Micro controller

Breadboard

Temperature Sensor x 1

Light Sensor (photoresistor) x 1

LED x 2

Jumper Wire x 8

10K Resistor x 3

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int LG=A4; //variable to hold light sensor value
 double TP=A7; // variable to hold temperature sensor value
 int GREEN=A0; // location for the green led
 int RED=D0; // location of red led

 int lt=0; // declaring cloud variable for light
double tt=0.0; // declaring cloud variable for temperature

  void setup()
{
  pinMode (LG,INPUT); // light sensor is input
  pinMode (TP,INPUT); // temperature sensor is input
  pinMode (GREEN,OUTPUT); // greenled is output
  pinMode (RED,OUTPUT); // redled is output

  Spark.variable("lt", &lt, INT); // allowing cloud read light
  Spark.variable("tt", &tt, DOUBLE); // allowing cloud read temperature
}

 void loop()
{
tt = analogRead (TP);  // get temperature sensor Reading / check water temperature
if (212 < TP < 4000)  // if above 212 Fahrenheit
{
digitalWrite(GREEN, HIGH); // used basic HelloWorld to blink green LED
delay(1000);
digitalWrite(GREEN, LOW);
delay(1000);
}else{
digitalWrite(GREEN, LOW); // LED off
}
lt = analogRead (LG);  // get light sensor Reading / check if there's light coming in
if (50 < LG < 4000)  // if theres light
{
digitalWrite(RED, HIGH); // used basic HelloWorld to blink red LED
delay(500);
digitalWrite(RED, LOW);
delay(500);
}else{
digitalWrite(RED, LOW); // LED off
}
delay (1000);  // wait 5 seconds
}
// loop
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The first assembly of the circuit board yielded in the LEDs never turning on, although the LEDs themselves were installed using the same diagram as the previous tasks in class (and were initially blinking because the Core was running the old program), which means there was a problem with the assembly of the sensor circuitry.

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After tweaking the circuitry by looking at resources at the internet (such as: http://playground.arduino.cc/Learning/PhotoResistor), it was possible to get the LEDs to blink and react to the sensor readings. However, the readings were expurious and the LEDs were working because the temperature sensor was reading rooms temperatures above 212F, and the light sensor was detecting light permanently.

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RESULTS: The results were mixed. Although it was possible to use the knowledge gained in earlier classes as building blocks to this larger creative project - with the aid of internet resources - and come up with a code that worked with no problems, I had trouble in correcting the sensors readings to get the necessary accuracy. 

I believe the main problem was lack of experience in circuitry building, which might have led to errors that caused the expurious readings.

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Imagine a cooking pot that can warn the user, from a distance and with the use of visual cues, if the water inside it (to cook pasta, for instance) is boiling, by getting data from a temperature sensor, and blinking a green LED if temperature was above 212F.

Also, it would blink a red LED if the lid was improperly closed, since it requires more energy to boil water with an open lid and there's a danger in handling the pot with an unsecured lid. The way to do this would be by using a photosensitive sensor to detect any openings through which light would penetrate around the connection between pot and lid.