This DIY sous vide cooker was made by my friend Markus. He built it for about 1/10 of the price of the commercial cookers. And it made some really good chicken =)
A sous vide cooker is a machine for cooking food using a temperature controlled bath.
You can take whatever you want to cook – chicken, fish, steak, etc. – and put it in a vacuum-sealed bag. Next, set the temperature on the DIY Sous Vide to the temperature you want for your food. Then put the vacuum-sealed bag into the water and let it cook slowly for a long time (several hours).
When the chicken (or whatever you are cooking) is done, fry it quickly in a frying pan with high temperature to get a crispy finish.
Parts Used For the DIY Sous Vide
- Raspberry Pi
- Temperature sensor (with digital one-wire interface)
- 1500W Immersion heater (from eBay)
- Solid-state relay (For turning the heater ON and OFF)
- Display shield with buttons (From Adafruit)
- Small transistor circuit for turning pump ON/OFF (See below for schematics)
- Water tank
The total cost of parts in this project was about $100,- Commercial models can often cost around $1000 and up, so that’s not bad ;)
But it’s absolutely possible to make it much cheaper too.
The most expensive parts was the Raspberry Pi and the water tank.
Schematics for the transistor circuit controlling the pump:
The Software
The software that runs on the Raspberry Pi is super simple. It’s Python code with a simple software PID regulator. It turns on and off the heater based on the temperature readings.
Markus, the maker of the DIY Sous Vide:
Phillip says
May 8, 2014 at 10:05 pmNice circuit.