SmartTart

"Your pocket’s hottest gadget." Our toaster ensures perfect toasting of Poptarts while being portable and small.

Comment

Inspiration

We were sitting around the table thinking of ideas for the hackathon while eating Poptarts. In that moment of hunger we thought "man, if only there was an easy and portable solution to heat up a single poptart." As such, the SmartTart was born.

The Problem

Researching different toasters, we realized there were many flaws with contemporary designs. Every toaster comes with two slots, many of them being overly wide and deep. None of them allowed for quick, portable toasting. Similarly, aside from expensive, over-engineered toaster ovens, there were no solutions that allowed for specific toasting profiles. Each toaster had unclearly labelled knobs that gave the user no indication of how toasted their tart would turn out.

Our Solution

Through extensive research and development, we've designed a smart toaster specifically made for Poptarts. It's intentionally small, one slot design allows for portable tart toasting wherever you go. On the SmartTart itself, there is a user-friendly OLED display to tell the user vital information, such as toasting progress and the number of tarts toasted. The SmartTart also tracks your steps for healthy monitoring of your net calories gained/burned throughout the day. Additionally, the SmartTart has a web app, where users can choose from custom tart profiles or use AI to determine the level of toastness based on a voice prompt. Through the webapp, the users can also track calories and the number of tarts over time with intuitive graphs and monitor the status of the SmartTart.

How we built it

We started by focusing on the electronics. We used an ESP32 as our microcontroller and connected our temperature sensor, accelerometer, OLED screen, relay, and buzzer. The microcontroller will be powered by a 9V battery for portability. The toaster itself is powered separately by 3 LiPo batteries in series for 33V and is controlled by the relay.

As for software, the SmartTart uses sensor logic programmed in the Arduino IDE. The web app uses Flask and HTML allowing for API calls between the host and the ESP32 as well as sqlite3 to store tart history. The web app also makes calls to the Gemini API for the AI toast level.

For hardware, aside from the electronics, we utilized existing materials from a standard toaster and drew up a CAD model and 3D printed a case to neatly enclose the electronics and mount the components securely. The design includes vents for airflow, cutouts for the OLED screen and buttons, and compartments for the batteries. This ensured the SmartTart remained compact, functional, and safe to operate while providing a clean and professional appearance.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into both hardware and software problems throughout this projects development. In terms of hardware we had to solve many pinout and wiring problems and getting everything to fit in a small package was a difficult challenge as well. Software saw lots of debugging with sensor addresses and calibration, as well as common issues with APIs. We also spent a lot of time trying to figure out the heating element, finally settling on the nichrome wire and mica sheets from a toaster paired with a relay and high-C-rated batteries.

What we learned

We learned a lot about sensor calibration, web APIs, and mechanical design. One of the bigger ideas we learned was that in dynamic fields like engineering, lots of the planning that's drawn up in the initial design phase ends up being changed as the project continues to be researched and developed. Only a handful of the electronic/software/CAD ideas from Friday evening made it to the final design, with many things being changed as we were building and programming. We learned how to quickly adapt and troubleshoot when things didn’t go as expected, whether it was debugging sensor data, adjusting the CAD model for fit, or rewriting software to improve communication between the ESP32 and the web app. Most importantly, we gained hands-on experience working under time constraints, which taught us how to prioritize features, test rapidly, and build a working prototype from concept to demo.

What's next for SmartTart

While the concept for SmartTart is sound, there is definitely room for some design improvements. Rather than multiple sensors, having one PCB with everything integrated would allow for a smaller case around the electronics. Having a bigger screen and/or more buttons on the physical device might allow for a more user-friendly design. Finally, using something like Bluetooth rather than Wifi might make a more seamless mobile connection experience.

Share this project:

Updates