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!
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.
Sincerely,
Ross & William