Gicar dosing controls with electronic preinfusion, how to program? Cronos?

[jesawdy]

I'm thowing this out for some help. I have a machine that has a Gicar ET30 volumetric dosing and level control box, and a keypad like this:



I'm afraid to try to monkey with the programming until I know how it works.

Right now, I get a short preinfusion with either of the single buttons. This occurs by a quick pulse of the pump, a brief pause, and then the pump reengages to deliver the full dose. At the moment, neither double button does a preinfusion, my suspiscion is that they were reprogrammed and the "preinfusion" settings were lost.

Anybody have a clue?

I can post the revision numbers on the control box and keypad if needed... not in front of me at the moment.

[luca]

Usually, the rightmost button is start/stop/program. You hold it down for five seconds or so to enter "program" mode ... usually the lights flash or something. Once that happens, you just start the button that you want to program and stop it at the desired volume. Usually you want something like 75mL for the double, I think ...

[jesawdy]

Luca, thanks for the info, but have you ever encountered controls that also do this electronic preinfusion function? I gather that the preinfusion can be defeated, I do not now if it can be altered in length or anything. I guess I can mess around with the double buttons and see if I can stumble upon programming the preinfusion.

The Gicar control unit is the. E.T.30 F 2GRCT, Codice 9.5.24.01v02

The keypad is the Pulsantiera, Codice 9.9.09.52

The unit is installed on a SanRemo Capri machine.... finding any information on the SanRemo machines here in the U.S. is proving difficult.

[DaveC]

Luca, thanks for the info, but have you ever encountered controls that also do this electronic preinfusion function? I gather that the preinfusion can be defeated, I do not now if it can be altered in length or anything. I guess I can mess around with the double buttons and see if I can stumble upon programming the preinfusion.

The Gicar control unit is the. E.T.30 F 2GRCT, Codice 9.5.24.01v02

The keypad is the Pulsantiera, Codice 9.9.09.52

The unit is installed on a SanRemo Capri machine.... finding any information on the SanRemo machines here in the U.S. is proving difficult.

I think the same touch pad CPU is used on some of the Iberital machines with electronic pre infusion (e.g. expression, possible the L'Anna and maybe the Marlin). I think the instructions from one of those might help you.

[Paul_Pratt]

You can try this - which is how to able/disable the Marzocco Linea/FB electronic PI.

To turn ON - turn power switch to off and then hold the first button on the left keypad. Turn power to ON (Fill position if you have it). Then the led above the continuous will come on. I think this will lock up the buttons so you may have to turn on/off again.

To turn OFF - repeat above but its the 2nd button (not the 1st) on the left keypad. Again led should come on etc..

Paul

[jesawdy]

Thanks guys I will give it go this weekend. I have the boiler pulled right now to insulate.

DaveC, yes I see that same feature in some of the Iberital machines.... I will dig for a operating manual.

Paul, on the LM, is the preinfusion on or off for all buttons at the same time? I was seeing the preinfuse on the singles button but none on the doubles. Perhaps it will not do a preinfuse on the double buttons?

[jesawdy]

To turn [electronic preinfusion] ON - turn power switch to off and then hold the first button on the left keypad. Turn power to ON (Fill position if you have it). Then the led above the continuous will come on. I think this will lock up the buttons so you may have to turn on/off again.

To turn [electronic preinfusion] OFF - repeat above but its the 2nd button (not the 1st) on the left keypad. Again led should come on etc..

Works exactly as Paul says it should. The controls do lock up after turning the electronic preinfusion on or off, so you need to cycle power. Oddly, electronic preinfusion is only available on the green or single buttons, and not on the red or double buttons.



No bother really for a "home-barista", but I do wonder why preinfusion is not available on the double buttons? Is it because the single puck is more "delicate" and preinfusion is needed more for a single? Are La Marzocco's with this feature the same?

Now if I only had Chronos, that's a feature I really would like to have (more so than dosing)! Paul or anyone, can Chronos like functionality be hacked onto one of these control units? Some sort of timer that runs when a shot is running.

[Paul_Pratt]

I think the PI is only on the single shot buttons, well it's not a single shot button just has a picture of a single shot so you at home can use it for doubles as well. The pump delay is fixed. Since all components are common I am wondering if you can find a Marzocco chronos keypad and swap it out.

[Worldman]

Yo! Try this to see if it works.

On my Expobar Office Control, it is possible to run the automatic back-flush cycle by doing the following.
1. Turn machine OFF
2. Press and hold center button.
3. Turn machine ON while still holding the center button.
4. Back flush should start and center button can be released.

The Expobar goes through 5 backflush "events" for each cycle. Each event is a short pump ON followed by a short pump OFF and is perfect for backflushing with the blind filter basket with a teaspoon of your favorite backflush chemical therein. I then rinse everything and go through another cycle with just the blind filter (& no chemical) to make sure that everything is cleaned out.

Len

[jesawdy]

Yo! Try this to see if it works.

On my Expobar Office Control, it is possible to run the automatic back-flush cycle by doing the following.
1. Turn machine OFF
2. Press and hold center button.
3. Turn machine ON while still holding the center button.
4. Back flush should start and center button can be released.

The Expobar goes through 5 backflush "events" for each cycle. Each event is a short pump ON followed by a short pump OFF and is perfect for backflushing with the blind filter basket with a teaspoon of your favorite backflush chemical therein. I then rinse everything and go through another cycle with just the blind filter (& no chemical) to make sure that everything is cleaned out.

Len-

That's a neat feature... alas, this control unit does not seem to support that. Thanks for asking about it though. I tried the center button, and the two right buttons. Turning on while holding the manual button, lights the manual LED and locks the controls up, but did not appear to change anything (at least that I've noticed yet).

[jesawdy]

The Gicar control unit is the. E.T.30 F 2GRCT, Codice 9.5.24.01v02

The keypad is the Pulsantiera, Codice 9.9.09.52

So I have an opportunity to pick up a LM Cronos (timer) function keypad. What do you think the chances are that it will work in this machine?

I'm know that the Gicar unit in this machine is a 2-group controller (despite it being only a 1-group machine). Anybody with a two-group LM Linea AV (Cronos functions) that can look under the hood and see what sort (if any) indicators are on the Gicar brain box? The machine I have is the SanRemo Capri and is 110V. The SanRemo website seems to indicate that timer function is an available option, but do you think they use the same brain box?

EDIT - A bit more information, the current keypad uses a 16-pin ribbon cable. The Gicar control box supports two keypads. That all seems good, but I am looking for a bit more reassurance before I spring for the new keypad. It is unclear whether the control box may need to have a particular firmware version.