Exercise 10. Applications & Implications.

Final project masterpiece proposal

Drinking tea is an enjoyable experience by many. It can recharge you during the day or relax you at the night.
To achieve the best experience and to get the most active ingredients out of the tea, the tea must be prepared in certain manner and different types of tea leaves requires different steps and/or conditions.
The process to get the active ingredients out of the tea leaves is called extraction, or in the context of the tea preparation it is called brewing/steeping.
The articles below show the importance of tea preparation to get the best out of it:
1. https://www.teaforte.com/teanotes/how-to-steep-the-perfect-cup-of-tea
2. https://www.ecowatch.com/steep-tea-like-an-expert-2644678204.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/06/dining/how-the-experts-brew-tea.html

The type of tea, time and temperature seem to be the most important aspects of steeping process.
Below are some guidelines from ecowatch.com for the best steep time and temperature for various types of tea leaves.

For an ordinary person like me that like to drink tea but have no knowledge on the tea preparation, the guidelines mentioned in the above articles seem tedious.
Hence the needs that I want to tackle is “I need my tea to be prepared conveniently to achieve the best tea drinking experience”
To tackle this need, I propose to design and build an automatic tea brewer.
Below is the simple schematic drawing of the automatic tea brewer.

What it will do?

The design concept I proposed here will make the tea preparation a more convenient and enjoyable for the user despite not having the knowledge of the art of preparing tea.
There are 3 main parts of this automatic tea brewer:
1. The mechanism for up and down movement of the tea bag/tea leaves.
2. The Temperature sensor to monitor the temperature of the water in the pot and the display to indicate the temperature.
3. The app (Android/iOS) connected via bluetooth for setting the duration of the brewing according to the type of tea used.

In brief, this is how the parts will work as one integrated system.
The automatic tea brewer will monitor the temperature of the water and indicate the temperature to the user via the display or via an app that is connected using bluetooth.
By measuring and showing the temperature, the user will know the exact temperature of the water.
Second there will be a mechanism where the tea in the form of tea bag or tea leaves put into filter that will move up and down inside the hot water. This up and down movement will enhance the extraction process and also to accelerate the difusion of the active ingredients into the water.
The duration of the up and down movement is set by the user via the app. This duration is the brewing time as suggested by tea expert.

Who has done it before?

There are many companies that make automatic tea brewer, but the closest product to my concept is made by Breville with a TRADEMARK the TEA MAKER.

Below are video demonstrations of the Breville tea maker:

https://youtu.be/KVmNboY14aU
https://youtu.be/dzkvVXr8nH4

These automatic tea brewer products from Brenville also has the 3 parts that my concept has. But instead of using app, the input and ouput is done through the control panel display. On top of that they come with heating/boiling function of water which I don't include in my proposal.
I am relatively new to electronics and the risk of working with 220/110 V power source is quite daunting, that is why the heating/boiling function in my concept is not included in the project. I might want to include it in the future once I become more confortable working with electronics.

The prices of these automatic tea brewer from Brenville range from 160USD to 280USD.

As from the past year Fab Academy participants database, these are some projects that I used as inspiration:
1. Christian Schmidt.
2. FabLab Insper.
3. FabLab Taipei.
4. Rene Niewanda.
5. FabLab Shanghai.
6. Desmond Lim.
7. Harun Burak.

What will I design and make for the parts and systems? What processes will be used?

1. I will design the housing for the electronics that will also function as the base and support. Below is the preliminary 2D design of the base and support with dimensions. I will use CAD to draw and 3D printing (additive fabrication) and laser cutting (substractive fabrication) processess to make this base and support.

2. I will also design the mechanism for the up and down movement. This mechanism should be driven by motor and provides low speed and high torque due to up and down movement of the tea bag/tea leaves. This design is still work in progress.
Some part of this mechanism will require custom made gears and rod which I will use CAD to draw and 3D printing processes to make.

3. I will need to design the electronic board where the microcontroller is and connect/coomunicate to temperature sensor input and/or button input and motor output and LCD display output and/or bluetooth output.
I will use the electronics design, electronics production, embedded programming processes that I have learnt in week 4, 6 and week 8.

4. I will need to design, build and connect the bluetooth (wireless) node and also write the application programming for the app.
I will use the embedded networking and communication processes and interface and application programming processes that I will learn in week 12 and 13.
Below is the IDEAL projected timeline for the final project.

What materials and components will be used? Where will they come from? How much will they cost?

I will use the below Bill of materials (BOM) to answer these questions.

What questions need to be answered?

1. How can I make the base and support water proof so that the electronics will not be wet with water?
2. How can I make the the up and down movement to be at the same low speed?
3. How can I make the tea bag/tea leaves to be on top of the water surface at the start and end of the brewing?
3. How can I make the changing of the used tea bag and new tea bag convenient for user?
4. How can I make the changing from tea bag to tea leaves convenient for user?

How will it be evaluated?

It will be evaluated by using these questions.

1. Can it measure and indicate the temperature of the water real-time correctly?
2. Can it move the tea bag/tea leaves up and down according to the duration set?
3. Is the entire base and stand waterproof so that the electronics will not be wet?

If all three questions answer is YES, then this project is succesful.