brain box got wet?
brew button failure

Took the brain box apart and sure enough, quite a bit of wetness. Left it open for a few hours and hit it with a hair dryer. Put everything back together and it works great except my mechanical safety valve (the one with the spring loaded plunger and rubber gasket) is leaking. The gasket is harder than heck.

I shall see if I can replace the gasket with a tiny piece of rubber but I'm not too sure if that will work.

The gasket needs to be able to handle the temperature. You don't want it gluing the safety valve closed.

If there is ONE thing on the machine NOT to hack, the over pressure safety is it. Buy a new one - they're not very expensive unless you get the calibrated ones.

Went to my supplier and bought a new safety valve. 28 dollars. Came home and installed it and turned machine on.

Machine is working nicely now as far as I can tell. The wires haven't gotten unduly hot. The brew button no longer expels steam then water (i backed off the pressure switch a tad). The lights and buttons operate normally.

I have let it sit for about 6 hours now with nary a peep from it. No more leaky hissing sounds that I used to hear that were from the safety valve.

I'm pretty satisfied now.