Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. My goal for 2022 is weekly updates. So much goes on every day and while it’s not all the most exciting news it’s still progress that should be shared.
Hardware
The prototype machine has been working great over the past month and I’m absolutely loving the shots that are pulled. While the machine is great, there are still a few small improvements that I’ve been working on.
The step-less temperature knob is being swapped for a stepped knob. Primary reason being that I would hate to have someone dial in their perfect temperature then inadvertently brush the knob and it move. The stepped knob has an extremely nice feel when it snaps into place.
The second significant change is the water fill line. I’ve been doing a lot of testing with fittings, sealing, tube size, and routing to achieve the best combination of complexity, appearance, and fill. I’m not 100% happy with the time it takes to fill the brew chamber at lower boiler pressures. These changes will not only decrease chamber fill time but also reduce manufacturing and assembly complexities.
I have brought on 2 part time contract engineers to help finalize all of the small design details. As the saying goes “90 percent done, 90 percent left to go”. This has been a difficult reality to accept. While the machine has been operational and parts ordered, small details including PCB mounting, cover mounting, pressure transducer and gauge adapters, ect continue to be finalized.
Because of these small design delays I am sticking with the April 2022 shipping to line up with the portafilter arrival. The portafilters are slated to be complete March 31 and will be shipped via air for faster delivery.
A custom angled double spout for our spouted portafilter has been designed and ordered. Samples should arrive in early March with production spouted portafilters arriving several months later. These items will be shipped out separately with no additional cost to the customer.
The side panel magnetic attachment has proven to work great. The White Ash components are being made now and will be displayed on the next prototype unit.
Due to these small changes in in PCB mount, panel mounting, and manufacturing updates, a small set of production units is being manufactured/ shipped ahead of time to be more representative of final fit and finish. These units will be built up and sent out as the review units to be most representative of the final product. These will likely arrive early February and ship out soon after for reviews.
A video has recently be filmed and posted to the company YouTube displaying the general idea for the spring to direct configuration swap. Several changes are being made to optimize this operation and overall machine functionality including chamfered grouphead upper edge which will act as a funnel for inserting and compressing the piston seals, bushings for the lever pins to keep the lever centered in the top clevis, and alternate “Chicago Screws” to eliminate the need for retaining clips on the pins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dObk0PYYnig
Software
The Acaia scales have been integrated to our app and will be tested in the coming week. The app continues to be refined as I test the Argos with app, transducer, and scale each day. A video of app use will be posted to our company YouTube in the coming month.
PID Control logic has been significantly optimized to eliminate setpoint overshoot during initial warm up and maintain thermal stability in the boiler.
Initial back to back shot thermal testing has begun with a Scace 2 measurement device paired with the Fluke thermometer. Initial results look consistent but will continue to be refined.
Tasks for this week
Test larger fill tube and quick press fitting to confirm reduced group fill time and simplified fitting design.
Assemble magnetic side panels and new covers onto current functional prototype.
Finalize PCB mount design, wire routing, and cover mount designs.
Mailing list reminder
The mailing list is the best way to stay in the know on production updates. Subscribe here if you haven’t already.
https://www.odysseyespresso.com/production-updates
Pre-order your own Argos here if you haven’t already
https://www.odysseyespresso.com/shop/argos-lever-espresso-machine
Thanks,
Ross Ainsworth