[Mike] is the only one in his house who drinks coffee, and uses a simple single-serving brewer with no auto-on feature. And since no one really wants to have to stand around making coffee in the morning, [Mike]’s solution was to IoT-ize his electrical socket.
![](https://hackaday.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/mqttdash-setup1.png?w=366)
The project consists of a relay board controlled by an ESP8266-packing Adafruit Huzzah. It’s all powered by a 9V power supply with a regulator supplying the relay coil and Huzzah with 5V. [Mike]’s using CloudMQTT to communicate with the outlet.
We often see these automation projects hit a wall when it comes to adding a user-side dashboard. [Mike] is using a free Android app called MQTT Dash which allows for a number of different UI components and even had coffee maker icons already built in. It’s certainly worth a look for your own projects. [Mike] uses it to turn on the outlet for 10 minutes, and by the time he grabs half-and-half the outlet is already off again.
It turns out that connecting coffee pots to the Internet is a driving force among out readers. This one alerts the whole office when the coffee is done, while another one is controlled by Alexa. Then again, sometimes all you can do is reverse engineer the Internet of coffee.
pointless to use 9v battery
That’s why he uses a 9v power supply
Maybe I should go ahead and make a fully automated french press setup I’ve been dreaming of for years.
Why use MQTT when there’s HTCPCP?
Because, when you’re on PCP you don’t need coffee.
I’ve got to ask. Been a non North American, where does the term cup of Joe come from?
It’s a linguistic mystery, but one of the leading theories is that “joe” is a corruption of one of two other slang words for coffee: java and jamoke, the latter itself a compression of java and mocha. Under that theory, a “cup of jamoke” could easily have slip-slid its way into being a “cup of joe.”
https://www.instructables.com/id/Web-app-Controlled-Lighting/ Shilling my new Instructable that does something pretty similar.
120VAC outlet with brown and blue euro cabling?
You would be much better served with a dual outlet box, specifically one with a wall for separating high and low voltage.
He could have fitted a small power supply instead of using an external one.
Really nice write up.
Might be worth looking at itead’s sonoff range, many of which have easily hackable esp8266s at their core
https://www.itead.cc/smart-home.html
so wait, he controls power to the outlet, but most coffee makers i know (even the single serving ones) require an extra input because normally they are meant to be plugged in all the time. What kind of brewer is he using?
Note FTA: “To brew, there is a mechanical button on the side that turns on the heating element and then “pops out” after the brewing process.”
I have never seen or heard of one like this, anyone have a link for my education?
I just came here looking for some info on “MQTT Dash” app as I’m trying to make it work with my adafruit.io account.
Anyone using this app and can point me to some tutorial ?
Thanks