In Holland we have something called a Frikandel. Which is basically a cheap and delicious meatstick. It's easy to prepare, you just throw it in the deepfryer and take it out after an appropriate amount of time. But there's a small problem with this course of action. I have to walk all the way to my deep fryer, turn it on, wait for it to heat up, throw in the "Frikandellen", wait for them to be done, take them out and put in the new Frikandellen (if the first batch didn't already satisfy your needs). Briefly put, more effort than a typical Dutch citizen would like to put into obtaining a "lekker delletje" (we're used to pulling them straight out of walls, don't ask).

So I decided it was time for a solution! A machine that does all the hard work for me! Sounds like a dream right? I mean, how hard can it be to create such a device? For a professional it'd be a few days work. Only problem is, I'm far from a professional. So follow me into my epic journey and read all about this rollercoaster of a construction process. Throughout this quest I experienced joy and hope, but also tears and perhaps a little trauma. Buckle up, because you're in for a ride.

I've created a separate instructable below for if you want to see how I've made this project in-depth.

https://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-an-Automatic-Deepfryer/

Step 1: TLDR for People Who Just Want to Make This Machine (I Don't Know Who'd Want to Recreate This Monstrosity But Go Right Ahead, I'm Not Stopping You).

You'll need:

- 12V transmission motor with a 1:30 ratio

- 12mm thick full threaded metal rod

- Wood or other material that you can completely desecrate in order to make some sort of structure

- Tools for said desecration

- Perhaps a deep fryer might come in handy

- 12mm nuts ;)

- More zipties than any good project should be using (100 should be more than enough, be sure to get different sizes)

- Some ducttape of course

- An arduino with some male to male and female to female cables. All are welcome, I don't judge

- An L298N component (this functions as an H-bridge to allow our motor to change directions)

- An overfilled wallet

- A 12V power adapter for powering the 12V motor

- A deficiency in reasons to live

Step 1: Creating the lifting device.

Make sure to read the entire chronicle of the FOD where I give a more in-depth explanation as to what a linear actuator is and how it works.

(Or don't, it's not like I put a lot of time and effort into writing it or anything.)

(Jerk.)

So basically a linear actuator lets us change a rotating motion (our spinning motor) into a linear motion (our pan moving up and down).

The first thing you should do is connect the metal rod to the axis of your motor. I tried doing this in multiple ways but ended up using a small wooden rod in which I drilled holes on both sides that would fit the rod and the motor. I then used double sided tape to secure them in place. In a perfect scenario I would use a custom 3D printed connection piece that would seamlessly fit both pieces, but life isn't fair and I liked the ability to buy comfort food a little bit more than paying for a clean solution.

Once you've done this you need to start working on a stable construction for the rod to spin on. I'll let you know when I've come up with a better way to do this (perhaps I've already written that part if you are from the future, so keep reading), but for now place 2 wooden planks upright and parallel to the rod. To keep the rod from falling over we will also need to connect it to someting at the top. I currently use a small piece of wood with a 13mm hole in it, but preferably you'd use a ball bearing that fits the rod.

Now you can get to powering the motor. Using the instructions on this pdf I connected the 12V adapter, the H-bridge component, the 12V motor and the arduino to each other.

I wrote a bit of code as a demo for my presentation but eventually I'd like to create a system that let's you insert an amount of Frikandellen which then automatically sets a timer for the pan to come up.

Here is the code I used for the demo that no one else is going to be able to use because it's overly specific:

<p>//@hkumeems</p><p>int enA = 10;<br>int in1 = 9;
int in2 = 8;</p><p>void setup() {
  pinMode(enA, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(in1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(in2, OUTPUT);
}</p><p>void loop() {
  digitalWrite(in1, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(in2, LOW);
  analogWrite(enA, 255);
  delay(40000);</p><p>  digitalWrite(in1, LOW);
  digitalWrite(in2, HIGH);
  delay(100000);
  
  digitalWrite(in1, LOW);
  digitalWrite(in2, LOW);
  delay(6000);
}</p>

Next up...

Frikandellenwiel?!?!?

Johan als je dit leest (of een andere docent), ik ga lekker slapen en morgen de rest van dit epische verhaal verder uitwerken en wat duidelijker foto's toevoegen

Step 2: Chapter 1: an Idea Is Born...

In the year 2018 I started a new study at the HKU and almost immediately felt at home. The school had all kinds of places to work from and each workspace had their own machines and tools to go with it. A heaven for people that want to create.

After spending a few weeks at my new school, I quickly became aware of the fact that we we're going to be working with Arduino. I was looking forward to this project, because I've always enjoyed watching videos of people that create all sorts of things with Arduinos. One of those people inspired me to create this project. That person is William Osman. He's a youtuber that makes the funniest yet weirdest projects that don't fully work for 90% of the time (now I realize where I went wrong). There's one video of him where he teams up with fellow youtuber Michael Reeves to create an automatic condiment dispenser. They later use this to give away free hotdogs to people. I loved the fact that they could cheer up people with their project eventhough it wasn't made with the most of precision.

This inspired me to conjugate the idea of the FOD. To create a machine that would automate an already easy task to express the pinnacle of laziness. And so the story begins...