Watt's Up, Dog?

If you are like most hardware hackers, then you probably only think about hot dogs when you need to test some LEDs. But a little known fact about these meat-like substances is that they can also be eaten in a pinch. This traditionally means tossing the hot dog in a microwave or on a grill for several minutes. Boring!

There are some more interesting ways to cook hot dogs that have emerged over the years. One particularly interesting option involves sticking the dog between a pair of electrodes connected to mains power, treating it like a heating element. Essentially, you plug the hot dog directly into a power outlet. But while this is a more entertaining way to cook, it takes way too long.

Joel Creates wanted to fix this problem by building an instant hot dog cooker. The key to speed, he found, was electrode size. Sticking live wires into the hot dog does not allow for enough current to be transferred. But after attaching the wires to large bolts and sticking them in the meat, the result was found to be explosive.

But whether or not this meat is safe to eat is another question. Stainless steel, for instance, reacts with the salt in the hot dog to produce chlorine gas and all sorts of other nasty chemicals when electrified. Ultimately, Joel Creates settled on using carbon rods as the electrodes. After consulting with many experts, the consensus was that it was the least bad option — although no one was quite certain that it was totally safe.

To package things up nicely, Joel Creates 3D-printed an enclosure to house the electronics. A 12V LiPo battery feeds into a 120VAC converter to step the voltage up to the level needed for cooking. This is passed through carbon rods that are stuck into each end of the hot dog.

Truth be told, the hot dogs it cooks look pretty disgusting. Aside from that, they might be unhealthy, so you probably don’t want to eat them. But you can watch Joel Creates sink his teeth into the mystery meat in the video below.