Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks

195

10

10. How to Build an

Internet Toaster

Cost

Time

Difficulty

$50–100

a weekend

difficult

Not too long ago, as I was eating a quick breakfast of toast and orange juice,

I was thinking about whether I should bring a coat with me to work. As I

crunched on my toast, I recalled the story of a student in the U.K. who had

designed and built a toaster that delivered a weather report to his toast. I

thought to myself, I have a toaster and I have an extra microcontroller in my

parts bin. Why not build my own interactive toaster?

In this chapter, I will show you how you can hack your toaster to toast one

of several different patterns onto a piece of bread. You’ll be able to display

messages and information on a small LCD delivered wirelessly to the toaster

from your home PC.

Robin Southgate has documented his Toasty project quite well at http://

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1264205.stm. His project uses a Java controller

and a different mask material from what I use here.

Credits

All photographs copyright © 2003 Scott Fullam.

What You Need

• A toaster

• Electronic hand tools

• Other items listed in

Exhibit A

ch10_toaster.indd 195

1/13/2002 2:44:34 PM