Well, while putting up my first post I couldn’t help but have another idea for a project that could be done either by the element 14 community or by The Ben Heck Show, either way this one is quite awesome, but is designed more for those among us who have parties and other teen related activities.
I call it the Waffle Wonder Machine, yep, it makes waffles, but not just them, pancakes, muffins and doughnuts as well, like I said more for parties but it would be great for all sorts of events, if you do make any of my ideas please give me credit and send me pictures of it, since I’m unable to make any of the ideas I have it would be such a joy to see an idea realised.
Much like my breakfast machine, this is more of a hack than anything else as it does combine several systems together but controls them through some form of micro controller, ok let’s get started.
Firstly this is designed to mount or placed somewhere where it can be easily accessed and maintained so about table height would do for the device to sit on, since a table would be the best thing to place this machine on it may be a good idea to store some of the electronics in there. So, after watching some of ThinkGeeks video’s I know you can buy waffle makers, muffin makers and doughnut makers that all use the same type of technology, pressing two heated plates together with the mould of whatever it is there supposed to be cooking at the correct temperature, I wouldn’t really want to take these machines apart, as I have said in my last post, exposing the heating elements and live wires could cause a short in one of the cookers or worse so tampering with them so much as to leave them exposed to the elements would be a bad idea, to make this machine provide enough to satisfy everyone at a party it’s going to have to constantly cooking, dropping the product and refilling, sounds easy right?
Well, yes and no, dropping and cooking can be solved with a simple mechanism, what I was thinking was mounting each machine on a sort of chain, which would turn at the same pace as the cooking, that way when the machine is finished cooking it will be upside down ready to drop the products into a shoot below, but what if it gets stuck, well you can’t be there babysitting it, you want to be having fun, this is where tampering with them comes in, all we need to do is drill a small hole in each of the moulds and the outer case then reassemble the device, this is the cleaver part, by blowing air through the case and into the moulds the waffle or donut will simply fall out, using a similar system you could blast each of the moulds with oil when they come back up to be filled.
Now, filling is the main issue but the simplest way would be to do it yourself, like a said before babysitting isn’t really what this machine is for so automation is the way, this is how the filler would work, above the cookers and chain there would be a few vats containing the dough or mixture for each machine, when a certain machine comes by a reader (similar to a barcode reader) the appropriate dough is deposited into the machine using a crank type dispenser to put the right amount of dough in the moulds all at once, then when the chain moves the cooker out of the way for the next one the lid is forced down and the cooker cooks the product inside and the whole process starts all over again.
As I’ve said before, I’m not an electronic engineer, so finding the right electronics for the job is beyond me, however this is a big community, I’m sure someone out there can figure out the electronics and someone can figure out better mechanics than me, this is just one idea in a whole host that I’ll never be able to make, but maybe you can.
DannyS
PS
No spelling mistakes in this one!
