Time's Up for Boring Kitchen Timers

Setting a kitchen timer shouldn't be difficult, but anyone who has tried to operate a touchscreen with messy hands knows that modern appliances don't always make things easy. Mechanical timers aren't necessarily better, either. They're imprecise and usually sound their alarm just once. Tired of the existing options, maker Michał Zalewski decided to build his own solution. Called Burninator, it's a custom kitchen timer that combines a vintage analog meter with modern electronics and a clever way of displaying time.

The most prominent feature of Burninator is its large analog dial, which looks like something pulled from an old piece of industrial equipment. That's because it actually is. Zalewski repurposed a Crompton panel meter, originally designed to measure electrical current, and replaced its markings with a custom scale printed on adhesive paper.

Rather than using a conventional linear scale, Burninator has a quasi-logarithmic layout that allows users to select anything from a few seconds to three hours without sacrificing precision for shorter intervals.

The scale is divided into four sections. The first covers up to one minute in 10-second increments, while the second spans one to five minutes. The third covers five to 30 minutes, and the final section extends to three hours. As the duration increases, so does the amount of time represented by each increment. This makes it possible to quickly select longer durations while retaining finer control when only a few seconds matter.

Zalewski kept Burninator easy to use when busy in the kitchen. Pressing an illuminated button on top wakes the device, and a rotary knob on the side lets users select the desired duration. The countdown automatically begins three seconds after the last adjustment, so there's no need to press another button. But if you need to make a correction, the timer can be adjusted while it's running.

Once the countdown reaches zero, an alarm sounds every 15 seconds until the user acknowledges it by pressing the button. Alternatively, turning the knob clockwise to add more time cancels the alarm.

Inside the handmade maple enclosure, an inexpensive 8-bit AVR DB-series microcontroller handles the timing and controls the analog meter using pulse-width modulation. By varying the duty cycle of the signal, the microcontroller can move the needle to the appropriate position on the dial. A small speaker produces the alarm through an AD8531 operational amplifier, and a Bourns rotary encoder provides tactile feedback when adjusting the time. Everything runs from a 5 V power adapter.

Burninator might be overkill for something that just counts down the minutes, but for Zalewski, building it was time well spent. Not having to fumble around with a clumsy microwave timer makes cooking a little less frustrating, and the vintage analog display gives the device plenty of character. It might not prevent every kitchen disaster, but it should at least help keep a few meals from living up to the Burninator name.