Kettle Warranty Disclaimer
The Goal
The Kettle
Disassembly
Open Sesame
Soldering
The Relay
Let There Be Light... Particles
Powering the Photon
IFTTT Connection

Published March 5, 2018

IFTTT Connected Kettle

Connect a kettle to IFTTT to enable remote activation, notifications, and data tracking!

IntermediateFull instructions provided2 hours1,527

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Relay (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

Solderless Breadboard Half Size

Particle Photon

Hamilton Beach Programmable 1.7 Liter Kettle 40996Z

Software apps and online services

IFTTT Maker service

Hand tools and fabrication machines

Soldering iron (generic)

Story

This project was part of the Lane Tech HS Physical Computing Lab course. I created this project as part of the Home Automation / IoT project.

Kettle Warranty Disclaimer:

According to the Care and Use Guide that ships with the kettle "This warranty does not cover glass, filters, wear from normal use, use not in conformity with the printed directions, or damage to the product resulting from accident, alteration, abuse, or misuse." Do not attempt this project without accepting that the kettle's warranty will be voided.

The Goal

Living in a home that is far from tech savvy brings about some objections to hacking appliances. With that in mind - the goal of this project was to add internet functionality to an electric kettle while minimizing change to the physical function of the kettle.

The Kettle

The kettle I used for this project just happened to be one that I had. Luckily it turned out to be a great fit for the project. The plastic base of the kettle leaves plenty of room for installing electronics and all of the functions are controlled digitally.

Another Hackster user, Waldemar Sakalus, did a bit of research and decided on a similar kettle - so it seems likely I did not end up with a bad starting model. He hacked his to toggle and read the powerstate using an optocoupler and Photon. If you are interested in another method, or checking the powerstate, check out his project.

Disassembly

The base of the kettle is secured by 5 screws on the bottom side. Two of these screws require a 3.5mm phillips screwdriver but the other three require a 2.5mm tri-wing. I recommend obtaining a tri-wing screwdriver but the screws can be forced using a flathead at the risk of stripping.

Open Sesame

Once the screws are removed the base should split into two halves. Unplug the 5-pin connector to separate them entirely. The bottom half will be used for storing the relay, breadboard, and photon. The top half holds the circuit board you will need to solder to.

Soldering

This project only requires soldering two joints. I used two pieces of solid core wire that were about long enough to reach across the kettle. On the top half, look for the top left button (oriented with the buttons facing down). Solder a wire each to opposite sides of the button.

The Relay

I used a 5VDC-120VAC relay because it was what I had around - a much lower output could be used. On the output side of the relay, connect one of the button wires to normally open (NO) and one to common (COM) - the order doesn't matter. On the input side connect one wire to each of the pins - I used jumpers to make the relay easily salvageable. Then simply attach the relay to the bottom half using something non conductive - I used some mounting putty.

Let There Be Light... Particles

Snap your Photon into a small breadboard and attach it to the bottom half. Make sure to keep it towards the front and a bit angled to make attaching the usb cable easier. I used a 170 point breadboard with an adhesive backing. Connect the wires from the input of the relay: IN to any digital pin (alterable in the code), GND to GND, and VCC to VIN.

Powering the Photon

Thread a USB to Micro-USB cable through the same hole as the power cord. You may have to remove a bit of plastic to get it through. Plug in the Photon.

IFTTT Connection

First, connect the Particle service to your IFTTT account. Make sure your Photon is plugged in and flashed with the correct firmware. Create a new applet with whatever "if" condition you desire - IE a button or Alexa. For the the "that" operation select Particle's "Call a function" app and look for the name of your function in the dropdown. Use Particle's "New event published" applet and the notifications operation for notifications on your phone or the Google sheets add row operation for data tracking.

Photon Firmware

Photon Firmware

Arduino

The kettle has three power states: On, Off, and Keep Warm. The code tracks the difference between power states 1 and 2 via timing but assumes the kettle will be shut off before keep warm ends (simply because I do not use the function). Tracking between the keep warm and off power state could be added by another timer similar to the one included for tracking between on and keep warm. The pin mode is switched between OUTPUT and INPUT instead of changing output voltage because the relay is being run on 3v instead of 5v so even low voltage would enable it. The publish statement is only required for notifications or data tracking.

int power = 0;

int startTime = 0;
int powerState = 0;

/*0=off
1= boiling
2= keep warm
*/

bool success = Particle.function("powerToggle", powerToggle);


void setup() {}

void loop() {
    if(powerState == 1 && Time.now() >= startTime + 300){
        powerState = 2;
        Particle.publish("done_boiling", NULL, 60, PRIVATE);
    }
    
}

int powerToggle(String req){
    pinMode(power, OUTPUT);
    if(powerState == 0){
        powerState = 1;
        startTime = Time.now();
    }
    else
        powerState = 0;
    delay(200);
    pinMode(power, INPUT);
    return powerState;
}

Credits

Joseph McCarey

2 projects • 4 followers

High school Senior at Lane Technical - Student advisor at CS4ALL - Making for fun and for grades

Thanks to Waldemar Sakalus.

IFTTT Connected Kettle