This coffee machine lets you know when you've had too much caffeine

This coffee machine lets you know when you've had too much caffeine

Arduino Team — July 21, 2022

You've probably heard that caffeine is a drug. It's true and it is possible to overdose on caffeine and die. Heathline reports that a lethal dose of caffeine is around 10 grams. But a typical cup of coffee only contains about 100 to 200 milligrams of caffeine, so you need to drink at least 50 cups to reach a lethal amount. However, some coffees, like this one from Death Wish Coffee Co, contain a lot more caffeine, making it easier to overdose. With that in mind, Michael Pick used an Arduino to build a custom coffee machine.

According to Pick, Death Wish Coffee contains up to 728mg of caffeine per 12oz cup. Theoretically, this allows a person to drink enough coffee to overdose on caffeine. Not many people drink that much coffee, so this project is entirely ironic. But it's still fun to see an actual progress indicator counting down to your death with every cup of coffee you brew. That's exactly what Pick's coffee machine does. It tracks each cup of coffee brewed and displays the progress of the caffeine overdose on a small OLED screen attached to the front of the coffee machine.

The choice started with a basic Keurig K-Express coffee machine that featured one-button operation. He connected an Arduino Uno to this button to count each press. The Arduino sketch tracks the number of button presses and calculates the “death percentage,” which is based on 20 cups of 8 oz each. It then displays this percentage on the OLED. Pick mounted the Arduino inside the Keurig case and 3D printed a custom front cover that houses the display. With this material, Pick now has a coffee machine that will tell him if he is going to die.