I've been using my ShureShot timer from ACEServices for about a month now. Sean Alcorn is the electrical engineer behind them and he's installed something like 400 of them in his region in Australia and now, worldwide. Mine is the first domestically installed unit in the United States, with espressoparts.com also having installed one on their test bench. The ShureShot will work in tandem with Sean's pre-infusion kit he's about to release. I have my deposit in on the first one to roll off the assembly bench for that too. With that, I'll have adjustable pre-infusion flow, with the added benefit of having the ability of adjusting it on the fly, with an externally mounted knob. So I won't have to open the lid to make changes. Apparently, the design allows the tube leading to the knob to be rotated during assembly so that it will either be outside the faceplate, or if you want, rotate it slightly and have it mounted behind and unseen.

But back to the ShureShot. It works slightly different for each of the above mentioned machines, I guess it was designed to cover a wide range of devices with more than one switch on the panel. My Linea EE has just one on/off switch, so it's function works just a tad different. The ShureShot has up to 5 different timed stages for extraction pressures. But with my simple Linea EE, I'm afforded three extra stages that the stock Linea didn't have. I can program one stage as gentle pre-infusion at line pressure, for however long I want. Then I can program the time of full pump pressure. And then I can switch back to the line pressure for a soft "tail" on the end of the shot if I want.

It does more than that though. It's rather feature rich. It can also be programmed to give a timed 0-9 second (in this case I chose 5) flush of the group, either before, after or before and after the shot.

It's easy to program, you can either note down the times of how a particular shot runs and just punch the settings in, or in my case, I just ran the middle of the shot long and manually ended it when I acheived my desired brew weight, then noted the time on the timer, and popped that time in to the device for the next shot. Getting in and out of the menu becomes quick and intuitive rather quickly, but I think I'll use this thread to create a bit of a "how-to" manual for how it works, in time.

It also makes cleaning cycles a lot easier and better than just standing there rocking the switch back and forth. With the ShureShot, all I have to do is lock my portafilter and hold the two buttons down for 3 seconds and walk away. The machine will go thru 5 rapid back flushes in a row, then there's a pause to unlock the group (set to a time I decide 0-9 seconds) to inspect the blind basket for goo, then lock back in for another 5 cleaning flushes.

Installation is pretty straightforward and can be done in about an hour if you're skilled. Tools required are minimal, mainly just a drill, Dremel with a cutoff wheel, small files, a marker and I used some blue painters tape to prevent scratches. Sean helped me when I had questions and we had it wired up in about 10 minutes after all the drilling and cutting. There's a small spot in the center of the lid that needs to have a slot cut in it to allow the signal cable to pass thru and two holes are driled to allow the fasteners to hold the display securely. It looks like a factory installed device though, there's no visible signs that the lid has been modified.

I simply flipped a floor mat over and used it's grippy rubber base to hold the metal securely while I did the cutting and drilling.



A cutoff wheel on a Dremel did quick work of making the small slot in the lid.



The blue painters tape prevented scratches and pulled double duty by quickly and easily snagging all stray bits of metal from the drill.

Oh wow, looks very nice but blatant copy of Synesso shot timer design wise:



But the features are really nice, how much are they running for I could not find the price?

There's nothing blatant or copied about it. How many shapes would you expect a non-integrated shot timer to take? All you need up top is a display.

Currently with the exchange rate, they are about $200.

What exactly is the appeal of this timer over something like the Acaia Lunar?

TomC wrote:There's nothing blatant or copied about it. How many shapes would you expect a non-integrated shot timer to take? All you need up top is a display.

But if you look at both and are confused which one is which clearly its copy, right?

thecatch83 wrote:What exactly is the appeal of this timer over something like the Acaia Lunar?

For price at $200 I think its huge value because you gain pre-infusion and pressure profiles through stages. That is huge. Throw this on Linea Mini and you have killer machine.

Tom, do they have this for Linea Mini? This would push me to look into getting Mini to add to my Cremina.

ds wrote:But if you look at both and are confused which one is which clearly its copy, right?



For price at $200 I think its huge value because you gain pre-infusion and pressure profiles through stages. That is huge. Throw this on Linea Mini and you have killer machine.

Tom, do they have this for Linea Mini? This would push me to look into getting Mini to add to my Cremina.

My point is, there's only so many manufacturers of two digit LCD displays. The enclosure just needs to protect it, so I can't see how someone would want to spend additional money on shaping a fancy case for it.

Reach out to Alcafe and inquire. I'm not certain, but I know he's planning on expanding the platform to include even more machines.

I used my buddies Linea Mini yesterday and have to agree. It's an incredible machine in it's own right. Pop this on and the pre-infusion kit and you have a Slayer (better actually) for almost half the price.

This is actually very good price for what you get... Once they have Linea Mini kit, WOW. Huge value.

so jealous. This made me look at pricing for a 1 group linea. Hacking this stuff is so much easier with that electronic control vs the manual paddle.

Nice work Tom. It looks great.

Tom

How would the shot timer and needle valve kit say on a mp linea differ from a gs3 with a strada mod