My toaster is hooked to the internet to tell the world when I am toasting and when my toast is done. The system uses the ioBridge module and event widgets and Twitter to echo the feedback from my toaster. I would love to hear your thoughts.
14 thoughts on “Social networking for your toaster”
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I have mixed feelings about this, but only because I have been watching Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles.
It’s very inspiring!
What audience are you trying to reach with this? What group of people want to know when you are making toast? Stalkers?
Norm: I’d say girlfriend, if I wasn’t sure he has none.
I set up something similar. Except, I didn’t notify the whole world, just my entire home. When the toaster was started, the “Toasting” message was broadcast (small LCD displays scattered about). When finished, the message was “You have toast.”
This was done by monitoring the light on the toaster oven.
Just don’t go too far away, since you will want to hear the smoke alarm if it goes off. I once had a toaster jam, so that it didn’t release at the appropriate time. I had six-inch flames coming out of the toaster, and the paint on the kitchen cabinets was starting to blister.
While this is all very, uh, useful, i wonder what the most cost-effective way would be to do this? The ioBridge costs eighty-eight bucks plus p&p (and optional add-ons like the terminal connector), and is in essence a anything-to-serial-to-Ethernet adaptor plus the accompanying web service.
But what if i wanted a bit more of that illustrious hackability? What would be the *cheapest* way to connect an IO to Ethernet that still is friendly to mere mortals? Like the ioBridge, desired features are DHCP, TCP/IP and some app on the connector side to either push out information or act as a server. Perhaps SNMP and SNMP traps?
I know there’s an Ethernet shield for the Arduino (the X-port?) but i think it costs as much the ioBridge. Ideally, i would put an Arduino or a Picaxe as an interface between the sensors and the Ethernet bit.
An answer to myself: this puppy looks promising: http://www.luminarymicro.com/products/mdl-s2e.html
The Luminary Micro Stellaris MLD-S2E Serial to Ethernet adapter would be a promising contender and sells for 49 bucks at Digikey, plus expenses. Granted, An S2E plus an Arduino (clone) plus a connector thingy between the two probably also adds up to at least 88 bucks, but oh the things you could do!
I thinks i wants one :)