Raspberry Picrowave

Hardware

microwave hardware hack

SHOW HN2013

423points
110comments
#14of 1,739 in 2013
Top 1%of 2013 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

19 positive, 15 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 5 critical, out of 40 comments about the project. Thread score +0.38.

Idea: 8 for, 3 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 2 againstPerformance: 1 for, 0 againstDesign: 1 for, 0 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Barcode lookup of cooking times is a clever idea

    From 2 comments
    • Being able to scan a barcode and know how long food should be cooked for? It just makes sense and I wonder why it hasn't been thought of before. I think this is a genius hack and…
      DigitalSea on HN
    • > Can use a barcode scanner to look up cooking instructions from an online database > There weren't any online microwave cooking databases around, so I made one Brilliant.
      ianterrell on HN
  • Scaling cooking times across microwave wattages is clever

    From 2 comments
    • This is an awesome project. But by far this is the most amazing and innovative part of the article: > If cooking instructions are posted for a 1000W microwave, you can request…
      lessnonymous on HN
    • This is a great idea. One thing I would like to point out is that microwaves come in different power levels. A large one may be 1200W while a small dorm microwave may be 750W.…
      pbharrin on HN
  • Good hardware hack for the Raspberry Pi

    From 2 comments
    • This has to be the coolest use for a Raspberry Pi I've ever seen. I honestly wish I had the skills to make this happen.
      post_break on HN
    • This is fantastic. I love how the Raspberry Pi is getting used in hardware hacking so much. It's ideal for it. So far my efforts have been limited to hacking electricity and gas…
      jsingleton on HN

Objections

  • Internet-connected appliance is a security risk

    From 2 comments
    • There are 4 really bad ideas from the article: ``` 1. Clock is automatically updated from the internet 2. The microwave has a web page so you can control it from your phone (why…
      negativity on HN
    • Very cool project, but I would imagine that an internet connected microwave might result in these headlines: "Apartment complex burnt to the ground by toddler with iPad" "Chinese…
      brizzle on HN
  • Patent already covers the barcode idea

    From 1 comment
    • Unfortunately this idea was patented 13 years ago: http://www.google.com/patents/US6124583 Makes you realize why there are no commercial implementations of this and why patents…
      gigq on HN
  • Opening a microwave is dangerous due to high-voltage capacitors

    From 1 comment
    • Before you think about opening up your own microwave, you should know that microwaves contain high voltage capacitors that will seriously shock or kill you even when they are…
      joshfraser on HN

Requests

  • Share build process or documentation

    From 2 comments
    • If you're not planning on marketing this, please share your process. I'd love to give this a try (if I can get my wife's permission... crosses fingers)!
      Arnor on HN
    • Really great project, and well documented too!
      angrydev on HN
  • Add a mute option for late-night use

    From 1 comment
    • Very nice project. One thing that it seems to miss (that all microwaves that I know miss) and that would probably be very easy to implement is a mute button for late night snacks.
      JD557 on HN

Questions

  • How the microwave detects what food it is cooking

    From 1 comment
    • How do they figure out what they are cooking? Like if I want to reheat some pizza how does it know when its done?
      gaadd33 on HN
  • Whether the web database and microwave are secured

    From 2 comments
    • There are 4 really bad ideas from the article: ``` 1. Clock is automatically updated from the internet 2. The microwave has a web page so you can control it from your phone (why…
      negativity on HN
    • Great points! I agree with the concerns, and I don't leave the microwave turned on at the moment. I agree that the microwave webpage should be password-protected or disabled,…
      nathan_f77 on HN

Alternatives named

  • FoodEssential's API for ingredients and nutrition

    From 1 comment
    • Great project! I would have suggested FoodEssential's API for preparation instructions (ran into them at SXSW, seem really cool), but they don't have prep, only ingredients and…
      brokentone on HN
  • everycook.org recipe-cooking machine

    From 1 comment
    • These guys are building a machine that can cook recipes from fresh ingredients: http://everycook.org
      andor on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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