Project Objective:

Automate the process of dunking a teabag in a cup of hot water using the Arduino Nano.

Project Materials:

Arduino Nano,This cheap 3rd party Arduino can be programmed with a windows machine. It will need sketchy Chinese drives in order to flash programs from a mac - $2.89

Ultrasonic (ping) sensor - $7.00

micro servo - $5.00

and a housing of some sort of project box, I used a rocket ship - $4.00

Approximate Total Price: $20

Source Code:

LINK TO SOURCE CODE!

Step 1: Prototype on Breadboard

Follow the Fritzing diagram above and build your circuit on a solderless breadboard. Note that some ultrasonic sensors have 3 pins and some have 4 pins. I purchased one with 3 pin (like the one linked in the material description), but my Fritzing diagram shows 4 pins.

Step 2: Rebuild Circuit on Perfboard

Once you have all the kinks figured out and your circuit is working properly, you can solder your components into a Perfboard for a more permanent result.

Step 3: Final Result

When a user places a mug filled with hot water in front of the rocket ship, it will be detected by the ultrasonic sensor and trigger the micro servo to dunk the tea bag for two minutes.