I think I've told Rachel, literally a dozen times this afternoon/evening "I never thought I'd actually get it to work". Referring to my PID'd espresso machine. BUT I DID! I honestly thought this hair-brained scheme was cool in theory but would have inevitably lead me down the road of a new espresso machine. But literally, by the grace of God, it worked.
Now, the photo your about to see may be kind of scary, be sure to hide the image of the hideous franken-machine from the elderly, children, people who wish to have children, or people who were once children. Parental discretion is advised:
Now, the photo your about to see may be kind of scary, be sure to hide the image of the hideous franken-machine from the elderly, children, people who wish to have children, or people who were once children. Parental discretion is advised:
Now, what you see here is a blue lunch box type tin, holding the PID unit proudly displaying 207 degrees fahrenheit, and a 80mm computer fan cooling a homemade solid state relay board with two burned out SSR's (but hey, two still work!). Now the espresso machine has a horrendously wired up brew water boiler, and pump and solenoid valve in parallel to two gorilla-glued switches. Don't worry folks its perfectly safe and was actually ran like this today for testing. It will be all rewired with new wires and connectors with appropriate electrical safety isolation, because I know you are thinking you are at risk for electric shock just by looking at the photo.
But anyway, let me say it again, IT WORKS AND I DON'T BELIEVE IT. It even made ESPRESSO! It even tasted okay! Actually, here at Guam, we don't have any place that brews good espresso except for Honolulu Coffee Co. in downtown Tumon (like 25min away). And I have been so hard up for espresso I thought it was always delicious. In Honolulu it actually is, but, my test shot was a awful 15sec. pull (its supposed to be 25 sec for you un-learn-ed type) and it was actually superior to HCC. I am pretty excited about this project.
What I need to do to finalize it is: rewire the boiler and switches to really clean up the insides. Put the upper housing back on. So no one has to see its insides anymore, ESPECIALLY before my mom shows up. Make a more permanent and fashionable home for my PID, fan, SSR board. Repair the SSR board (don't take too long). Then, my one and only long term plan is to program an Arduino microcontroller to take over for the PID module. That way I can have it control both the brew and steam boiler. The two boilers together are too much for a standard 15A circuit breaker and are too stupid to cycle between the two, especially at start up. Kitchenaid had an ingenious power saving scheme with it's electro-mechanical relay to cycle between the two boilers, but its all gone now.
This weekend I'll rewire and put the cover back on so I can start having espresso in the morning on a regular basis.
But anyway, let me say it again, IT WORKS AND I DON'T BELIEVE IT. It even made ESPRESSO! It even tasted okay! Actually, here at Guam, we don't have any place that brews good espresso except for Honolulu Coffee Co. in downtown Tumon (like 25min away). And I have been so hard up for espresso I thought it was always delicious. In Honolulu it actually is, but, my test shot was a awful 15sec. pull (its supposed to be 25 sec for you un-learn-ed type) and it was actually superior to HCC. I am pretty excited about this project.
What I need to do to finalize it is: rewire the boiler and switches to really clean up the insides. Put the upper housing back on. So no one has to see its insides anymore, ESPECIALLY before my mom shows up. Make a more permanent and fashionable home for my PID, fan, SSR board. Repair the SSR board (don't take too long). Then, my one and only long term plan is to program an Arduino microcontroller to take over for the PID module. That way I can have it control both the brew and steam boiler. The two boilers together are too much for a standard 15A circuit breaker and are too stupid to cycle between the two, especially at start up. Kitchenaid had an ingenious power saving scheme with it's electro-mechanical relay to cycle between the two boilers, but its all gone now.
This weekend I'll rewire and put the cover back on so I can start having espresso in the morning on a regular basis.
