[plug] Java Microchips

[Ryan]

> So when a connection on a particular port is made to the kettle, teh
> kettle starts and boils.....
> With me?
> Obviously this is simple, but the further applications are immense

Why java? Who wants to connect to a socket and have the kettle do what
it wants?  I want to 'talk' to my kettle!

I would opt for a serial connection and use a Hotchip (Atmel processor)
... later on you can get a rabbit Ethernet module and tie that in to it
... slight modification of the Hotchip's example terminal server program
that comes with it and you can telnet to your kettle and talk to it via
it's own CLI (depending how you set it up) for a bit of fun:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
kettle$ ls
Water
Element
Calcium

kettle$ df
Filesystem        1Ltr-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
kettle                2.0           1.5    0.5     75%   table

kettle$ boil
boiling ...................................... done!

kettle$ uptime
last tipped over 1 day, 5:23,  water average: 0.5, 0.5, 1.0

kettle$ date
Sorry, I am a happily married kettle.

kettle$ spurt hot water over the person sitting next to you I don't like
bash-kettle: spurt: command not found
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then you hook it up to the water main with a solenoid that fills the
kettle when it gets too low ... and then you connect it to an IRC server
and let the fun begin :)

Looks silly but you could serious do ALL that if you got bored enough.
I've done something similar with an LDR to read back light levels etc,
it aint' much of a stretch to add a few relays, mercury switch and a
makeshift water-level indicator ... then later on, an Ethernet module
and some basic socket handlers.

I think I'd stop once I started trying to make a water/heat proof
container for a hard drive :P

Ryan