My hotplate, while very functional, was not user friendly. It was a small matter of software (SMOP) to solve these issues.

The buttons work!

The hotplate can be turned on and off and controlled in increments of 10c using just the buttons. This frees it from needing to be hooked up to the computer with another USB cable. I originally imagined that having computer control would be neat (and it would be), but its not really necessary for anything that I am doing right now, and it impedes my workflow to do so.

There is a screen!

This screen really would be better off rotated 90 degrees. the final hotplate controller will have that, but for now I will just have to use my imagination. This screen is at a funny angle because the original plan was to control this through the serial port and specifically not to have a screen.

To Do:

This thing needs some kind of case, both to protect the electronics and to make it easy to use and store. I will probably 3d print some kind of temporary mounting arrangement, and also spin up a finished version of the user interface. That UI will probably get assembled on the hotplate!