Why toast your bread evenly when you can burn low-resolution images instead? Meet the Super Mega Mega Toaster, a University project created by [Scott van Haastrecht] for his Creative Technology course.
Now you may be thinking that this has been done before. And indeed, a bit of searching will lead you to a post about toasting Jesus. But that is a one-shot toaster hack which simply used a stencil to block heat to create a certain pattern. This is a mechanical overhaul for the toaster concept. It uses one row of six heating elements. Each is connected to a servo motor which moves the element next to the bread or away from it based on the pattering being printed. A stepper motor then moves the bread up so that the next row can be printed. All of this is mounted in a laser-cut wood frame which makes us just a bit nervous because the purpose of the elements is to burn stuff.
See a demo of the toaster, as well as its internal components in the clip after the jump.
[Thanks Philippe]
cheap plastic servos and hot heating elements = no
You could set it up as a linefeed printer with a long flatbread and get some more content on there :)
…and wooden case :/ happy fire extingushing….
“laser cut”
why not just laser to burn the bread?
much higher resolution.
So many places to take this one… Put a hot air pencil on an XY gantry Candyfab style, use a BD-ROM laser, or replace the servos in this design with FETs controlling each element.
And then there’s the whole area of FDM (Fused Dough Modeling), wide open and unexplored.
Isn’t it cute when the Community Colleges try to act like a big boy Uni.
I’m still waiting for the toaster that can make a consistent piece of toast every time.
Maybe something with a camera or a temperature sensor to get it that perfect crunchy golden brown every time.
I’d rather have one of these…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CAPRICA-Battlestar-Galactica-Cylon-Toaster-BSG-/200908742580?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec7181fb4
5×5? i expect ATLEAST 25×25 from my toaster
but ill give him applause
but the idea of a wooden toaster makes me uncomfortable XD
cheap design, I expected the toaster to fetch the images by himeself instead of relying on a standard PC hooked up via USB…
And yeah, the plastic servos and wooden structure does not feel good either :D