HomeDesign complete (stages 1–6), not built

CookerCount

The whistle counter for gas stoves, in the cooker box

A magnetic pod on the fridge counts pressure-cooker whistles on a gas stove and beeps and flashes at the target, with no phone, account or Wi-Fi needed.

Who buys it: Pressure-cooker and gas-stove brands bundling it as an accessory; Indian households on LPG at ₹1,299 retail; Indian households abroad at $24.
Why it pays: Fewer burnt pots and no counting by ear, about ₹50–100 of food per avoided burn (est.). For a cooker brand, a gas-stove answer to induction's built-in whistle counter (hypothesis).
Target price: ₹1,299 retail / ₹699 OEM bundle / $24 abroad; no subscription (targets)
First-minute wow: Press three times, walk away; the bar lights one LED per whistle and flashes 3/3 across the kitchen.

See the CAD design Concept page

CookerCount concept: the idea and where each part goes — The concept. The CAD design is below, under Printable CAD.

What the research found

And how this design answers it

Prestige already ships an automatic whistle counter, but only on induction cooktops (PIC 20 WIZ ~₹2,685) → CookerCount targets the ~60% of Indian households (~85% urban) cooking on LPG
Free whistle-counter phone apps → the pod needs no phone in the kitchen and no open mic, and keeps counting through calls
No recurring revenue → no subscription; margin comes from OEM bundle volume and the diaspora price
Accuracy across cookers → one-press 'teach' at the first whistle plus OEM cooker presets
Kitchen noise (mixer-grinder, chimney, TV) → onset/duration/broadband rules reject motors and pure tones; 20 s refractory stops double counts
India price → BOM cut to about $5.9 at 1k (LED bar on a 74HC595, low-cost I2S mic, 300 mAh, mic power-gated between cooks)

Use case

Toor dal while on a call

Home cookChildPhone (optional)

01Trigger: dal on the gas needs 3 whistles; cook presses the pod 3 times
02Detection: each whistle lights one LED; the mixer-grinder in between is ignored
03Alert: at 3 the pod beeps and the bar flashes until pressed; a paired phone says 'turn off the gas'
04Action: the cook turns the gas off on time

Outcome: Dal cooked right and no burnt pot; about ₹50–100 saved per avoided burn (est.)

How it works

Architecture

01
Sense: I2S MEMS mic, powered only during an active cook
02
Decide: ESP32-C3 band energies, onset/duration/flatness rules and a taught whistle template; no audio stored or sent
03
Send: optional BLE GATT notify to the phone; optional Wi-Fi MQTT for a family nudge
04
Tell: 8-LED bar, distinct buzzer cadence, phone or watch vibration

Hardware

Real parts, buyable today

Bill of materials: about $5.9 (₹520) per pod at qty 1,000 (est.).

Block	Part	Why this part
MCU + radio	ESP32-C3-MINI-1-N4	$1.01 at LCSC at 100+, BLE + Wi-Fi + native USB
Microphone	MEMSensing MSM261S4030H0R (I2S)	Low-cost top-port I2S mic; the C3 has no PDM receive
Display	74HC595 + 8 lime LEDs	Visible across the kitchen and cheaper than addressable LEDs
Power	300 mAh LiPo + TP4054 + ME6211	USB-C charge, about 14 days at 2 cooks a day (est.)

Mechanical

Printable CAD

5 parts, generated from code and checked as closed solids. Pick a part to inspect it, or download the STL files to print.

See the CAD parts render

CookerCount printable parts, rendered from the CAD — Render of the printable parts from the actual CAD. Not yet printed or photographed.

Loading the CAD…

Real CAD · drag to rotate · scroll to zoomReal CAD · swipe sideways

Open risks we are working on

Thin India margin: about ₹155 per unit at ₹1,299 retail (est.); the plan only works with OEM volume or the diaspora price
OEM appetite unknown: no cooker or gas-stove brand contacted yet
Clones: a cheap copy is likely within a year; the moat is OEM presets and distribution
Freedom to operate: an Indian patent on a cooking device with an integrated whistle counter needs review

Design stage only: nothing on this page is for sale. Specifications and prices are targets.