[dundee] Network controlled kettle?

[Robert Ladyman]

You might find it easier to wire the kettle so that it is always on (i.e. no 
on-board on-off switch, it just starts to boil when the power is on) and then 
control the mains power, for which there are already units available. (e.g. 
http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=14 or 
http://www.digidave.co.uk/jshop/product.php?xProd=293). There are also small 
telehone-tone controlled on/off plugs (I have two, they are about £10 to £30 
each) but, of course, they are not ethernet.

The disadvantage will be possible safety problems (what if there is no water - 
the kettle's built-in switch can usually cope with this)
-- 

Robert Ladyman
File-Away Limited, 32 Church Street, Newtyle
Perthshire, PH12 8TZ SCOTLAND
Registered in Scotland, Company Number SC222086
Tel: +44 (0) 1828 898 158
Mobile: +44 (0) 7732 771 649
http://www.file-away.co.uk
On Thursday 02 April 2009 04:27:17 christopher wyllie wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> This will perhaps seem like a strange request but that may just be a result
> of it being 20 past 4 in the morning. Anyway, does anyone have any ideas of
> how I could get my hands on some hardware to create an ethernet controlled
> kettle?
>
> I'm ideally looking for some sort of embedded I/O device that I can plug
> with ethernet into a router and then fire requests at over the network to
> turn the kettle on and off. Can anyone suggest anything which would have
> these capabilities? Embedded Linux would be cool but I was also looking at
> picaxe micro controllers but they don't seem to have an ethernet
> connectable board (although if I bought all the bits, I could make my own
> damn intelligent kettle, they have all the sensors and stuff like that :P).
>
> It would be a bonus if the components are quite cheap also because that may
> make the difference between this being a possible dream and an "is it
> technically feasible" kind of dream :P
>
> Anyways, thanks and salutations,
>  Chris