Tea Brewer Machine

1 June

Week17 Applications and Implications

---Project Idea---

I come up with an idea of making an automated tea brewer in that most people brew various types of tea in the same way. By controlling the water temperature, time of infusion, water-leaf portion, shape of tea pot, and tea pot material, one can get the most of the the tea leaves from both taste-wise and nutrition-wise.

If I could program the procedures to brew different kinds of tea, it would save people lots of concerns. The only thing drinkers have to do is to choose and fill the tea bag. And the machine shall do the rest to get you a optimally-brewed tea.

---Background Research----

A very common product in Chinese market is a kind of semi-automated tea brewer for one specific type of tea, say black tea or pu-erh tea only. That said there's no choice for users to choose from and the time and water temperature are fixed.

An ideal tea brewer would be very similar to the coffee machines used in convenient stores which you can press the type of Italian coffee and it'll automate the process to make either Latte, Cappucino, Mocha, Flat White etc. while users only have to fill in the coffee beans, milk and press the button.

---Build Plan---

Water control: pressure sensor, water-pipe, valve (160RMB)

Temperature control: heating pad, thermistor, mosfet module (50RMB)

Time control: timer

Communication: bluetooth module (20RMB)

Mechanics: servo (6RMB)

Case: PLA input material (35RMB)

Others: power supply, MCU, wires, heat-resistant tape (80RMB)

The total cost would be roughly 351RMB.

---Problems to tackle---

1. Power supply to the heating pad to heat the water up to 80 degrees.

2. Communication between the mobile and the MCU.

---Schedule and Tasks---

The time plan for the project is designed to be as follows:

[Day 1-3] temperature control with PWM - heater connection and power supply using mosfet - code to power on/off the heater when the temperature reaches the designed level

[Day 4-6] program the timer for fusion for various types of tea leaves - code to control the servo to lift the tea bag

[Day 7-8] build an app for users to choose a tea type easily - communicate the mobile to the MCU through bluetooth module

[Day 9-10] overall arrangement and design - 3D print essential parts - final adjustment

---Evaluation---

One way to evaluate the project is to see the integration of different skills including timer, mechanics, heating, 3D printing, microcontrol etc.. Another way is to evaluate from the result, AKA if the tea would taste better than when it's brewed in a general way without such accurate temperature and time control.