Making The Coffee Maker Better, Wowing the Wife...

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"Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything."
- George Lois -

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I put my mad skillz to work today.

We have a Hamilton Beach "Flexbrew" coffee maker. My wife and I both like it pretty well, as it lets us make single cup servings with either a standard Keurig-style K-Cup, or loose ground coffee.

)

Our Coffee Maker ~ Original image by @creatr

As an inventor and designer of industrial devices, I have a pretty keen eye for design flaws. My wife is also pretty sensitive to designs that could be improved. Between the two of us, we come up with some pretty good ideas as I've mentioned before.

Today I created a product improvement based on a design problem my wife was having.

The sight glass is in a dark corner. ~ Original image by @creatr

"I'm going to have to keep a flashlight here,"

said my wife. "I can never see when I've added enough water to the coffee maker."

To be fair, I've heard her say this more than once, but somehow it wasn't until today that my creative juices kicked in.

It's really hard to see the water level. ~ Original image by @creatr

I decided to add a sight-glass light.

"I'll put a white LED behind the sight glass," I thought. But I couldn't find the ready-made circuit that I know I have misplaced somewhere, so I gathered individual parts to make it from scratch.

An old LED tea candle. ~ Original image by @creatr

I found an old LED tea candle.

I knew that it had a battery holder built in, so I scavenged that for my project.

I scavenged the battery case. ~ Original image by @creatr

I gathered all the necessary parts.

They included the scavenged battery case, a white LED, a couple of wires, and a few scraps of .999 fine dead soft silver wire left over from my colloidal silver generator enterprise.

Parts is parts! ~ Original image by @creatr

I heated up my soldering iron.

Soldering is an invaluable skill for makers; I recommend that you learn it. I soldered a black wire to one leg of the LED.

Soldering the black wire. ~ Original image by @creatr

I covered the joint with some heat-shrink tubing.

Although with a 3 volt battery there is no danger of electrical shock, the heat-shrink tubing insulates the wires to prevent them from shorting out.

Adding the red wire to the LED. ~ Original image by @creatr

I soldered a red wire to the other LED lead.

Then I covered both leads with another piece of heat-shrink tubing, leaving a neatly prepared LED as seen in the image below.

The LED and wires are ready. ~ Original image by @creatr

I bent a piece of silver wire.

This silver wire would be half of the light switch. I shaped it to fit over the back edge of the coffee maker water tank. I soldered it to one of the LED wires. I soldered the other wire to the battery pack.

Adding the silver switch wires. ~ Original image by @creatr

I also bent the other silver wire,

and soldered it to the other side of the battery pack. Then, using my trusty hot-melt glue gun, I fastened the silver wires to the back edge of the coffee maker.

The second silver switch wire. ~ Original image by @creatr

Why silver wires?

Silver is the metal with the lowest resistance, and it makes excellent switch contacts.

I used aluminum foil as a contact. ~ Original image by @creatr

To close the switch,

I put a dot of hot melt glue on the water tank lid and glued a scrap of aluminum foil in just the right position.

With the water fill door open, contact is made. ~ Original image by @creatr

Now, when the door lid is open,

the switch closes and the LED lights, illuminating the sight-glass.

The complete assembly. ~ Original image by @creatr

Here's the complete assembly.

Everything fits neatly in place. The door is closed, and the aluminum foil is visible near the hinge in back. The white LED is glued right behind the sight-glass so that it shines through and illuminates the scale. I left the battery pack supported only by the wires so that I will be able to easily replace the battery when necessary.

Door open, light operating. ~ Original image by @creatr

When the door is opened,

the foil bridges the two silver wires and closes the circuit, lighting the LED.

The circuit is unobtrusively placed. ~ Original image by @creatr

To the casual observer,

the setup is invisible. It is neatly concealed at the back of the coffee maker.

The system is ready to wow the wife. ~ Original image by @creatr

My wife hasn't noticed it yet.

Just wait until she makes her first cup of coffee in the morning. Wow.

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~FIN~

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One of a maker's best friends. ~ Image courtesy of eslfuntaiwan

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This story also appears on my Whaleshares blog.

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Thanks for your time and attention.
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I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about them all.

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