A GEICO Commerical-Inspired Final Countdown Outlet

After being asked by his father to turn on a wet grinder — like a smoothie mixer with stones for rice — for 45 minutes, Nathan Ramanathan (aka Nathan²) decided he’d rather let a ‘robot’ take care of the timing. Though one would have to assume that he did indeed turn off the grinder that time, he made an Arduino-based timer outlet that could do it for him in the future.

His project uses a Bluetooth module to communicate with a smartphone, which takes care of interfacing with the outlet instead of a touchscreen or buttons. The unit does, however, have some built-in interface devices, in the form of an LED and a speaker that plays an Arduino version of Europe’s “The Final Countdown” when the cycle is almost done. (Almost like this 2015 GEICO commercial, but without the actual band.)

Perhaps what’s most noticeable, aside from the faceplate, is the empty Samsung Galaxy S4 box Ramanathan chose to house all the electronics. You can check out his write-up to see how he accomplished this, as well as some discussion about multitasking and the delay() function.

Although he appears to have pulled this off without incident, be sure to use caution when working with wall outlet power, and get help from someone qualified if necessary.