Who here likes pancakes? I love pancakes.

January 20, 2016 1:42 PM

Yummiest font ever. Olin College of Engineering students make a machine that "prints" pancakes.
posted by JanetLand (19 comments total)

There was already one on Kickstarter.
posted by blahblahblah at 1:45 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nice music to accompany the vid.
posted by inconsequentialist at 1:45 PM on January 20, 2016

To be fair, hotels have had boring pancake printers for a little while, now. The real twist is in programming how the batter is applied to the conveyer belt.
posted by redsparkler at 1:55 PM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I try to only eat pancakes made by human beings
posted by clockzero at 1:57 PM on January 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, watching the pancakebot videos is what showed me you could make pancakes with a squeeze-bottle. We did that for about a month or so, making hearts, rockets and cat faces before going back to using a big spoon to make vaguely football shaped pancakes.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 1:58 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah! I forgot about that redsparkler. My first impression of it was "Wow, that sounds like an old dot matrix printer. It had better be a real pancake and not a picture of a pancake when it comes out." Edit: and it prints as fast as an old dot matrix printer.
posted by Nanukthedog at 2:00 PM on January 20, 2016

That we live in a world where "pancake printers" can be classified as "boring" and "other" means that at least some of the future we were promised in my youth has come to pass.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:19 PM on January 20, 2016 [10 favorites]

I wonder if they could just add a broiler-like element to get rid of the need to flip it.
posted by GuyZero at 2:29 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

Nice music to accompany the vid.

Makes sense. Before the pancake machine, CNC did have a job as a music factory.
posted by Panjandrum at 2:31 PM on January 20, 2016 [14 favorites]

Seconding what blahblahbah said, the Pancakebot has been already in production for awhile. The problem is that the guy doing it is a Latino from LA, not a bunch of white kids from Olin.

And yeah, the Pancackebot can also do tesselations, connecting to Mac using a program that the guy wrote.
posted by kadmilos at 2:49 PM on January 20, 2016

Order a small stack and get The Little Prince.
posted by Postroad at 2:53 PM on January 20, 2016

They may not taste great, but...

No thanks. Next!
posted by Splunge at 3:02 PM on January 20, 2016

Yes yes, but can it print a Möbius crepe?
posted by kleinsteradikaleminderheit at 3:42 PM on January 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

“We thought, ‘Hey, a pancake printer has a nice intersection’” of all those elements, said Kevin Crispie, another co-inventor.

If he could make it do waffles or crepes, that would be eponysterical.
posted by acb at 4:19 PM on January 20, 2016

Or a puffed rice and marshmallow treat.
posted by Splunge at 4:25 PM on January 20, 2016

I try to only eat pancakes made by human beings

I succeed at this without even trying. Maybe you're wasting some effort.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:28 PM on January 20, 2016

So THIS is how I found out they changed the theme music for Podcast Playlist?
posted by maudlin at 5:17 PM on January 20, 2016

blahblahblah: "There was already one on Kickstarter."

But that is PancakeBot. Who cares? I want Wafflebot...
posted by Samizdata at 7:04 PM on January 20, 2016

They're in a "learn to use micro controllers and CAD" class, not a startup. And this is only in the Globe because one of their reporters went to Olin's Expo (end of semester final project presentation day) and was interested. The fact that someone else has done this before and is selling it does not mean this one is designed to compete or is in any way superior.

Yes, I am a grumpy alumna. Think I'll go have some pancakes.
posted by olinerd at 3:08 AM on January 21, 2016 [1 favorite]