Argos Update: December 4, 2024

Hello Everyone,

Summary: 

Over the past six weeks, we’ve faced some unexpected challenges with a small batch of parts arriving out of spec, which affected our fulfillment rate. While we had successfully worked with these suppliers before, this batch presented some unanticipated issues both visually and functionally, but we’ve been fully committed to resolving them. 

To ensure the highest quality standards moving forward, we've taken proactive steps, including multiple trips to China to meet with suppliers in person and better understand the root cause. As a result, we've already implemented the necessary corrections to improve the parts’ quality.

We’re excited to report that once the newly improved parts arrive at our shop, our team will be able to operate at full capacity. Once at full speed, we’ll immediately look into expanding our team by hiring more technicians to further accelerate fulfillment and improve delivery times.

We greatly appreciate your patience and understanding, and we are confident that these steps will help us provide everyone with an even better experience going forward. 

NOTE: As of this afternoon, a shipment of powdercoated parts has just arrived and building has officially commenced!!!

Supplier Visits:

While in between batches 1 and 2, William and I decided to take a trip out to China at the end of October to invest some time in meeting our big suppliers, reviewing some design changes and issues we had with new samples. Since we’re not exactly a large customer for some of these companies, these visits are an important part in building a strong relationship and ensuring high quality and consistent parts.

On top of meeting our representatives and their engineers in person, we were not only able to have real time manufacturing reviews, but also able to see how parts like our boilers are now welded and hydrostatically pressure checked by the supplier as well as how our sheet metal parts are laser cut, get their brushed surface finish, bent, then finally inspected. All of this information is extremely valuable for understanding manufacturing constraints to improve the design in future iterations.

New Parts:

We received 45 sets of stainless steel parts by air from an existing supplier and well, whaddya know, manufacturing just doesn’t get any easier. While the machining quality had significantly improved from the original samples this fall, the brushed surface finish was still not up to par compared to our original Batch 1 pieces. The finish was far too coarse and left some unappealing gashes and perpendicular rippled effects on the parts. This isn’t something we can comfortably ship to our customers. We’ve spent the past 3 weeks working with the supplier and digging through our documentation to see what methods they used in the past vs what was recently done.

It’s been 2 years since we ordered our original parts and this company’s staff, location, and tools have all changed which has led to the inconsistency. Unfortunately, these discrepancies were not visible on the new samples that we had just approved. The supplier has been working on correcting this finish with new processes which we’ve just approved and are pleased with the results after seeing a much larger sample size.

Some lingering issues remain from Batch 1. One of our more annoying problems has been with our boiler pressure gauges. These are a slightly customized gauge that use lead free solder to avoid any leeching into the boiler. As many people know, we had issues with gauges fogging up in our first batch which affected ~10% of our stock. While each gauge goes through 2 rounds of QC testing on the machine before shipping, sometimes the internal fogging would present itself after being shipped. While it’s not difficult to swap this part out, it’s still very inconvenient as there shouldn’t be any internal leaks after they’re produced.

The supplier was informed and we sent back 20 bad gauges for them to disassemble, diagnose, and resolve on the next order. Unfortunately, after receiving the new order of gauges 2 weeks ago, even MORE gauges are fogging up.

The second lingering issue has been inconsistencies in the coiling of our heating elements. This can lead to difficulties with installing in our tightly packed boiler as well as struggles with getting them to appropriately seal. I’ve designed a very simple 3D printable go/ no-go gauge to simulate the bottom half of the boiler with our fluid level and thermocouple probes sticking out. The goal here is for the supplier to check each heating element after coiling to ensure fitment without issues before shipping to us. This will allow them to make any necessary adjustments on their end and save us the headaches during install.

Revised Plate Finish

Shipped Plate Finish

China Part 2:

I never thought to visit these suppliers on the original trip last month but due to these recent issues and our recurring production schedules, I decided to make a quick last minute trip back out to China. I’ve just finished working with our machined plate supplier to ensure we get the appropriate finish and making sure their techs are correctly trained on the new procedures. This shop floor time allowed me to really understand where some of our issues were coming from, approve current procedures in real time, review powdercoating, inspection, and packaging all in real time. I’ve got several action items for things to adjust on the drawings and procedural documentation before we order more parts in a week but I’m confident that this time investment will pay off moving forward with more consistent results.

I also brought some of the new bad gauges to disassemble and diagnose on site with our gauge supplier. This gave me important insight into their assembly and testing process. Overall the process should be quite robust but I think there’s a few small changes we can make to reduce our issues. A potential cause for the fogging may be residual moisture inside the cover from assembly which collects on the upper lens when heated. Another possibility is an improperly mixed adhesive having a reaction to the high temperatures of the brass base of the gauge that it’s bonded to. We’re currently testing several of these possibilities with the supplier to narrow down and mitigate this issue in the future. 

With new heating elements being coiled I was able to go on site to learn about the process and ensure that they understand our concerns and struggles with the gauge inconsistencies. Since the final bends and element tolerances are all adjusted by hand after a machine does the coiling, the new 3D printed fixtures allow each element to go through a test fit procedure where I was able to confirm perfect fitment which will significantly reduce boiler assembly time.

While it’s not the most convenient to fly all the way back out to China, I’m always excited to learn about how more of our parts are produced as well as guarantee a timely resolution to our lingering issues. These unexpected issues do delay us a bit, but I think that the additional up front time investment will pay off in the long run and not delay our overall batch 3 delivery times which have a 1 month manufacturing buffer for Chinese New Year.

I had the opportunity to meet up with an acquaintance from College who also does product design and owns a machine shop in China. Since he too has to outsource some of his own parts to other Chinese manufacturers, he assured me that this is all a part of the process, especially when going to pre-production to 500+ production scale. Essentially, I am doing the role of a Supplier Quality Engineer (SQE) which is not something I was ever familiar with in my prototyping background. While this role could be outsourced, I find that I do enjoy the on site problem solving and building interpersonal connections with our key suppliers.

Shop Progress:

We spent 1 week purchasing tools and testing methods to recreate the original surface finish ourselves in the shop but this proved to be much more difficult than expected. Now that I’ve understood the new process on site, I’ll attempt to find a similar machine in the US but if this doesn’t pan out, we’ll send the parts back to be fixed by the supplier with new Stainless plates being sent out by air this week.

While it’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to use these stainless pieces immediately, we’ve still been able to build up over 100 sets of sub assemblies in preparation for the powder coated parts to arrive this week then corrected stainless parts soon after.

New Piston Linkages are in and shipping immediately. These will officially roll out with serial no 600. The only significant advantage of this part is higher yield in the direct configuration making the yield closer to 50g. 

Our new piston gauge brackets have resolved the original alignment issue and will make installation much easier than before. 

Starting mid January, we plan to expand into the shop adjacent to ours. Our goal would be to open up the wall between the 2 units allowing us to move our mini “machine shop” and additional storage to the other side while making more space for assembly and shipping. This will set us up well for continued growth in the new year as we continue to ramp up assembly and fulfill orders.  

Software

The latest firmware version at the time of this blog is 1.5.1 which includes a minor bug fix to revert the temp tolerance for entering sleep mode to be what it was in an earlier release. We had made this too tight and as a result some machines did not enter sleep mode after ~10 minutes of being at the set temp. Please update to this latest version when you can.

We’re still working through Acaia scale integration issues and have been in contact with Acaia representatives for help. Sorry for the ongoing inconveniences!

Steve, our part time app developer, has been working hard on a https://visualizer.coffee/ integration which we’re excited to announce has been released in the app! Go to settings tab and click the gear icon on the top right and select visualizer.coffee and follow the prompts to get connected. Then you’ll have a new “share to visualizer” button for each brew and after it's been uploaded you can click “view on visualizer” and it will open up the brew in your browser. We’re also working on our own platform that allows for user accounts and backing up/sharing shots.

Additionally we wanted to remind everyone that the setpoint offset is set by our technicians during qc with a Scace to ensure accurate and consistent brew temps based on the temp set by the dial and it is specific to your machine. Do not change the setpoint offset yourself because you may affect accuracy and consistency of the temperature stability of the Argos. We’ve made an update to the app to make it harder to accidentally change as well as including a notice.

We really appreciate everyone’s support as you all go on this journey with us while we create these awesome little machines!

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: October 16, 2024

Hello Everyone,

Didn’t intend for such a long delay between updates but it’s been busy! We’ve (sort of) officially completed Batch 1 shipments. I say sort of, because we have 2 machines that never received a final shipping confirmation from the owner so we’ve resorted to a good ole fashioned mailed letter. Woohoo!!! Overall, we’ve been hearing great news from customers that tell us how their Argos is allowing them to enjoy straight espresso for the first time or just bring back their passion for coffee.

Batch 2 Building:

As mentioned, we went straight into Batch 2 builds using the remaining good parts from our Batch 1 order. Unfortunately, our shipment of Fill Tubes was severely delayed which set us back a few weeks, during this time we were able to build 36 machines halfway until those parts arrived this past week. We’re now all hands on deck getting those 36 machines completed and quality tested as fast as possible.

New Parts:

Due to some slight changes in how the new parts mate together, we did a last minute request for some samples to verify fitment and avoid hiccups down the line. Sure glad we did this! The parts assembled perfectly, but the large machined parts had much worse machining quality and finish than our original batch. I sent a full report back to the supplier who reviewed the documentation and immediately got to work re-machining the Top Plates, Base Plates, and Spring Covers to send new samples over.

Part of this issue stemmed from a new program manager since our last order combined with attempted cost savings efforts. We were able to review each of the critical details that were missed and am pleased to say that the new samples were flawless. A full machine was built using the new parts and brought to a local Weber Workshops x Prodigal coffee meetup where I’m pleased to announce the machine operated flawlessly during the continuous 1.5 hours of pulling shots.

The supplier is expediting the manufacturing to reduce the additional delays that this has inevitably caused. All other Batch 2 parts that were ordered have been arriving by air over the past few weeks to ensure we can continue building with larger shipments by boat arriving by the end of the month. As for these reworked parts, we’ll be shipping a portion of stainless parts by air to allow us to continue building while the powdercoating takes place. When powdercoating is completed around the end of this month, a portion of those will go by air and all remaining parts will go by sea. This means that we’ll have a slight delay of powdercoated machines using the new parts but not much.

The good news is that the new parts are easier to assemble and will reduce majority of our visual quality control issues that took extra time to address on batch 1. At this time we don’t foresee any significant shipping delays for Batch 2 machines beyond what was estimated in the last update. I would expect final Batch 2 machines to go out in February and straight into Batch 3 at that time.

The Changes:

I know I’ve mentioned it in the past but the full list of design changes is as follows:

Front Cover:

Front tabs and mating slots made much smaller to reduce visual gaps between front cover and top and bottom plates.

Additional tabs added to prevent sides of the front cover from flaring out when base plate is torqued.

Piston Linkage:

Linkage holes updated to allow longer stroke of the piston in the direct configuration only for higher shot volumes. (Consistently saw 50g yield during the local meetup)

Piston Assembly Pins:

Female Chicago Screw updated to be a “D” shaped bolt head preventing the need for an additional 3mm hex key when reconfiguring the assembly.

Grouphead:

Grouphead gasket cutout modified to make removing and installing the Grouphead Gasket slightly easier

PCB Mount:

Mounting holes for the PCB slid over slightly to allow more space for wires to bend immediately coming out of the 18 pin connector

Drip Tray:

New design to sit straight under the grouphead with a more functional grate, finger hole for removal of grate, and thicker gauge stainless tray for more sturdy feel.

Base Plate:

Drip Tray cutout slid back to center the drip tray under the grouphead

Larger hex key cutout to allow space for our new Wera brand hex keys

Small pockets for rubber feet to sit in to prevent feet from sliding

Improved Serial Plaque cutout for better fitment

Hex Key:

Included hex key now upgraded to Wera 3mm cryogenically hardened chrome key

Unfortunately, not all of these updates will be backwards compatible with Batch 1 machines. We’ll have a kit for the new Drip Tray to work which will be a disc to sit in the current base plate cutout and an offset magnet to hold the new drip tray in place. The new Piston Assembly design will fit in an older style machine or just the linkage itself can be swapped in.

Wera Partnership:

We’ve always been HUGE advocates for high quality, (usually German and US) made tools including Wera, Wiha, Knipex, and Tekton. If you look back at all of the videos we’ve posted, you’re always going to see these brands used in our shop. While they are expensive, I firmly believe it is worth the cost to have these machines built with the best quality tools possible.

The most obvious reason for this partnership is the included Wera hex keys that are magnetically held to the bottom of the machines. This will ensure longevity of both the tool and screws as users swap piston configurations or perform routine maintenance.

We’ve also been talking about putting together and selling a basic espresso machine technician’s toolkit including the specific tools that we use to build your machines. We would likely offer 2 kits catering to different budgets. The basic kit will include the common hex drivers, hex keys, wrenches, and pliers while the advanced kit will include a few of the more obscure tools as well as the Wera Torque Drivers that we use. Keep an eye out for these kits in the next month!

For those that have followed Wera tools in the past, you know that they’ve been putting out fun advent calendars for the past few years. We now have the opportunity to bring that fun to you! Regardless of what holiday you celebrate, these calendars make great gifts which allow you to grow your tool collection with useful products! We currently have these in stock and shipping immediately.

https://www.odysseyespresso.com/shop/wera-advent-calendar-2024

You can also expect some Wera giveaways on our social media including a few of these calendars and some basic hand tools that can be used on your machine!

China Trip:

I’m currently on my way to Hong Kong while I write this email. I’ll be meeting up with William who is already out there. We’ll start the trip with a quick tour of the Decent Espresso factory then be travelling across the country for the next 9 days meeting with our biggest suppliers. We aren’t exactly large customers for our suppliers so this will help continue to build our relationship with them to ensure we get the best quality parts and service. Not only will we be able to see how all of our parts are being manufactured and inspected before shipping out to us, this is a great opportunity to review how we assemble and use the parts so that our suppliers understand what’s most important to us.

These meetings will be great for collaboration on manufacturing processes. When iterating on the part design, I’m thinking through what material stock sizes are available, what tools will be used for each operation, and what order the operations will occur all to reduce manufacturing time, tool wear, and material waste. The suppliers might have a different process in mind based on the equipment they use. These in person meetings will allow us to get on the same page to reduce quality issues, improve lead times, and bring part cost down with full optimization.

Don’t worry, our techs will still be hard at work while we’re gone. We appreciate everything that they do!

Hiring:

Speaking of technician appreciation, I’m still working on getting better at delegation which has led us to promote 2 of our techs to management roles! Kayli is now our Build Manager and Jon is our Quality Control Manager. By passing responsibility off as we grow, this will ensure that I don’t remain as the bottleneck for our operation. Kayli does a fantastic job with organizing build sheets, tracking inventory, and keeping our shop organized. Jon is excellent at reviewing builds for both visual and mechanical quality control issues as well as organizing our QC and Returns data. As we continue to scale, we plan to pass as much off to our team as possible to grow this business together!

Software:

During our last update, we rolled out Classic Mode. This has been a hit and made the Argos more accessible to different workflows that see a hotter grouphead. We’ve just made a small update to Classic Mode where we bumped the lower boiler limit up to 114C which allows for a slightly higher pre-infusion pressure over prolonged periods and doesn’t have a significant impact on shot temperatures.

Additionally, the latest firmware version (1.5.0) allows for waking up the Argos from sleep mode by changing the set temp or toggling steam mode, rather than having to turn the Argos on/off.

We’re continuing to improve our firmware and software based on user feedback and have gotten additional support from Acaia on integrating with their scales so we’re hoping to fully resolve those issues in the near future.

Shop Re-organization:

While waiting for the delayed parts to arrive, we took the time to model up some new shop layouts! Our small space wasn’t optimized for growth and efficient workflow so we laid out a few options and have landed on a new arrangement that allows our techs to sit closer to the parts they work on with more usable desk space for all of our techs!

With a nearly empty shop, we’re able to re-organize all of our shelves in preparation for the new parts to arrive. As shipments are received, we’re taking full inventory of the new components and making sure we arrange the shelves efficiently for future workflow. This will help as we continue to grow next year.

Videos:

A while back, we bought and tested the Filter 3.0 basket which works very well on the Argos. It takes a little dialing in and getting used to but a video is in the works for doing pour over’s on your Argos! I’ll complete the video when I return from China which will include Tips, Tricks, and TDS using Filter 3.0.

With a new machine built using the sample parts received, I’ll film a side by side comparison of the changes so people can better understand the design iteration process and where that has led us.

A few nice customer images to share!

We really appreciate everyone’s support as you all go on this journey with us while we create these awesome little machines!

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: September 2, 2024

Hello All,

We’re currently up to Order 1091 which is around 535 machines shipped! That now puts us at 93% complete for batch 1. Of course, nothing is easy. We’ve run into some delays with switching to the Pressensor pressure transducer. This change was mentioned in the last email update and requires a bit of manual machining work on our end to get the integration that we prefer with a direct thread into the Grouphead. We were originally expecting to receive parts customized for the Argos, but unfortunately that did not work out so we had to modify the first 30 units by hand. On top of this, we’ve been waiting on the new thread adapters to use the Pressensor with our current “T” fitting for those that want to run it with an analog gauge. We’ve been making those in house as well but the first batch of fittings have just arrived which will make shipping those out slightly simpler. 

Hiring

This past month we’ve hired 2 new people! One is a part time developer with Argos experience who will focus specifically on the app side of things. We’ve got a significant list of our own features that we would like to offer in the app to continue improving user experience but we also need someone dedicated to keeping up with various scale pairing updates and phone compatibility issues. 

The second hire is a full time assembly technician. We interviewed several excellent candidates and found one that has a blend of coffee experience and high attention to detail which is crucial for building these machines. 

While it will take time for both new hires to get completely spooled up, we’re excited to be able to continue slowly ramping up our production as orders steadily increase. 

We will likely hire another shop staff in a few months to continue increasing output without compromising quality.

Production

We expect to complete batch 1 assembly within the next 2 weeks. We will still have enough parts for around 50 units that we will use to start fulfillment of batch 2. The remaining Batch 2 parts will be arriving at the end of September and include some design changes geared towards simplifying assembly and reducing part cost. With these changes in mind assembly and fulfillment rate should increase once we receive the final shipment of these new parts. 

Our goal is to complete batch 2 assembly by the end of January if we hit a steady 25 machines per week. Best case scenario, we will ship more per week with our increased staff but our current rate should be a reasonable estimate with a full stock of new inventory.

Maintenance

I’ve finally filmed and uploaded an Argos cleaning and routine maintenance protocol. We’ll work on transcribing this into a simplified written list for future reference. Apologies for the poor audio! 

Video: Odyssey Argos Routine Maintenance

https://youtu.be/CNwRUK3hBUs

Shop Updates

Carousel: We’ve been slowly working on building a carousel system for our Quality Control rack. Machines all go through 2 rounds of testing before they’re boxed up. With limited shelf space, it can be a pain to store machines 2 deep on a rack and need to shuffle them around throughout this process. A simple carousel rack will allow us to prevent accidental damage from shuffling machines by hand and make it much easier to spin machines around for access, especially while we bond on serial plaques. 

Hydrostatic Test Rig: Our current hydrostatic test stand up until now has worked great but is a little…janky. Basic wood frame bolted to an old crate with quick clamps and a rubber plug to seal. One of our techs, Anthony, has done a fantastic job redesigning the stand. We’ll now have it mounted to a mobile cart with its own faucet, drain, and pump to be able to recycle our testing water and prevent unnecessary walking across the shop! 

Chain driven carousel with soft plastic 3d printed bases to securely hold machines in place. This will be mounted to the shelf when completed.

Initial mock up of the hydrostatic test stand to securely mount and seal the machines at multiple different build stages.

Software

1) One of our biggest updates to roll out is Classic Mode. We’ve realized that the most significant part of the Argos that people struggle with is around the varying boiler pressure. Unfortunately this is a sacrifice when favoring thermal stability on a dipper machine. 

It appears most common for people to struggle when pulling many consecutive shots to dial in, or those that try to keep the machine on continuously instead of pulling their shots immediately when at temperature. To improve this experience, we came up with Classic Mode which can be turned on in the Odyssey Espresso App. This mode will work as a hybrid between our default Argos logic which favors thermal stability and a classic dipper lever machine that runs off of constant boiler pressure. The way we’re doing this is adding a lower limit to our default logic so that the machine operates the same UNTIL the boiler pressure is told to drop below 112C, then it holds. We’ve found that 112C is a reasonable limit to keep boiler pressure between 1-1.5 bar which is on par for other dipper style levers on the market. Learn more about it here https://www.odysseyespresso.com/argos-classic-mode

With a few weeks of testing this on our shop machine that sees 3-8 shots randomly across a 12 hour day, we’ve noted no negative impact on the quality of our shots with Scace results reading 94C shot temperature on a 50C grouphead temperature. I will release a video voiceover walking through the steps to update in your app and explaining the features in a bit more depth. 

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2) BooKoo Coffee (https://bookoocoffee.com/) seemingly came out of nowhere with their small form factor and low cost bluetooth scale and pressure transducer. We had some samples sent over to us for testing and have integrated both of those into our app.

BooKoo Coffee Scale connected to the Odyssey App with one of our Dev Boards.

3) We've added a minimum duration for auto stop which should make sure that when you're doing a Fellini or pressure/flow drops during puck saturation your shot doesn't stop prematurely. The default is 10s but you can change it as shown in the first screenshot.

We've also added boiler status to the brew tab so that its clear when its heating up, ready at temp, and cooling down. You can find this in the top left hand corner above the plot. A future enhancement will be how far from the target set point we are! 2nd, 3rd, 4th screenshots.

Shoutout to our new part time developer @slarsbot who implemented these two features and the customizable start/stop thresholds we released a few weeks ago!

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Random

Below is a sneak peek of a 3d printed prototype for our new drip tray design. This design was inspired by one of our customers, Jake G, whom we’ve consulted with in the past on several small engineering changes. We’ve moved the recessed cutout in the drip tray back slightly to allow the drip tray to sit more centered under the Grouphead. An indent in the back of the drip tray will allow it to sit nicely against the front cover. The Cover features a more functional hole pattern to catch the drips while still looking stylistically appealing and having a finger cutout.

These drips trays will be backwards compatible with original machines. We will offer a Base Plate filler block on our site in the 3 color options. These will have an offset magnet to allow the new drip tray to sit flush on the surface but still held in place magnetically. To clarify, this block would sit in the recess location that the current drip tray lives to create an almost flush look in the appearance.

One of many drip tray cover designs that were tested for appearance and splatter.

Auto Refill is still in testing and we aim to release the kit by the end of the year.

Clever customer setup with a wall mounted tablet to show stats. I’ll need to do this for the shop machine!

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: July 16, 2024

Hello All,

We’re currently up to Order 749 which is around 460 machines shipped! That now puts us at 81% complete for batch 1. As a reminder, not every order has a machine, so please do not try to calculate when yours will ship based on the order number. We had a slow down last month waiting for new side panels to arrive. We ran out of our side panels earlier than expected due to the number we had to scrap from fitment issues and had to wait for the supplier to update their equipment and iterate a few times to get within our desired tolerances. Thankfully these panels arrived with the best fit we’ve seen and we’ve been able to work on catching back up with the new parts. This does mean it’ll push the final shipments of batch 1 slightly into the month of August. We’ll then transition straight into batch 2!

Corvus Partnership

Back in April, we started chatting with some of the folks behind Corvus Coffee (https://www.corvuscoffee.com), a local roasting company focused on sustainability and education by working directly with the farmers that they source from. After connecting over SCA Expo in Chicago, Corvus suggested a collaboration where they would provide a bag of beans for the remaining machines shipped in Batch 1. We received the first bags from them last week and started including them in boxes. Unfortunately, we’ve run into import issues with overseas shipments requiring additional sanitation inspection. Because of this, we’ll only be including bags with the remaining domestic orders. Sorry to our overseas customers!

Corvus is also working on printing custom discount cards for their subscription program which won’t be ready for a few more weeks. We think this is a great opportunity to partner with an excellent local roaster to provide education all the way from farm to cup. Depending on how much interest there is in the discounted subscription program we will evaluate at the end of batch 1 to determine if this is a sustainable long term partnership for batch 2. 

Pressure Transducer Changes

In June 2022, we first met Miklos from Pressensor at the WOC Milan Expo. We chatted about the new pressure transducer that he was working on and in 2023, he sent a few samples for us to test and integrate with our app. We decided that after we ran out of our original stock of transducers, we would make the switch to offer Pressensor’s transducers. Miklos’ sensors boast a small footprint and use an off the shelf coin battery which is easily replaceable. 

After using the sensor for long enough, we realized that the M6 threads were close enough to the M5 port in our grouphead. We turned down and re-threaded the sensor in our shop and found that it was a perfect fit to install directly into the grouphead. This eliminated the need to excess bracketry while staying out of the way of boiler cap removal and steaming. While these sensors are more expensive than the previous ones, the increased price is reflected on our site from our price increase several months ago. 

Pressensor will be sending us custom threaded transducers to fit directly into our M5 grouphead port and we currently have the first 30 pieces that are shipping out now that we’re out of stock of the original parts. For those that wish to use the transducer with our analog gauge, we’ll have an M5 to G1/8 adapter to fit in the same way as the original transducer. Please see the video below for installation instructions. 

Odyssey Espresso Argos Pressensor Installation

Software

We’ve got some exciting software updates this month! Flow rate plotting is now on by default! You can toggle it on/off as well as toggling weight plotting on/off by clicking the gear icon on the top right of the Brew tab and going to brew settings. This has been a heavily requested feature and we're excited to enable more metrics in the app for nerding out on extraction! As always if you run into any issues feel free to post on discord under the App section.

We’ve also updated the Argos firmware to version 1.3.2. Our techs started tracking all of our QC shot data back in early April and now have over 400 shots recorded. This data has been analyzed and showed that our first shot tends to pull slightly cooler than the rest so we’ve bumped up the setpoint for a typical “first shot” in the app. 

It’s also been requested that we make it more obvious when the machine is turned on and heating. The brew temp LED will now have a “breathing” indication where it gradually increases then decreases in brightness while heating up or in between set temperatures, then a steady on when at temp. We recommend periodically checking for machine firmware updates under Settings -> Connect Argos -> Manage Argos -> Update Firmware. Please note that you must manually type all capitalizations for both your network name AND password. It must be exact in order to work

Hiring

We’re still interested in resumes for a part time software developer! We’re looking for someone that has experience with React Native and Expo and ideally with bluetooth integration experience as well. If you think you might be a good fit and are interested in working with us please reach out to us at support@odysseyespresso.com!

We’re also hiring for a full time 30-40 hours per week Quality Control and Sub Assembly technician. This role will cover a wide range of tasks including sub assembly manufacture, temperature checks on built machines, analyzing data for continued firmware improvements, and more. If you or someone you know may be interested, please have them reach out! Local applicants preferred and a flexible schedule is possible. 

Quality Control Process:

For anyone that’s interested, we recently released a video showing part of our quality control process where we test and fine tune shot temps on each machine before sending out. This not only allows us to run a few cycles to ensure no obvious leaks or malfunctions but also allows us to ship each Argos machine as consistent as possible.

Odyssey Argos | Quality Control on Production Small Batch Espresso Machines

Sincerely,

Ross & William

www.odysseyespresso.com

Argos Update: June 11, 2024

Hello All,

We’re currently up to Order 670 which is over 400 machines shipped! That now puts us at 74% complete for batch 1. While we didn’t quite hit our goal of 80 machines last month, we did ship a record 77 units! We think we can hit over 80 this month, so that continues to be our goal to get all units out by July and straight into batch 2.

Check out this behind the scenes timelapse video of Ross building an Argos! After this stage of building, the machine goes into quality control and testing which is the next video we’ll post this week.

Video: Building an Espresso Machine | 5 Minute Timelapse

Powder Coating:

The white groupheads were completed and installed on the mostly prebuilt white machines that we had on the shelf that we had to postpone shipping while resolving this powder coating issue. Just about all of those are out the door with no future delays expected on any color or configuration of machine for the rest of batch 1.

Boiler Welding:

While building and QC-ing boilers, we’ve come across some that had a pinhole or hairline crack in the welds. These are caught during our first round of hydrostatic testing after initial boiler assembly and thankfully don’t make it onto customer machines. We decided to set them aside but after racking up 10% of our total boiler stock, we’ve hired a professional welder to come in and repair the welds.

Since the original fusion welds do not use filler wire (TIG welded), we were able to go back over the top, this time with filler wire, to seal and add additional strength. We then retest the boilers on our Hydrostatic rig to verify no leaks.

While an unfortunate circumstance to deal with, we now have the knowledge to make some small design changes on our end while also going back to the supplier with requests to do an initial test after welding to verify no leaks before shipping to us.

Business Operations:

Ross is spending most of his time wrapping up the last few design changes and ordering of batch 2 parts. Most of these items are already in production but it’ll be a huge relief when everything is ordered and he can focus back on batch 1. We’re doing our best to have everything lined up exactly so that once batch 1 is completely out the door, we have a week to re-arrange and clean the shop before batch 2 arrives and gets unloaded.

We’ve spent the past year continuously relocating parts around the shop for improved efficiency and organization. Now that we understand our optimal workflow, this time between batches will be a great opportunity to give us a fresh start moving forward with a more tidy shop.

All Hands Meeting

We had our first All Hands meeting this past month. We’ve got an amazing team of 11 people right now and want to do as much as we can to keep everyone engaged and fulfilled in the work that they do. In an effort to keep our team happy and efficient, we sent out an anonymous 3 question survey looking for feedback on how we can improve. We received some great feedback from our techs and wanted to start doing a better job at keeping our internal team more up to date on the status of the company as well as our short and long term goals. This will help ensure everyone is aligned with when we plan to finish up each batch as well as plan for company growth.

At the moment, we’re looking to hire in July/ August as we wrap up batch 1 and start with batch 2. This person will likely be focused entirely on QC or an additional builder. We don’t think it would be valuable to hire for batch 1 building as there’s too much finessing to get things fitted as nicely as possible. All of these fine details are accounted for with design changes moving forward which will make the assembly and QC process slightly simpler. We think that’s the opportune time to grow our team and push to fulfill batch 2 as quickly as possible.

Drip Tray Re-Design

We’ve brought on an Industrial Designer to conceptualize a new drip tray design. One of the issues with the Batch 1 Argos is that the drip tray is slightly offset from the center of the grouphead. When pulling your cup away, the remaining drips splatter much more than preferred.

This is a 2 part design activity with the first part being a new grate design that does a better job at catching drips exactly where they fall while maintaining a clean aesthetic. The second part will be a new tray design. We’ve seen some great concepts and ideas from customers, so we’re working on a new concept that actually centers the tray under the group.

This second design will unfortunately not be backwards compatible with batch 1 which is why we’ll be offering the updated grate design for batch 1 owners looking for improved function.

Software

Now that William has created a process for automating the fulfillment workflow ie: creating build sheets and shipping labels for batch 1, he’s back to working on app and software updates. We have a few known bugs with the app which are being addressed first, then some fine tuning of the firmware based on our collected QC data.

We’ve gotten more phones and scales in house for us to start resolving some instability issues with our current list of supported scales.

Hiring

Additionally, we’re on the hunt for a part time software developer. We’re looking for someone that has experience with React Native and Expo and ideally with bluetooth integration experience as well. If you think you might be a good fit and are interested in working with us please reach out to us at support@odysseyespresso.com!

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: May 8, 2024

Hello All,

Really sorry for the much overdue email update!

We’re currently up to Order 559 which roughly equates to 345 machines shipped! This puts us at 60% of the way through batch 1. While this may not sound encouraging, keep in mind that 41% of these units have shipped this year alone. 

We’ve recently plotted some data to track warranty issues relative to units shipped as well as how many we’ve shipped per month. 

The returns due to warranty issues tracks with the early issue of the steam manifold o-ring which has been addressed for several months now. If you haven’t run into any issues with your machine up until now, this isn’t something you’ll need to worry about. The second small spike came from a small alignment issue with our redundant pressurestat on a very small number of machines which led to a short. This has also since been addressed and warranty issues are on a declining trend which is to be expected! 

On the other hand, our units shipped per month saw a significant increase in December, then a slight dip as we lost a technician and started dealing with initial warranty repairs, now a steady rise. I expect to realistically do at least 80 machines this month with a stretch goal of 100. 

Batch 1 Configuration Changes

In an effort to further improve our assembly efficiency, we will not accommodate anymore configuration changes to batch 1 orders ie: steam wand side, wood option, powder coat color, etc. Orders for add-ons will still be allowed, but please place them as early as possible if you would like them to ship with your machine. Otherwise they may ship separately.

Staffing

We’ve continued to add to the team since our last update! Wern has joined us as a part time customer support representative from all the way down in Australia. As an Argos owner, she’s very familiar with the quirks of pulling shots on the machine as a new user as well as possible issues and diagnostics. 

Kennie has joined the team as our new full time Order Fulfillment Technician. Hiring is never easy as it always takes time to get people spooled up. Now that Kennie has been with us for over a month, the Odyssey Team is settling into a good rhythm. 

General Updates

We’re continuing to tuning the assembly process through the use of 3D printed jigs for assisting in alignment to improve consistency and quality. Duplicates of our most commonly used tools have been added to maintain consistent sets across all workstations and avoid the need to share between techs.

Powder Coating:

Last year we received new white groupheads from the supplier since several of our original ones had corrosion forming in the cylinder bore due to a mistake in the powder coating process. Unfortunately as we started using the new groupheads, we found that they were more cream colored than the rest of the white parts. We decided to take them to a local powder coating shop to have them stripped and re-coated to match. The parts were finally stripped last week and are expected to be coated this week. 

We have 8 white machines that are completely assembled minus the grouphead. Once those are in, all of those older serial numbers will be prioritized and shipped out immediately. Really sorry about that delay! We’ll send a little gift with your machines. 

It’s inevitable that while building and QCing machines, small dings or scratches can occur. We’ve started testing out a new liquid powder solution and heating with a soldering heat gun. This has been working extremely well for smaller touch ups and is proving to be very durable. For larger touch ups, we’ve been disassembling the affected components and will do a re-coat and bake in house with a small powder coating setup.. 

To mitigate these small issues, we’ve picked up rubber trays to build on with separate smaller rubber parts trays as well as rubber liners on our shelves. This should help protect surfaces over the original thin neoprene foam layers we’ve used to line our tables while also reducing any accidental placing of machines on parts or tools. 

Wood Matching:

Portafilters were one of the first few components we sourced for this business. Over time we found a new wood supplier that was delivering higher quality parts that were more within spec. Unfortunately, this means that sometimes we’re not able to find a good match between our walnut portafilters and the rest of our walnut parts. 

We’re working on getting new portafilter handles made from our current wood supplier and will be able to send out new handles to anyone with a drastically different shade. Unfortunately it’s impossible to perfectly match all of the wood on each machine so we do our best at that from the shop but we also recognize that some portafilter handles in particular are very far out of the norm. 

SCA Expo:

William and I brought 2 people from our team to expo this year! We had a great corner booth and were able to show off and pull shots on 3 production machines displaying the capabilities and flavors from our 6 bar, 8 bar, and direct profiles on a variety of coffees. 

The main goal of Expo for us is not necessarily a sales or marketing event, but more of a networking and educational experience. Our very first expo where we had a booth was World of Coffee Milan which is where we met our Italian parts supplier. That connection alone made the entire event worthwhile. On top of meeting new suppliers, I find it a great time to meet other founders and employees at various stages of production. This year I was able to chat with folks from Superkop, Meticulous, Zerno, Weber, ArtPresso Design, MX Cool, and more! By developing these relationships, it makes it easier to discuss things like how we all address powder coating issues, process updates, wood suppliers, patent writers, and more! The coffee community really is a great group where companies are willing to share helpful tips and tricks to help each other out to continue the advancement of new products. 

First Official Review:

As I’m sure most people have already seen, our first official product review has been posted by Lance Hedrick. We’ve been careful not to send out any free review units before we’re at a good spot with shipping paid production machines. Some reviewers did pay for pre-orders and will ship accordingly. Lance was the first to receive his machine in early March. He spent the next month pulling and Scace testing over 300 shots, and then released his initial review, followed by a deep dive review calling the Argos the “Best bang for your buck, period.” He covers our shot temperature consistency and precision while also going into the tradeoffs that this creates with pre infusion pressure. 

BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK: Argos by Odyssey Review

Odyssey Argos Unfiltered

We do have one more big review machine that will be sent out with Batch 1 and a few more lined up in Batch 2 which will hopefully give everyone as much objective feedback as possible. Many of the critiques we’ve seen are pretty consistent across the board relating to aesthetic improvements, drip tray splatter, and ease of filling. All of these and more will be addressed over time as new parts are ordered. 

Business Operations:

William and I have been quite busy the past month working on getting our 2023 financials up to date with our bookkeeper. It’s always a continued effort to improve documentation and organization which we haven’t been the best at keeping up with due to always having a ton of tasks on our plates at the same time. With taxes being due in April it took a lot of work to get everything organized and in place. We’ve now started doing bi-weekly meetings to sit down and stay on top of everything finance related so we don’t have to deal with this again next year!

Once the remaining batch 2 parts are ordered, I will work on assembling, QC, and packing machines to help catch us up in preparation for batch 2 parts to arrive. At our current rate, we will realistically get all of batch 1 orders out by July and go immediately into batch 2. The design changes, fixtures and jigs, and continued hiring will help us build and ship units slightly quicker than batch 1 but without having those parts in hand, we don’t want to assume actual numbers. We do feel confident that all batch 2 units will be out the door before the end of the year. 

Internal process updates

William has been working hard at improving our internal processes and tracking. Address confirmations and shipped machine tracking emails are now automated to the click of a button. We’ve been revisiting our shipping contracts and William has been able to automate quoting and label creation to a single click without the need to manually enter customer information manually which was sometimes required due to changes in shipping addresses.

App Updates

Now that William will soon no longer need to spend time creating shipping labels and internal automation, he’ll be going back to working on app and software updates. We have a few known bugs with the app which will be addressed first, then some fine tuning of the firmware based on our collected QC data.

Out of spec part with correct angle but threaded too far into the boiler. This is the elbow fitting for the fill tube up to the grouphead.

In spec part with correct angle and height. This will make grouphead installation easier for techs with improved alignment and consistency.

We now pre-prep all top plates with LEDS to save time during the final build operation.

PCB prep. We’ve got 2 awesome sub assembly techs that always stay on top part prep before final build.

Holy Crema! These beans were rested for 2 weeks!

Wouldn’t be an update without customer photos! The ultimate manual setup?!

Love a clean extraction!

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: March 1, 2024

Hello All,

We’re currently up to Order 391 which roughly equates to 235 machines shipped! Throughout the last few months we’ve had a handful of machines that have had some issues come up during the QA. It’s taken us some time to resolve them, but we’ll be focusing on getting those out in the next week so that we’re shipping out units in order again.

The past month has been a bit all over the place. A significant focus was placed on getting a better workflow established for repairs. Most of these were early units with small oversights that we’ve found ways to overcome in our latest assembly practices. We’ve also started working out a better system for tracking simple repair parts that can be sent to customers to address lower level issues on their own. Our repair process has improved and we’ll continue to work on ways to streamline communication and the speed at which repairs are completed and sent back to customers. As a reminder, all these repairs were made free of charge to the customer as they are covered under our warranty.

Staffing:

We’re on the hunt to hire another full time employee so that we will ultimately have 1 full time sub assembly/ QC tech, 1 full time machine builder, 1 full time order fulfillment/packaging technician, and 5 part time miscellaneous shop/machine tasks and builders. This will allow us to get closer to our goal of 30+ per week.

Price Increase:

Due to rising costs of doing business, the Argos has now increased in price from $950 to $1100 USD. We set an aggressive goal to manufacture high quality and relatively affordable home espresso machines. A few specific reasons for the increase include growing the team, higher QA costs, and increased customer service. The new full time hire will help us continue to hit those target assembly and shipping numbers. We strive to have great customer service, so as we ship more machines, we have more inquiries and questions that require time and attention. We stand by our product and fix any major issues in our shop or send out replacement parts which take resources to diagnose and address.

Our aim is to continue improving the quality of fit and finish with each batch we build as reflected in the price and time it takes to receive your order.

App Updates:

We’re glad that people have found the app useful even without a transducer. The app shows the brew set temperature, grouphead temperature, and boiler temperature. The app shows what the target boiler temp is and how close the machine is to it. This target boiler temperature is a function of the brew set temp and the grouphead temperature. The lower the grouphead temperature, the higher the boiler temp will be in order to compensate for the grouphead acting as a heatsink. This is the PID algorithm at work. The Argos prioritizes shot to shot brew temperature stability not pre infusion consistency. Being able to see these numbers helps the user know why boiler pressure is low / high.

We’ll keep working on improving the app and addressing any issues that may arise. There is a lot of opportunity in the app to allow for community interaction and education and we hope to start working towards that in the near future.

Website Updates:

Now that we have Argos’s in the wild, we’ll need to work on updating our website to provide more resources on using the Argos and better educating people on the workflow to make coffee the way they want with the Argos. Additionally we’ll plan to have updated product photos, reviews, and more YouTube videos. We’re currently discussing scope with a local product photographer! Down the line will be a revamp of the website and its layout.

Customer Feedback:

“It's compact and silent, heating up in a little over 5 minutes. I didn't get any of the bells and whistles, and am enjoying the simple pleasure of "I want a coffee" and having it in 10 minutes (not like the 45m it took my HX E61 machine). So far so good!” - (HomeBarista)

“The taste was better than anything I have ever achieved with my sage machines. It was actually quite eye-opening because I had pulled the same beans (natural - brazil - medium/light) yesterday on BBE (though tbf, the grind was too fine for that pull). As someone spending too much time here with money blocked for +2years, I had very high expectations and argos exceeded those.” - EAF Discord

“It has turned out so far that this is a great machine for just doing your stuff without worrying about trying to get the machine to exactly where you want it. The PID and software is great, I think, it just seems to work. I usually turn the machine on and wait a couple minutes, then start prepping. The Craig Lyn shaker is my new fav tool, i just grind straight into it then put the lid on and shake it about for a bit. 1) I usually make 1 espresso for me, then 2) a cappuccino for my wife, pushing the steam button as the coffee pull for her is halfway through (use 8 bar spring). Just a little bit of waiting and poof here we go steaming. Then my middle son comes up and wants an espresso, I just do what Ross did in his process video and turn off the steam, letting some more steam out, wiggle the lever a bit for cleaning and 3) prep and pull the 3rd espresso, no waiting for temp to cool down really . Often I don’t even wait for the green led to turn on again. It is all so fast and the machine does all the temp surfing for me. I am truly flabbergasted!” - EAF Discord

“Dropped down to 88C- pulled like liquid honey! Perfect shots! My friend had a straight espresso. Said ‘passion fruit up front, then buttery mouthfeel, then ended sweet’. Can't get better than that!” - Instagram

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: January 10th, 2024

Happy New Year!

Things are going well despite some minor hiccups. We’ve now shipped 146 machines (~order #238). We’re still working on improvements to get a consistent weekly output but that should come soon.

We have no known issues with the new LEDs which is a great sign thus far and a huge relief. A list has been put together of the people who ran into issues with the original LEDs and we will reach out to you all to see what your preferred method moving forward would be. We can either send you all 3 of the new style LEDs to swap in since they have a semi-transparent lens with colored LED instead of a colored lens. Alternatively, we can cycle test a bunch of old LEDs to 50,000 cycles and send out the good ones to prevent the need to replace all 3. We’ve found that if the lights don’t fail within the first 50,000 cycles they seem to be good for the life of the LED. We will have a video showing exactly how to swap these in. Apologies for the continued delay on these.

Testing of the new Restrictor Orifice valves went well and we have started incorporating those into all builds starting with serial 00107 with the exception of 00110 and 00111 (sorry!). Serial 00102 and onward should have received a small ziploc bag with 3 parts in it for the valve included in the box. If this was not in your box please send us an email. Everyone else will receive these parts in the mail. We have the bags all kitted with domestic packages out via stamp and letter and international orders via low cost bubble mailer. We’ve just uploaded a video explaining how to install these parts here: Odyssey Argos Restrictor Valve Installation

Unfortunately we ran into a minor hiccup two weeks ago. When getting into QC, we found that several machines had excessive water leaking out of the anti-vacuum valve. We were able to pinpoint the issue as an assembly error with one of our newer techs not properly tightening the valve. Thankfully this was a simple fix and all machines have now made it back through QC.

Staffing:

We’re training one of our current full time hires on the full build process to help keep up with our build estimates as well as training more staff on the full QC process. We might hire another full time person specifically for QC and any manufacturing warranty repairs that might come back in the future.

Business Growth:

Things have been going extremely well this year. We’re currently averaging about 15-20 new Argos orders per week. We still haven’t sent out any units for review or content as our main priority has been to get our assembly process sorted out and running efficiently to fulfill orders as soon as possible. Now that we’ve got the new restrictor valve parts in place we will start to send out one or two units to be passed around between reviewers. While this is partially to help continue growing the business, the primary goal will be to get some more formal and objective review of the Argos to help set expectations for future customers.

We’re finding a major spread of people who absolutely love the machine and are pulling shots to their liking within the first day as well as people who have struggled to dial in and figure out their preferred workflow. While we won’t expect the Argos to meet everyone’s needs, we do think it is important to set objective expectations early on to help future customers who may be on the fence about a new machine.

Levers are notoriously difficult machines to work with. While it can be as simple as pull the lever, get espresso, there are many factors that we’ve included such as variable brew temperature, unique PID control, and integrated air bleed which all add new variables that can affect extraction.

We’re still working on getting batch 2 parts ordered this week! We will not be making any significant changes between batches 1 and 2. There are several design updates which will make assembly, fit, and user experience slightly better as well as bring part cost down through design for manufacturability changes, but it will mostly be the same product.

-Finger pocket for drip tray cover

-Possible drip tray cover design update to reduce splatter

-Tabs on side of front cover to secure into top and bottom panel for better alignment

-Added chamfers for improved gasket and o-ring installation

-Increased thread length on heating elements to improve ease of installation

-Updated boiler cap design to reduce excess material and bring cost down

We will continue to make improvements with as many being backwards compatible as possible. The plan for a plumb in option is still in the works and we hope to get into testing that design in the next month.

New Merch:

We just received some awesome hats that will be up for sale on our site soon! This is a limited run of 45 hats. Depending on demand we may make more in the future. We had some very cool Argos posters designed over a year ago but didn’t have the logistics sorted out to offer those. Once posted, these will now be drop-shipped from our printing partners around the world since they will not fit in our standard Argos shipping boxes. Future items we plan to add to our store include Argos carrying totes, crew neck sweatshirts, mugs, and espresso shot glasses. Keep an eye out as we add these. Customers will have the option for these to be shipped separately or with your machine!

Nylon hat with Odyssey Espresso patch.

Modern Poster

Retro Poster

Argos next to an Elektra Microcasa

Filming a milk science and steaming tutorial video

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: December 20, 2023

Happy Holidays Everyone,

Great news, we’re finally getting into a groove! Both of our full time hires started last week and we were able to get 21 machines out the door! Some end up shipping a little out of order if they get caught in QC but we’re up to 91 total machines shipped which equates to order 00164. We’re currently on track for 25 this week with several people out for the holidays and next week we should be up to 30.

Staffing:

All of our new hires have started and are picking things up quite quickly. Onboarding is a difficult process when there’s still so much to figure out and optimize but we’re excited to have everyone taking ownership of their respective areas.

Hardware Updates:

All new builds have been receiving the new style of LED. We will continue doing our internal flicker testing on the next 50 machines to ensure there are no issues with these before sending out.

Now that we have a full time packaging and order fulfillment person, Kayli will be able to start sending out pre-flicker tested LEDs of the original style to any current customers who have run into issues. We’ve also got some people who ordered additional piston assemblies yet did not receive a second set of piston splash guards, and cone washers. We have not forgotten about you and will get these all out in the mail next week.

During testing of the new restrictor valve parts, we found that one of the parts was made to an old drawing that was not supposed to be used. We had these remade and sent out to us last week. Those parts just arrived today. As long as everything works as expected, we’ll start incorporating these in all of our builds and send the parts out to existing customers to install. We’ll have a YouTube video that goes over the installation process.

As a reminder, this restrictor valve is to improve the workflow of the Argos by removing the need to have the lever precisely positioned in order to air bleed the grouphead to get the maximum yield. Please check out the following video of a direct lever configuration shot pull where Ross goes over the air bleed process.We’ll work on getting an updated video specifically on the current bleeding process out this week.

YouTube - Odyssey Argos Direct Lever Pull

Also here are some of the videos we’ve shot on the Argos and we’ll continue to grow this content to ensure everyone gets the best experience out of the machine!

YouTube - Odyssey Argos | Pulling a Spring Lever Espresso Shot

YouTube - Installing the Pressure Gauge or Transducer on your Odyssey Argos

YouTube - Odyssey Espresso Argos Unboxing and Set Up

Future Planning:

Unfortunately, any early batch 2 pre-orders were estimated to ship out 6 months after ordering. Since it took us so long to hire appropriately and figure out our shop operations, Batch 2 is delayed slightly to start shipping at the end of Q1.

We’re currently working with suppliers on getting batch 2 parts ordered by the start of the new year. Typical lead times for us are 30-60 days + 30 days shipping by sea. With Chinese New Year taking up most of February, the goal is for parts to get on a boat by mid March and arrive in mid April. We’ve got extra inventory in Batch 1 which will carry us over until Batch 2 parts are received to allow a smooth transition in building and shipping with minimal to no delays.

Over the next few weeks we’ll have a better idea of our new consistent build and ship rate once all hires are up to speed which we’ll continue to optimize and improve where we can.

Founder Ross with Serial no 00076.

Working on shop organization to allow us to better protect and stack parts for optimized shelf space.

Stacked Grouphead Assemblies

Feedback:

We’ll work on getting some more formal customer reviews up on our site. The general consensus is that dialing in for the first time can be difficult while also learnign the nuances of the machine. The biggest thing that customers struggle with is the air bleeding which should be a null issue soon.

While we cannot guarantee that everyone will love using the machine, most customers have expressed positive feedback on the taste and tactile workflow being more enjoyable than an automatic machine.

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: December 6, 2023

Hello All,

Shipping Updates

Unfortunately shipping has taken a hit the past few weeks while we work on some much needed growth. We’ve currently shipped 70 units, have 25 ready to be boxed, and 12 waiting on the new lights.

While we were delayed with shipping due to hiring and organization efforts, we did however pre-build a huge stock of sub assemblies in preparation for our new lights. We currently have 75 boiler assemblies built and pressure checked, 50 boiler caps, 140 steam manifolds, 100 steam wands + valves, and 58 piston assemblies.

Staffing:

We’ve recognized the need and hired 3 full time people! The first one started last week as a sub assembly technician helping us build up sub assembly inventory to improve efficiency on final assembly.

The second one starts next week as a full time order fulfillment and packaging technician. I’ve currently been the only person doing final QC checks, packaging, and fulfilling orders due to the strict aesthetic quality we hold for each machine. There’s a lot to this role to ensure that each machine arrives to our customers in the best possible shape. Staffing this role with a full time employee will help us meet our goal of shipping 40 machines a week. This allows 1 hour to fully package each machine with accessories which we think is plenty to alleviate the current bottleneck. We’re very excited for this person to start!

The third full time employee is another sub assembly technician who will be starting the 16th and owning all parts of sub assembly builds, part modifications, assembly fixtures, etc. This person will be responsible for managing all aspects to ensure that machine builders are not slowed down with the distraction of needing to find or worry about a sub assembly.

The staffing breakdown is as follows now

Part Time

3 part time machine builders

1 bonding specialist (bonds magnets to wood and metal components)

1 part time miscellaneous shop tasks

Full Time

2 full time sub assembly builders

1 full time order fulfillment

This should allow Ross to focus on the assembly process as a whole and resolve any other bottlenecks that may come up so that we can meet our goals.

Hardware Updates:

As mentioned in the last 2 updates, Anthony and Trevor have continued spooling up on the machine building process in preparation for the new LEDs which arrived yesterday. They’ve built 15 machines without LEDs so that once they arrived, we could drop them in and begin testing on each.

We feel confident that the new LEDs will resolve a lot of our issues. After continuing to dig into how LEDs are typically tested and quality controlled before being sent out, We’ve found that our new supplier has a machine to cycle every bulb 100,000 times to discard failed LEDs before assembling the final light. Unfortunately, we’ve learned that the original supplier only turns each light on and off 3 times after assembling to test before shipping.

We’ve now changed our QC process so that all machines with the original LEDs have the lights cycled 10,000 times via the app before we ship. The goal of this is to catch any early failures before sending units out.

The new lights will have a slightly different appearance from the originals. The original lights had green and orange lenses. The new lights will all have what we describe as a “milky white” lens where the bulb is colored green or orange to give the light a cleaner look when the machine is off but still the same appearance when turned on.

The pressure compensated flow control valve parts arrived last week and are currently in testing. Results are looking good but we plan to continue testing through this week to acquire more data on consistency before including in each machine and sending out to all existing customers. As mentioned in prior updates, these parts will allow users to pull the lever straight down and not need to worry about any special technique for bleeding air out at the correct rate in our incorporated piston bleed valve. Results will include more consistent extractions.

Now that LEDs are in, once our two new people get up to speed on our processes over the next 2 weeks we should start to get a true idea of our output and start tracking down the next bottleneck in the production process. We’re all excited to get into a groove with getting these out the door!

Boiler Caps Bonded

Steam Wand + Valve asemblies going together

New Boiler assemblies on the top shelf. Partially assembled ss machines on the bottom.

Piston assemblies

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: November 13, 2023

Hello All,

Shipping Updates

We’ve currently shipped 60 units, have 24 more ready to be boxed, and 3 that need additional attention. Now that all of our previously built machines have been updated several times and QC’d, we’re excited to start building new stock from the ground up with all of the lessons learned over the past few months of assembly. This process should continue to get smoother and no longer require multiple rounds of disassembly and checks on top of the standard QC process.

Staffing:

We’ve hired our 6th employee 2 weeks ago who’s been following the project for quite a while and has a passion for coffee and working with his hands. Trevor has spooled up extremely quickly helping perform our final round of checks and updates on the previously built units before entering final QC. Now that he and Anthony, our QC specialist, have developed a basic understanding fixing what has previously given us issues, we are currently training them up on new builds.

I anticipate a slight slowdown while Anthony and Trevor come up to speed on the full build process but I think we will be saving time on the back end QC process by requiring less rework and checks.

Time to continue growing! We’re looking for a full time hire to specialize in sub assembly builds, QC, R&D, and packaging. This is a dynamic role that will require attention to detail, time management, and creativity. We continue to design, 3D print, and build new assembly jigs while improving our processes for more efficient assembly. This person would need to be able to grasp technical concepts of how each sub assembly works and why we use particular materials and configurations, be able to diagnose issues on assembled machines, and be able to consistently package orders and accessories to meet production goals.

Hardware Updates:

Our biggest issue continues to be LED consistency. I’ve done way more research than I ever thought I would need to on LEDs, worked with our supplier, and performed internal testing to come to the conclusion that our current supplier uses lower quality semiconductor chips than is acceptable for our production. I’ve reached out to 3 new suppliers all with great reputations, ordered samples from each, performed endurance testing on 50 - 100 LEDs from each, and placed a new production order with the lights that we liked the best. While these LEDs are still 2 weeks out, we will continue building complete machines with everything except the LEDs and add those in for final testing when those arrive. This way we won’t slow down production testing and fixing bad lights, but we also will continue making progress on assembly. We will be reaching out to anyone with a bad LED regarding next steps for fixing.

Overall, customer feedback has been very positive! We recognize there is a bit of a learning curve with levers as a whole, but more specifically, bleeding air out of our piston bleed valve can take time to get right. Improper air bleeding on the Argos results in lower extraction pressures. We’ve spent the past month prototyping our restrictor orifice as mentioned in previous email updates. We’ve landed on a custom integrated pressure compensated flow control valve. This valve not only restricts flow into the grouphead to automatically bleed air out at the correct rate but also maintains consistent flow regardless of boiler pressure.

We’ve also been working on a few other small changes such as improved fill funnel to make it easier to determine fill level and an anti-vacuum valve overflow reservoir. It’s normal for all anti-vacuum valves to drip a tiny bit of water out when closing. We’ve found that overfilling the boiler causes the valve to prematurely close leading to false pressure and excess water to drip out of the valve. Adding a reservoir will be a simple added level of security to prevent damage in the event of accidental overfilling. This reservoir will include a filter to allow any accumulated water to evaporate during normal use or in the event of continued accumulation will overflow out of one of the vent slots in the back cover of the machine.

Replacement transducer batteries will very soon be offered on our website. It is disappointing that the batteries used in the transducers we use are not a common, off the shelf part. The batteries can be found, but only with a different connector. I’ve sourced the correct connectors and ordered some batteries for testing but we aim to offer a replacement for lower cost $25USD + shipping and will also create a video to show any DIY customers how to get off the shelf battery parts to work for ~$10 USD + shipping.

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: October 9, 2023

Hello All,

Shipping Updates:

We’ve currently shipped 41 units and have made some strategic changes moving forward. I was hesitant to send out the overseas units since there’s a lot more to get right with paperwork for customs but glad to say that those have all gone out. 

Hardware Updates: 

We’re always making small improvements to the Argos based on our own experiences and initial customer feedback. 

Some springs would get a very thin layer of corrosion due to free irons on the part after processing (this is normal). We’ve started passivating all springs in house using citric acid in a sous vide setup. This is a very simple process that runs in the background while improving the quality of the parts that we’re shipping. 

Part of the reason this corrosion starts is from small droplets of water and steam that escape the air bleed valve in the piston assembly during fills. I’ve designed and ordered a very basic laser cut sheet metal splash guard that sits in the piston just above the outlet for the bleed valve to help contain any mess. Two sets of samples have just finished being produced in the US and just arrived for testing and immediate implementation. 

I’ve added a small drill press to the shop to help modify the spring covers on our piston assembly. In a typical clevis style clamp up, one side contains a hat bushing while the other contains an extra long sleeve bushing such that when the hardware is assembled, everything clamps on only one of the two lugs in the clevis. This setup reduces slop due to the tolerance gap required for machining and assembly. While this concept was incorporated into the original design, it somehow did not make it into the latest revision of parts being manufactured last year. Thankfully this is a very quick modification that is performed before the piston assembly process which will improve the overall feel and user experience of the machine. 

Bottleneck Issues:

I was coming across one too many non-recurring issues including leaking fittings, grounding issues, or fitment not up to spec. I was also updating all piston assemblies to include the latest configurations, passivated springs, bleed valve orientation, etc which was taking more time than required. 

First change:

My 2 assembly techs now perform a very basic QC including turning on machines with water to verify all sensors are working and no leaks under pressure. 

Second change:

Our new tech brought on to do sub assemblies has spent the past week disassembling all current piston assemblies and building them up to our current spec. We have a fancy new 3D printed jig to simplify the assembly process by compressing the spring to allow quick alignment of all the pins. This allows us to build them much faster than before. 

Third change:

Our new QC technician, Anthony, started last Wednesday.. Anthony is another Mechanical Engineer with prior experience using lever machines. He’s picked up the QC process extremely quickly and understands exactly what customers are looking for in these machines. While I will still review all of his work before packaging, it really makes a difference having someone who can focus and specialize in this very important part of the process. 

Over the next two weeks we should get a much better idea of what our improved ship rate is with our new staffing and tasking arrangement. We continue to organize the shop and find small ways to improve efficiency each week so the goal will always be to find the current bottleneck and figure out how we can prevent it with changes to an earlier stage in the process.

Steam valve needles have all been packaged but I’ve dropped the ball and not created shipping labels for them. William has just created all of these today so I’ll get them printed and sent out tomorrow with a video on how to install. 

Air Bleed Valve Improvement:

We continue to iterate on the air bleed valve to improve user experience and reduce pri-infusion variations from shot to shot.

Piston Assembly Jig

Piston assembly rack.

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: Sept 25, 2023

Hello All,

Shipping Updates

We’re currently up to 31 units shipped! I was out last week which meant no machines shipped but progress was still made with QC. I’ve got 7 more machines on the bench being tested this morning.

CE Cert

The certification lab has finally finished verifying that all of our parts are in compliance with RoHS and REACH material requirements which is necessary to achieve CE certification. We’ve received the final documentation and will now start shipping internationally. This is a huge milestone that took 6 months to complete and we’re glad it’s out of the way!

Patent

Our utility patent US20230284817A1 has reached the next stage of the process as a published application in the USPTO database. It can take anywhere from 6 months to over a year to be reviewed before being granted.

Part Updates

Our new steam valve needles have arrived and we’ve been installing them on all units immediately before shipping. Any previously shipped units will be receiving them free of charge and we’ll have video instructions on how to swap the parts correctly.

Staffing

We’re taking a new approach with staffing. I’ve come to realize that I was expecting too much out of my 2 assembly technicians, expecting them to keep up with minor design or assembly changes on machines as well as the many sub assemblies and QC requirements all while I move things around to organize the shop. Ridiculous, I know! Instead, I’ve brought on 2 new part time people.

One is dedicated only to bonding parts including magnets into side panels, plates, and drip trays, as well as all of the wood parts onto metal. This allows us to really dial in our bonding best practices to ensure no steps are skipped or forgotten as it’s their only focus.

The second role is focused on sub assemblies. I’ve found it’s difficult for my machine assembly technicians to keep track of our slight changes in sub assembly parts and maintain the attention to detail required on these smaller builds when they’re not done every week. By having someone dedicated to sub assemblies, I can guarantee higher quality while also improving efficiency.

While these roles do not directly improve the QC bottleneck, they play important roles in addressing some of the issues that lead to the slow QC process. Since QC is the current time consuming task, I have hired someone dedicated to helping me with this role. In all actuality, the QC process itself is not difficult or time consuming. What slows us down is the fact that we have many already built machines that need to be partially disassembled to incorporate the latest updates as well as perform small finishing touches before packaging, such as bonding on serial plaques and temperature dials. I’m still working out methods to appropriately incorporate these steps earlier in the process but that doesn’t help the current backlog of built up machines. Having an additional person help perform these tasks should speed things up.

Air Bleed Valve Improvement

The new addition to our team in the QC department will also be able to leverage their technical background to help with prototyping and testing the new Piston air bleed design improvements. Myself, along with 1 other customer have been testing a restrictor orifice in the inlet tube combined with a modified bleed valve for improved flow. This works great for the first 2 shots, then has trouble sealing with the lower mass flow at reduced boiler pressure. To overcome this, we’re working on a variable flow restrictor that will change with boiler pressure to maintain a near equal flow rates across all boiler pressures.

Loving this White and Walnut!

Stacked minibar!

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: Aug 31, 2023

Hello All,

We’re finally shipping again!

Shipping Updates

We’ve shipped 22 units and are starting to get into a groove! 32 more machines are already built and sitting on the shelf. A few units are being tested and checked for quality each day and shipped out as they’re completed. We’ve spent the past two weeks updating a lot of these previously assembled units to include our recent fixes for issues that were popping up after shipping. All shipped machines with these known issues have also been fixed and sent back to customers. So far, our updates seem to have resolved the prior problems that we were seeing which is great for moving forward.

LED Endurance Testing

We’ve started to do some endurance testing on LEDS before installing to verify that they are functioning properly. The testing involves hooking ~ 10 LEDs up to a breadboard with a 9V battery and leaving them on for one hour before installation. Typically one out of every 20 LEDs will burn out during this test which saves us from finding this out during QC and requiring more disassembly.

Fine Tuning Panel Fitment

We received samples for the updated side panels that meet our specifications after the coating has been applied. These fit exactly as we need so we moved forward with a new production batch. In the meantime we’ll be using all of the sample panels and manually sanding down and refinishing the old panels to the correct spec until the new panels are received.

New Steam Valve Needle

After testing a few different steam valve needle prototypes, we’ve found a winner and have ordered a production round of the parts. We were able to use the remaining samples in a few production machines but the full batch won’t be completed and shipped until next week. All customers that have already received machines will be sent the new parts with installation instructions.

Air Bleed Valve Improvement

Based on customer feedback, the steepest learning curve with the Argos is bleeding all of the air out when pulling the lever. We’re working on improving the user experience by simplifying the air bleed process to make it less reliant on user technique. After initial testing, a small orifice that restricts the flow of water coming into the grouphead appears to act in the same way as holding the piston in the correct position while bleeding the air. There’s a perfect space between the threads of the fill tube push to connect fitting and the grouphead where this small orifice can be installed to restrict flow just before entering the group. We’ll test out different diameters and if we come up with a design that significantly improves the group fill and air bleed process, we’ll move forward with manufacturing those parts and phasing them in on all builds while sending out to current customers just the same as the steam valve needles.

Remaining Parts Shipments

We’ve received all our parts and packaging materials by sea. We originally sent half by air and half by sea so all production parts are in hand.

White Grouphead

Unfortunately we noticed that some of the white groupheads were forming surface corrosion upon arrival. We have 9 usable pieces but the supplier was able to go back into their records and found that the person who did the finishing process on just the white groupheads did a step out of order which led to this. They will be remade and sent over by air. This shouldn’t cause any delay for the white machines as the good ones will be used on any early orders.

CE Certification

I’ve had a few more calls with the certifying lab this week to go over outstanding items. One of many tedious parts to this process is getting material datasheets from every supplier for every part on the machine to make sure that its elemental makeup complies with RoHS and REACH requirements. We had 3 parts that had incorrect documentation and we were able to get that resolved last night. With this being the last piece of the certification puzzle we are confident in our compliance and will start shipping all overseas orders as they show up in the queue.

Black and walnut Argos paired with a Lagom P64

Customer just received his Argos this morning!

A look inside our bonding process on the new side panel samples. Surface prep is the most important part of all bonding processes

Diagram showing the first rough prototype of a fill inlet orifice restrictor. Orifice sits in the back of the push to connect fitting in the Grouphead.

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: Aug 11, 2023

Hello All,

I know it’s been difficult to remain patient while we sort all of this out but we would rather get as many anomalies sorted after the first round of shipments before continuing to send more units. The good news is that things are looking promising from here.

Bumpy Roads

While our new side panels have a much cleaner fit than the originals, they had a tight squeeze between the front and back covers. We’ve had some Argos owners contact us about a corner that would get pushed out from flush from time to time during regular use. After re-confirming with our drawings, our supplier unfortunately did not account for the coating/finish applied on the side panels and the extra 1mm thickness added was enough to cause some panels to have a corner pushed out under compression. 

We’ve worked with the supplier to get new panels made to the correct spec. In the meantime, we are using a belt sander and 3d printed jig to remove the extra 1mm off our existing side panels and refinishing them so that we can send out replacements to anyone with the issue free of charge and keep building units. This will also improve some of the assembly delays and QC struggles we had with fit and finish over the past few weeks. 

In hindsight this should have been the first thing that we checked but it’s easy to say that after the fact when we aren’t scrambling to sort out our processes on the fly. 

Steam Valve Leaking

We’ve noticed some machines that drip water out of the steam wand despite being fully closed. Our steam wand is a customized needle valve containing a very simple needle design that works 95% of the time but isn’t as robust as we would like. There are 2 issues with it. The first is that we had the needle/ plunger hardened. This is great for longevity of the needle but unfortunately more susceptible to light surface corrosion over time. The second issue is that most espresso machine steam valves are either made from brass which is a much softer metal that will allow the needle to conform and seat within the orifice better or they use a teflon seal.

We experimented with different teflon gasket and seal sizes options that we hoped could be added into our existing valve to improve sealing but they all had issues with the steam pushing them out of place and blocking the flow path slightly. We discussed this with our supplier and have come up with a design that incorporates an o-ring into the angled portion of the needle which should allow proper sealing without the o-ring moving within the valve body. This will be something that can be easily replaced in time. Since we won’t need to worry about the needle wearing out, we’ve also opted to switch the plunger back to a non-hardened stainless steel. A batch of 10 samples is expected to be completed tomorrow and should ship out the following day. If these work as planned we will do a production run and swap these needle/plungers into our existing valves as well as send them out to any people that already have a machine with instructions on how to swap. 

This will not be a blocker for shipping machines out as it’s easily replaceable with a single wrench and an allen key. 

PCB Spacers

We’ve had some owners report issues with the machine not turning on or tripping gfci outlets. With the help of some extremely patient Argos owners we were able to diagnose the issue which appeared to be a combination of placement tolerances when we taped the PCB mounts with electrically resistive tape as well as shipping loads causing the PCBs to slightly rattle. This rattling combined with tape that was placed slightly too low would allow a single solder on the back of the board to short out. We’ve sourced a rubber spacer to be installed in an unused screw hole of the PCB which stands it off enough for there to be no way for the PCB to contact the metal plate it's mounted to.

Low fluid level sensor

We just had one Argos owner report the low fluid level warning light coming on even after refilling the water tank. After looking at pictures of the sensor, we found that the metal probe had slid down the sleeve it sits in. This led to an air pocket above the probe which cut off conductivity from the sensor through the water. These sensors come preassembled, but moving forward we’re going to ensure all sensors are tightened after installing them.

Shipping Updates

The side panel adjustments, tightening low fluid level sensors, and PCB rubber spacer have now all been added to our built up inventory. We will do another round of QC then begin shipping all of our built up stock out while continuing to build more machines. I know it’s been difficult to remain patient while we sort all of this out but we would rather get as many anomalies sorted after the first round of shipments before continuing to send more units. 

Videos

Here are the videos we promised from the last email update!

1. Swapping The Odyssey Argos From Spring to Direct

2. Installing the Pressure Gauge or Transducer on your Odyssey Argos

3. Odyssey Argos Direct Lever Pull

This new video was just posted by Brian Quan from a recent San Francisco coffee meetup showing the Vectis and Argos side by side! We’ve all been waiting for it so this is exciting to see the differences in size and pull technique. We must keep in mind that neither of the shots pulled were dialed in very well with grind size and this Argos has a 6 bar spring while the Vectis uses an 8 bar which will make the style of shot pulled completely different as mentioned in the video. Regardless, it’s fun to watch and see them both out in the wild. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfrZS2vqcFI

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: Aug 1, 2023

Hello All,

We’ve gotten behind on updates but wanted to start by saying despite the delays, there are no serious issues. We’re just trying to figure this whole hand built small batch production thing out.

Quality Control Bottleneck

The last few weeks of assembly have not been going as smoothly as hoped. Our original quality control procedure involved pulling 4 shots through the Scace unit to verify output temperature was matching the brew set temperature within our expected tolerances. We found that all of the machines that were operating correctly were staying within our 2C tolerance band. The bigger issue we ran into was machines being built incorrectly and having miscellaneous fit or function problems. Those machines had to go back to the build process to be torn apart, corrected, and re-tested. 

This took time to not only figure out how we could modify our assembly process for better success but also modify our QC process to focus more on longevity instead of a single set of shot pulls. We have also modified our assembly procedure to now require each tech to perform an initial test run after they build each machine. If any issue arises, that particular technician will then be able to see the problem and fix it immediately before continuing on to the next build. This previously created a bottleneck for us where a technician would continue building machines that were failing QC then being sent back to rework which prevented us from actually shipping any units out. Our current goal is to have a completely finished and QC’d machine packaged up and ready to ship before a technician can continue on to the next. 

Technician Assembly 

We’re still working on hiring more technicians. Unfortunately we are now down to 2 technicians. We’re very happy with the work that these two are putting out and look forward to continuing to grow our team. We know attention to detail is a must for this role and are still refining our interview process to find technicians that are most likely to succeed in this environment. 

Resolving Issues

After we sent the initial machines out, we came across a few cases with grounding issues. We’ve since found solutions for all of those which included adding washers to space our PCBs off from the mounting plate more and ensuring that the electrically resistive tape between the PCB and mounting plate fully covers all solder points on the back of the board. 

Updated Quality Control Process

We have an ever evolving QC process. As we continue to build and test we find new things to add to the list to improve quality and consistency. We’ve started blowing out any residual water from the fill tube and steam wand lines before shipping. This is a simple process but adds an additional step that we think is necessary for general product cleanliness. 

General

Due to the dynamic nature of a small shop startup we will always continue to try things out, learn, and adapt. We thought that a Launch Checklist with an Order Progress Log would be helpful for customers to track orders as they’re built, QC’d, and shipped out. Unfortunately because we’ve had optimistic projections on our build efficiency and been wrong, we’ve decided to remove this progress log and include what’s been shipped out in our newsletter updates. This way we avoid giving false hope and can aim to do a better job at keeping people up to date with actual progress. 

We know people will continue to ask and make assumptions about when their orders will ship but there is realistically no way to know this information. We have proven that at our current stage, nothing is consistent from week to week in the current build process. We will continue to improve our efficiency and build as many machines as possible but there’s no way to know when exactly you’ll hire new shop techs or lose some. We’re working to make things stable so that projections can be made but cannot promise when that will happen. 

We currently have 8 machines in boxes that have been QC’d multiple times due to our changing and added processes. The only thing left for these machines is the shipping label and dropping them off at FedEx. 

9 more machines need the final stage of water blown out of the lines then are ready to go into boxes.

Our two shop techs will be back to building new machines this week. 

Ross is taking some time off from his day job to focus on getting the shop organized and working with our techs to implement a streamlined method of going from build all the way to packaged and ready to ship before moving on to the next machine. 

Videos

A video showing how to swap between springs and from spring to direct has been filmed.

A video showing how to install the analog pressure gauge, transducer, or both has also been filmed.

First unit delivered in Australia set up in their Land Rover Defender!

The Argos looking small next to a P100.

Choose your player! So many options on one table

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: June 30, 2023

Hello All,

As always, both good and bad news comes with the level of transparency that we try to provide. Let’s start off with the bad and work our way up from there.

I’ve Dropped the Ball with Reduced Shot Yield

I’m putting this first as not to hide it as it may be very important to some customers. This has been brought up and discussed on the EAF (Espresso Aficionados) Discord over a month ago but I’m realizing that I have not given a proper update on the topic of output yield. The original claim for the Argos was a maximum shot yield of 55g. This number came from the shot volumes that I was getting on the original prototype machine. 

While making many small design updates for production including improved spring performance, reducing lever force required, gauge/ transducer interface updates, and overall usability, enough changed thereby reducing maximum shot output to 45g with a single pull. While I have been pulling shots on a production machine since January, there were still many changes to the spring design and the chaos of preparing for production that I did not think much of the reduced yield and how that might impact customers that pull longer ratio shots. 

We recognize that this is a significant change from what was originally ordered which is why I want to make it clear before shipping (the rest of) the machines. The good news is that I’ve identified a simple change that will be made to the piston linkage allowing direct lever pulls to achieve up to ~53g yield. This will be a backwards compatible part made in the next batch that can easily be swapped into any machine from the original batch to achieve these results. 

We have no plans to modify the machine to achieve this yield in the spring configuration as that would require significant modifications to the design that would have negative repercussions in other areas. A common thing done for spring (or direct) lever machines is what’s referred to as a “Fellini” from a clip of Fellini’s Orchestra Rehearsal where the barista in the back is seen pulling the lever of a commercial spring machine down once, releasing, then pulling again. (https://youtu.be/xuiXwOOkib4?t=161) The concerns of this maneuver are lack of consistent extraction pressure and unseating the coffee puck during the second pull. Unseating the puck should not be a concern on the Argos with our piston air bleed valve. I personally have performed a Fellini on the Argos for testing high ratio recipes and find the taste and balance to be enjoyable. 

Processes and Documentation

This past week has been slow but crucial for assembly. Our head Assembly Technician has taken a deep dive into our assembly process, documenting detailed steps throughout. With our assembly team growing quickly, we needed a way to ensure consistent high quality builds for all of our machines. This document clearly lists each step with photos, tools, steps, and tests required for each step of the way. 

As mentioned in the last update, we still had leaks due to improper hydrostatic testing. We’ve found ways to properly test at multiple stages throughout the build process and found that the leaks were a direct result of inconsistent tightening torques. We purchased a larger torque wrench and specific adapters to allow us to torque all heating elements to the appropriate amount as noted in our new documentation. 

We’ve started 3D printing assembly jigs to hold large components during assembly which protects both the parts and the technician while performing alignment and tightening procedures. 

Wood Bonding inconsistencies 

Issues with bonding our wood parts to metal have started to show up. This is specifically a problem with the magnets in our side panels as well as the wood knob on the metal boiler cap. We’ve determined this to be a direct result of poor surface preparation and inconsistent bonding practices. We use a very high quality adhesive that is FDA approved as food safe (even though it does not see any water) and high temperature resistance but we quickly learned that surface preparation is extremely critical.

We have now tested and started using better surface preparation techniques as well as using a more appropriate amount of adhesive for bonding our materials together. We have also come up with strength tests to perform on each part to ensure an adequate bond before using those parts on a machine. 

Grouphead Pressure Gauge and Transducer Fitment

Unfortunately we’ve had issues with the alignment and fitment of the grouphead pressure gauge and transducer. This is a part that ships pre-assembled with the machines but requires final assembly by the user. Due to slight misalignment of the shipped parts, it’s been very difficult for customers to install. We are now testing a new style of fitting into the grouphead that is the same size as our original fitting but now performs a compression seal instead of an o-ring seal which will make installation much easier for our customers while also ensuring a more secure fit. We will also be doing a better job of setting these sub assemblies up on a fixture in our shop before shipping to ensure an exact fit on the machine. All current customers will be shipped a new assembly (minus transducer) with the new compression fitting installed to swap onto their machines. 

Hiring

We’ve hired 1 new assembly technician this week. This brings our total up to 4 part time technicians! One has been out for the past month and the other out for the past 2 weeks. This has reduced our output but also allowed us the time to properly document to ensure all machines will be going out with consistent quality from here on out. Sometimes you need to slow down before you can speed up.

We are talking with 2 more part time technicians that we would like to bring onto the team. It currently takes 1 hour to build up a complete machine. If we assume 4 technicians working on average 20 hours per week, 10 - 15 hours would be spent building and testing machines, and the other 5 - 10 hours would be spent cleaning parts, organizing, bonding wood, building small sub assemblies, packing orders, and shipping. Even if we bring on the 1 to 2 more technicians mentioned above, I think it’s still safe to assume on the low side where we can build anywhere from 40 - 60 machines per week with 4 technicians once everyone is ramped up.

Lot’s of numbers thrown out here but if we continue to slowly ramp up we should have all machined shipped out within 4.5 months.

CE Certification Updates

We’ve received our formal FCC/ ICES (US/ Canada), VCCI (Japan), KS C (Korea), AS/NZS CISPR (AU/ NZ), and CNS (Taiwan) documentation. UKCA and CE documentation are in progress.  

Shipping Updates

We’ve finished assembly on 10 units and have shipped 7 of them out! If you ordered a spare piston assembly, it will be located on the underside of the lower packaging insert in the same way that your standard piston assembly is packaged on the top of the upper insert when opening. Spare springs will be labeled on the top of the spring. We are still figuring out a more sophisticated way to label these moving forward.

Please remember, when accepting and signing for your package, if there are any signs of significant damage please tell the delivery person to note that your package was damaged upon receiving. You may still accept the package and contact us but the receiver must explicitly tell the driver to list the damage when signing for your machine in order for us to file a claim with the shipping company. 

We are continuing to update the user manual located on our website: USER MANUAL

For a video on unboxing, setting up, and using your Argos with tips and tricks to get the most out of your machine, watch here: Odyssey Argos Unboxing and Set Up

New Videos will be posted next. 

Reviews and Feedback

While machines are continuing to head out the door each week, here’s a reddit post with replies from one of our initial customers! https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/comments/14i70lc/its_finally_here_odyssey_argos/

Other customers have told us:

“Regarding shots, already better than anything I ever got with my La Pavoni. To be fair, I kind of gave up after modding it with a thermocouple on the GH and the water heater mod. Around that time I ordered the Argos and it's just kind of been sitting there since. Today I had my 9th, 10th, and 11th shot all hours apart and they were pretty much all great and identical.”

“Shots are soft and quite defined. Clarity is excellent.”

Next Batch Pre-Orders

Pre-orders will re-open on Monday, Jul 3, 2023 10am MST for batch 2. Despite the slow start, we’re feeling very confident in our new assembly documentation, processes, and organization. The plan is to accept new pre-orders with the goal of ordering more inventory 2 months from now. It will then take about 3 months for the parts to be manufactured and shipped to our facility in Denver. These parts should arrive as the final Argos units from the first batch are shipped out to customers. By planning ahead we hope to prevent our technicians from running out of work between batches. With this timeline, batch 2 units should start shipping 6 months after ordering.

As mentioned, the price of the Argos will increase to $950 USD. We selected this price as a balance between keeping up with the rise in material and manufacturing costs as well as keeping the price of a base Argos + US shipping less than $1000 USD. Future increases in manufacturing and material costs will be dealt with by further optimizing our design for improved manufacturability to reduce part costs. 

Our shop machine showing off the “cup warmer” capability

Argos Performance

We’re continually improving the software but I’ve finally taken some time to record consecutive shot temperature data with the Scace 2 and thermometer. All machines are currently cleaned and tested by pulling 4 shots then steaming. We ensure the peak temperature of 4 shots in a row all lies within 2C of the set temperature. This accuracy is achieved with what we call a “perfect pull” where all of the air is bled out of the air release valve in the piston as explained in our unboxing video.

We’re pleased with this data as comparable dipper (no pump) style lever machines require additional thermal management by the user and tend to see on average 5C peak temperature increases with each consecutive shot.

Some shot profiles from our customers!

Consecutive shot temperature data. Argos set at 89C.

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: June 21, 2023

Hello All,

WE’RE FINALLY SHIPPING!!!

Assembly Line Trials and Tribulations

We’ve been focused on assembling the first 9 units and things have not gone as smoothly as planned.

After wrapping up assembly on these units we started the final Quality Control inspection last week. The QC inspection includes pulling shots with the Scace 2 puck simulator and thermometer to verify brew temps and it was during this phase of testing we learned 5 of the 9 units were leaking from various fittings.

We learned that the hydrostatic testing done on the boilers in phase 1 was not completed as it should have been. Another testing apparatus was made to ensure we could pressurize the boiler sub assembly with water and were able to reproduce the leaks.

There were some boiler sub assemblies that did not leak according to this new test. Some leaks were very simple fixes and resulted from a lack of formal assembly procedures. We’ve come up with new procedures to test all of the pre-assembled units and use only the fully sealed machines before continuing to the final stages of assembly.

The bad news is that we have to rebuild those leaking boiler sub assemblies.

Moving forward we’ll be making changes to our assembly process to avoid this rework.

1. Instead of building units in batched phases, we’re going to focus on building each Argos completely from start to finish including QC and shipping. This is to avoid us finding issues that are affecting multiple units from a batch due to the assembly process. 

2. We’re going to conduct multiple leak tests throughout the assembly of each unit to catch any potential issues as early as possible.

Both of these changes will mean less rework during assembly. As we continue assembling and testing units we’ll continue to learn about what checks and process changes we need to make to ensure units are functioning properly.

Shipping Updates

We’ve finished assembly on 5 units and have shipped them out! When accepting and signing for your package, if there are any signs of significant damage please tell the delivery person to note that your package was damaged upon receiving. You may still accept the package and contact us but the receiver must explicitly tell the driver to list the damage when signing for your machine in order for us to file a claim with the shipping company. 

Once you receive your Argos please take a look at the user manual located on our website: USER MANUAL We will continue adding to the manual over the next week to cover pulling shots in both configurations as well as other general safety and tips.

For a video on unboxing, setting up, and using your Argos with tips and tricks to get the most out of your machine, watch here: Odyssey Argos Unboxing and Set Up

I’ll continue to upload videos of swapping from Spring to Direct and vice versa, direct pull use, using the Odyssey Espresso App, cleaning and maintenance, and more. 

Hiring

We’ve hired 2 new assembly techs over the past few weeks and they’re both awesome! It’s going to take time to build these machines with the quality that we expect before our technicians become comfortable with the process, so expect shipments to start off slow and build up over the next few weeks. We will likely bring one one or two more people over the next month. 

CE Certification Updates

The lab conducting our safety test required for CE certification has made a lot of progress. We just passed our final safety test for glow wire flammability which ensures that a loose wire will not ignite the wooden side panels. One of the final steps was reaching out to our various suppliers to provide the lab with the necessary paperwork showing material compliance. The lab is now drafting up the necessary documentation for a CE certification as well as conformance reports for the other countries that we ship to.

Next Batch Pre-Orders

Many people have been asking about when we will open pre-orders back up. We closed them off last fall to allow us to lock in numbers and really focus on procurement and production of our first batch of machines. While we’re constantly learning about how we can improve our processes and become more efficient at assembly without compromising quality, we wanted to wait until we started shipping and were in a comfortable flow of assembly before opening orders back up. 

I expect to open pre-orders back up around the end of next week. With the current goal of getting all of our first batch shipped out in 3 to 4 months, opening orders now will allow us to start the next cycle of procurement which can take up to 2 months of manufacturing time and over 1 month of shipping before it ends up in our hands. The goal is to line this up so that as we finish shipping the final units from batch one, our technicians can transition right into prepping and starting to build batch 2. 

While there is no plan to close off orders for batch 2 we may need to do so if the number of orders exceeds our capability. Unfortunately the price of the Argos will be increased moving forward. We will always keep this machine under $1000 USD but we must keep up with the rise in prices including material cost that has happened over the past few years. 

Thank you all for the continued patience and support as we bring these awesome machines to market!

William, Ross, and Atlas with the first machine packaged and ready to ship!

Packaging and Argos.

Make it stand out

Make it stand out

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: June 7, 2023

Hello All,

Shipment Updates

1. Full production shipment of updated bent fill tubes have arrived on May 31, 2023 and fitment is perfect! It takes less than a minute to install the grouphead.

2. 60 back panels with the updated power outlet cutout arrived on May 25, 2023 and also fit as needed

   1. 60 back panels are expected to be shipped on a weekly basis

3. 20 packaging sets (molded pulp inserts and outer packaging) shipped on May 31, 2023.

   1. Due to the large size of stacked molded inserts we’re having a difficult time finding an appropriate way to ship these affordably but this is one of our biggest priorities at the moment.

Orders #70-#127 are 75% completed. #70-79 will be fully completed by next week and enter into quality control where we’ll Scace each machine. I anticipate these shipping out by the end of that week. You can now follow along the Order Progress Log here: https://www.odysseyespresso.com/launch-checklist  

Certification Updates

1. Our EMC compliance was completed and passed back in April and the conformance documents are complete which means we can legally sell in the US without issue.

2. Our final test for the CE certification (required for selling outside of the US) is under way and expected to be completed within 7 days. As long as this test passes, the lab will move directly into conformance reports to declare our compliance. 

3. Once we confirm passing with the lab, we can comfortably start shipping machines with the required mark while the final documentation is being created.

User Testing
We asked a local follower of the Argos if they would take one home and use it daily in exchange for unfiltered feedback so that we can be proactive in creating guides/materials for using the Argos and be aware of any potential issues from a first time user’s perspective. This user is an espresso enthusiast but is not a lever expert. I know we have plenty of people happy to volunteer to help us in this way, but we’re not seeking any more testers at this time.

Here are some of the initial findings

1. Switching piston assemblies from direct to spring and vice versa is not the easiest task. It took this user just over 1 hour to complete their very first time. While it takes me about 5 to 10 minutes to complete, I do want to make people aware that it will take time for users to feel comfortable performing the swap and is not something I would anticipate doing on a daily basis. I personally prefer switching every month or so.

2. There are quite a few simple notes I’ll be adding into the User Manual for general safety (like reminders about what is hot to the touch) and usability.

3. This user prefers the direct configuration. To fully optimize the pressure and yield in the spring configuration can take time to get a feel for at what point in the pull and for how long to let the air bleed out.

4. It can be a difficult process to dial in beans on this machine. The Argos performs the best in terms of pre-infusion and yield on the first 3 shots. If shot to shot drastically different beans are used, then dialing in may take some time due to waiting for the grouphead to cool

5. We plan on making more video content discussing these aspects of the Argos as well as better documentation/tutorials on swapping piston assemblies and tips/tricks on making the best coffee with the Argos.

Spare Heating Elements
As a reminder, we used to offer spare heating elements with the main intention being that customers traveling between 120v and 240v countries could swap between the two. After building up the first 50+ machines and having to disassemble and swap gaskets on the boilers to address the leaking, we’ve realized that this isn’t really conducive for the end user to do. It requires near full disassembly and could take over 8 hours by an untrained technician with proper tools. We know many people after reading this might not be interested in a spare heating element anymore, so we’re happy to offer a refund on any existing spare heating element orders. Please contact us through our website or email support@odysseyespresso.com requesting a refund. 

The simplest option for people wanting to travel with their machine is to purchase the 240V machine and use that same machine at 120V. The only difference between the machines is the resistance of the heating element. A 240V machine used at 120V will have ¼ the power (250W) instead of 1000W. This will only delay the heat up time. Using a 120V machine on 240V power will have 2000W which may be too excessive for this small of a machine resulting in inconsistent PID control. 

Technicians
We’ve got one new assembly technician starting today and another that we will be sending an offer to. 

Machines awaiting the final assembly stage.

More machines awaiting the final assembly stage.

Hydrostatic pressure testing the boilers before they move onto stage 2.

Getting wired up.

Sincerely,

Ross & William

Argos Update: May 19, 2023

Hello All,

We’ll keep this one short and sweet! Many parts have arrived and more are scheduled. So far the time estimates and assumptions made in the previous update are still on track.

1. Full production shipment of new heating element gaskets have arrived on May 17, 2023

2. The first 300 filters for the power plug have arrived on May 17, 2023

3. Full production shipment of updated bent fill tubes shipped on May 18, 2023

4. 40 back panels with the updated power outlet cutout shipped on May 18, 2023

   1. 60 back panels are expected to ship on a weekly basis

We’ll pause here for a moment because this is a key update. Once we have these 40 back panels in hand, we can finally finish the complete assembly of 40 machines! 

Additional updates:

1. Molded pulp packaging inserts with outer packaging will start shipping next week.

   1. We estimate we will receive 50 units in this first batch. 

2. Paid final invoice for EMI/EMC testing, waiting for reports to be sent to us. This is the only certification necessary for domestic shipments.

3. Safety testing is still ongoing with one remaining test then documentation (necessary for shipping outside of the US).

4. We’re looking to bring on another Assembly Technician. See here for more details https://www.odysseyespresso.com/join-us Please reach out to us if you’re interested!

Thank you all again for your patience. Many of you have reached out to us with kind words about our transparency and dedication to delivering a high quality product. We read them all! We know we’ve missed our target more than a few times, but we think we’re finally seeing the end of the tunnel.

Completed Piston Assemblies. They all get individually wrapped now to avoid the risk of scratching.

LOTS of parts came in last week. There are all the remaining welded boilers and sheet metal parts.

Final pre-bent tubes

Perfect fitment in the 3D printed jig

Sincerely,

Ross & William