Hello All, it’s been far too long since the last update. I took a small vacation to Australia and was pleasantly surprised with how strong the coffee scene was. Needless to say I loaded up on beans to bring back to the states.
We’ve had parts arriving just about every week over the past month. As expected there are delays. All parts from Italy have shown up but some suppliers in China had to shut down for a week due to Covid restrictions. This won’t add too much of a delay but combined with slightly longer shipping times than estimated each day adds up. Regardless, we’re still on track to start shipping this coming January!
We’ve made significant progress on the auto refill add on. The main solenoid valve is still being selected which should happen over the next week but the software has been validated and the circuit board works as expected.
You’ve got to admire the packaging on these pressure stats!
Boiler heat wraps. Sorry, no cork like on the original prototype!
Lots of organization needed before the next few pallets arrive!
Hardware
As noted above, we’re finalizing the details of the auto refill components. I’m aiming to test the hardware out in 2 weeks and we’ll get that added to the online store as an add-on item.
The rest is mostly just a waiting game at this point. The communication has been very strong with my suppliers. They’ve all been very good about making an initial part, inspecting, and in the case that a critical dimension is not within tolerance, they inform me that they’re re-working the tool path and update when it’s resolved. I’m mostly just playing the part of shipping and receiving at this point to make sure I get all of the import taxes paid when parts arrive in the country.
Next week I’ll have photos of all the wood parts being bonded.
Software
William made some great progress improving the software on the machine. He’s gotten Over the Air (OTA) updates working which means any small features or improvements added in the future can be pushed to all machines if desired by the end user.
We’re currently testing out some new intra-shot temperature stability improvement methods to take full advantage of our unique setup. More to come on this after we validate any new solutions
The software for auto refill has been tested and validated. The way it works is that when low fluid level is detected, the heating element shuts off until the boiler reaches 95C. The machine’s computer then tells a solenoid valve to open for 30s to fill, then closes. Once fluid is confirmed by the level sensor, the heating element starts back up for the next shot.
Sincerely,
Ross Ainsworth