How to build a kitchen timer?

I’m building a kitchen timer these days.

One of those things you can set to for example 8 minutes so that it beeps when your pasta is finished.

You need:

* a display to show the time
* some buttons to set the time and start/stop the timer
* a buzzer to create sound when the timer finished
* a microcontroller to control the display, detect button press, and keep track of time

Since we only need numbers, a good type of display to use is a 7-segment LED display.

It’s easy to control, and usually pretty cheap.

The buttons can be standard tactile pushbuttons.

And an active buzzer makes the sound turn on with just a high output from the microcontroller.

The microcontroller could be an Arduino if you want to keep it simple:
https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/what-is-arduino/

But if you want to make it compact, better to design your own microcontroller board:
https://www.build-electronic-circuits.com/microcontroller-tutorial-part1/

The components are not expensive.

Maybe around $10 in total.

You can learn all the skills you need in order to build one in Ohmify:
https://ohmify.com/join/

Soon there will also be a course that takes you through it step-by-step.

Keep On Soldering!
Oyvind @ build-electronic-circuits.com

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