Unnecessarily complicated stir plate

[chris102984]

So I've been using a craptastic stir plate made from some magnets, an old cell phone charger, and a computer fan with broken blades. It got the job done most of the time but I wanted something nicer. Coincidentally my brother recently has gotten into etching his own PCBs with his CNC mill and was looking for a project. Long story short, I now have an overkill stir plate... and I had to brag to someone about it. I need to snap some pics this evening, but a quick summary of features is:
-Speed control
-RPM readout on a blue LCD display
-LCD is backlit and automatically dims after a certain amount of time
-LCD brightness & contrast, dim timeout duration, and dimming functions are all user configurable through the UI
-RS232 connection in the rear for updating software

He considered it the "barebones" version in the end and still wants to make a second one with bluetooth control and other completely unnecessary features. I can't complain though because the thing ended up being quiet and it is pretty cool.

As I mentioned before, I'll put some pics up this evening of the thing.

 

[Weeezle007]

Lol! You should have him integrate powered speakers connected wifi to pump soothing music for yeast happiness! Then..depending on what type of yeasts you got stirring, you could select the appropriate tunes!

 

[chris102984]

Lol! You should have him integrate powered speakers connected wifi to pump soothing music for yeast happiness! Then..depending on what type of yeasts you got stirring, you could select the appropriate tunes!

He already wanted to integrate a wi-fi module as well for a web UI, but i dont think music has crossed his mind... yet

 

[Kralizec]

I know we'll add bluetooth, everyone loves bluetooth.

 

[jfrizzell]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[chris102984]

That's his logic too with the bluetooth hahah

Here you go:

 

[CoalCracker]

That's sweet!

 

[dinnerstick]

a stirplate with more computing power than the voyager spacecraft

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Damn. Read the title and thought it was a sales pitch.

 

[emjay]

I had plans for a stirplate with similar features. Modular, even, so that up to 4 stir plates could be connected together and controlled from the same LCD touchscreen.

Except, instead of getting all complicated and fancy, I was just going to use an LCD computer fan controller.

 

[chris102984]

Damn. Read the title and thought it was a sales pitch.

I'm sure he'd sell you one, his comment was once one person sees it they'll be lining up

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I'm sure he'd sell you one, his comment was once one person sees it they'll be lining up

Okay, but only if his fees are exhorbitant.

 

[chris102984]

Okay, but only if his fees are exhorbitant.

Of course, what other types of fees could he have... reasonable?? I think not.

Although i paid the overly high cost of free-99