roastini wrote:If Torx screws is a UL-friendly option, then I would propose the mount you have designed but with four holes in the corners, plus a several mm-thick plate that you glue to the tablet, with four matching holes with machined threads. Appropriately sized Torx screws could then affix the tablet to the mount. This would allow:

• UL certification;
• Tablet replacement so long as you buy a plate that you glue to the back of the new tablet; and
• Unsupported removal of the tablet by those who are willing to bear the risk.

The downside would be the additional cost of making the mount two pieces.

Yes, this is a better suggestion, though it would mean a fairly thick set of plates behind the tablet, and some R&D.

Honestly, I'm not sure it's appropriate for us design/iterate a new kind of tablet stand when the tablet is not mounted on the espresso machine. That's not the business we're in.

If you want to not use our tablet stand, no problem, simply say "please don't glue the tablet stand on" when you order a DE1

Then, surf Amazon.com and look at the thousands of tablet stand alternatives that are out there. Since you'd not be mounting it to the DE1, the tablet-stand aftermarket will do a much better job of making you happy than we ever could. Much more choice that way...

decent_espresso wrote: If you want to not use our tablet stand, no problem, simply say "please don't glue the tablet stand on" when you order a DE1

I'm fine with this, but will you also include the stand anyway? It sounded like you weren't including the stand if we say "don't glue it."

We'll include everything in this case, we literally just don't glue the tablet in place. You can do that yourself, if you choose to. Everything gets packed the same in your box, just no glueing.

decent_espresso wrote:Honestly, I'm not sure it's appropriate for us design/iterate a new kind of tablet stand when the tablet is not mounted on the espresso machine. That's not the business we're in.

Fair point.

For those looking for an alternative that allows mounting in essentially the form intended, but that doesn't commit the tablet to a life attached to a bracket, one alternative would be to order the machine without a glued-on tablet, and then to glue a few neodymium magnets to the tablet and also to the mount. This is similar to the velcro idea posited by Downunder55 a few comments back, but might allow the tablet to "self center" when attached. (I see neodymium magnets as thin as 1 mm available on the 'net, so a double-magnet mounting system would add 2 mm to the mount, which is not so different from the machined screw idea I came up with.)

What sort of metal will be mounting bracket be made of? (I'd actually prefer non-ferrous, as that likely would improve the operation of the double-magnet mount idea.)

roastini wrote:then to glue a few neodymium magnets to the tablet and also to the mount.

This is the direction Steelie went in, for their latest generation phone mounts. There's a very thin plate that's glued to the phone, and then a high power magnet on the other side. They haven't done this for tablets, and given that they have lots of other styled stands for tablets, I suspect there's a good reason (cost? practicality?) I tried this Steelie on our tablets, and it's not strong enough, but two steelies like this, on one tablet, does work.

I couldn't care less how the tablet is mounted as long as I can change it later if I want to. And it looks like this when I get it.

DJF wrote:I couldn't care less how the tablet is mounted as long as I can change it later if I want to. And it looks like this when I get it.

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Any update on Beta 7v2?

For those who haven't been following along as obsessively:

• Beta 7 was announced on January 25.
• Beta 7v2 was announced on February 6.

On February 6, the plan was to order one-off parts to implement it, with another iteration to follow after a few weeks of testing. How has that testing gone? Are you close to a design that you will submit to UL/CE?

Thanks for the prod to post an update!

We ordered all the parts to be manufactured (CNCed or bent sheet metal) for Beta 7 last week, and they should arrive this week, we haven't yet built beta 7, because we're waiting for the custom parts to come in.

For beta 7, we pushed the innovation farther than we had planned, redoing virtually all the water connectors to be "clip connectors", which required visits with manufacturers (to supply us with different valve, heater and pump connectors) and also redoing the mixing chamber. In the end, we removed the need for 15 connectors, which greatly reduces the number of things that can go wrong.

I also decided to take the time we had to refine a few things, including:
a) creating and testing new ideas for a splash-free pressure release system Decent Espresso Machine
b) solving a wet puck & drip-after-shot issue Decent Espresso Machine
c) working on a new drip tray cover design that would require less cleanup Decent Espresso Machine
d) moving the tablet forward and designing our own bracket for it, positioned above the group head Decent Espresso Machine

I have posted links on each of the A-D points above to conversations on HB about each change, in case you want to read more.

On a different point, we're continuing to extensively test our beta 1 through beta 6 machines, and we identified a failure mode, where one of the valves fails to open (ie, you can't make espresso) if it gets too warm, which happens when you're pulling shot-after-after for hours for a 20-person crowd of the Hong Kong Coffee Club. I also experienced this one once on tour (hello London!). It took us a while to isolate the problem, which we did two weeks ago, and we discussed it with two valve vendors (our current one, and a prospect). We're getting new valves next week from our prospective new vendor now. Our new valve maker (http://www.ode.it/en/) is explicitly in the espresso business, and we spent hours face to face with their engineers last week, so we have much greater confidence in them. They have dual HQs in Italy and Hong Kong, which is amazingly helpful for us. Picking our parts suppliers well, and beating the heck out of each part to make sure they're good, is really important if we're going to achieve the reliability we want.



This photo shows the parts for our new side-panel idea. With this new approach, much of the espresso machine assembly takes place on those side panels when the machine is disassembled, making it both easier to build, but also easier to repair.