Description
This was not a terribly exciting invention, but it was quite useful! I had plans to make a lemon meringue pie Wednesday, but I realized that I didn't have an electric beater, or even a hand beater! This was going to take forever. But then I thought of my handy DC Motor, and I ended up with a pressure sensitve egg beater cup. Basically, you crack in the eggs, put the lid on, and squeeze the cup and it starts beating. The harder you squeeze the cup the stronger it beats (sometimes you need a lower beating strength, so this is helpful).
Components Used
Arduino Diecimila
2 resistors
1 Diode
1 Transistor
1 FSR
1 DC Motor
1 piezo speaker
various wires
electrical tape
1 plastic cup with lid
1 small metal whisk
Arduino Code
/*
* one FSR effects one motor
* modified version of AnalogInput
* by DojoDave <http://www.0j0.org>
* http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/AnalogInput
* Modified again by dave, and then Shawna
*/
int FSRPin = 0; // select the input pin for the potentiometer
int motorPin = 9; // select the pin for the Motor
int val = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensor
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
val = analogRead(FSRPin); // read the value from the sensor, between 0 - 1024
Serial.println(val);
analogWrite(motorPin, val/4); // analogWrite can be between 0-255
}
Item
Pressure Sensitive Eggbeater
Board
Comments
Comments from TAs
Cool project! Did you really use it to beat your eggs?!? Sometimes the simplest inventions can be very compelling. It seems to me that a mixing/beating device that you simply pick up and squeeze would be much more pleasant to use than having to stick a beater into your eggs and hold down a button. Focusing on getting an interaction "just right" can be as important (and challenging) as creating a more complicated invention.