TallDan hit it on the head -- there is a unique and completely squandered opportunity to use the tablet for documentation.

Many users, not just Randy, have highlighted how ridiculous their approach to instruction is. Most just end up with their threads unceremoniously closed to comments on basecamp. It has been years since this was first brought up and nothing has changed. You can assume that Decent has no intention of addressing their incredibly poor documentation.
The fact that they can't even provide a one-page printout in the suitcase tells you how little they care about this gripe. It would take so little effort...
I enjoy the machine, but one thing Decent does not do in any realm, is value their customer's time.

Have you not seen the digital instruction manual located in Basecamp? It's there. Been there for a while. Not the be all end all manual but it covers most necessary beginner questions.

I want a PDF I can read at my leisure even when offline. I want a clear description of every parameter in the settings area? I want a Decent prescribed cleaning regimen that the employees are required to follow in public so I don't have to listen to some of the employees instruct people who pull 2 shots a day to do absolutely insane things.

When are you ever offline? None of us are nowadays. Did you read the manual? Again, it is not the end all be all manual for sure but it helps. I agree with you regarding all the brewing parameters, that $hi& is confusing. I do adjust things, mostly temp and distribution weight. But I doubt I've scratched the surface. But I get fantastic coffee so I guess I've figured a lot of it out, lol. I doubt I'll ever understand or attempt to know every parameter, I just don't care.

I'm old and set in my ways. I like actual manuals. I also don't care what most of them are or do, only when I need to change something and the things I need to change have labels that bear no relation to their function and I can't figure it out. That continues to happen. Kind of like having your machine lock up with a picture of a bunch of people sleeping in chairs, turns out it means there's a bluetooth problem. It's not documented and if you don't know how to kill things on an Android tablet, you'll never recover. Turns out once I asked about it, I find it happens to people more often that you might think.

Also, Basecamp seems to me and many others to be the worst possible platform for this purpose. I've basically given up trying to find anything there.

Plinyyounger wrote:Have you not seen the digital instruction manual located in Basecamp? It's there. Been there for a while. Not the be all end all manual but it covers most necessary beginner questions.

Of course I've seen it. I would argue that it doesn't cover the most necessary beginner questions -- for example, view the troubleshooting section. The manual, at the very least, should indicate what the different states on the GHC indicate. It does not. The number of repetitive questions ('why isn't my machine heating up?') with trivial answers on Basecamp is sad.

This is largely my point, Decent has an opportunity (if not an obligation) to makes an effort in this department. Its a poor use of their and the community's time to keep answering questions which could easily be incorporated into on-screen training. Would be a very low effort and high yield endeavour.

As pointed out by someone else, locking poor documentation behind a very expensive paywall (Basecamp) is a hard-to-defend choice.

And +1 to everything in Ira's comment which sums up the entire Decent experience: If you know about a poorly-documented, persistent bug then great. But if you don't, your best hope of quick resolution is reaching out to the community, not via any facility provided by the equipment manufacturer.

Is the Decent DE1 compatibility with an Acaia Lunar scale dependent on the lunar model year. I saw a message that compatibility was good with the 2021 version, but now there is a 2022 version. If I'm new do I just need to wait for the connections to be worked out for the 2022 model, is it already worked out, or should I rush to get a 2021 version before they sell out.

I'll just be making one at a time so the size is not a worry for me. I like the small size of the lunar.

The year might have been 2022, but I don't think they changed anything on the Acaia Lunar scale, from what I see the updated / latest version as of Feb 2023 is the 2021 version still. They added a flow rate display, USB-C, and it's faster to start up, and maybe some other tweaks I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure the 2021 and previous Lunar models are both compatible with the Decent machine, since it's likely the MOST commonly paired scale with the Decent machines.

The Decent will work with the new Lunar. IMHO, the Acaia is overkill for home use. You may want to consider the Skale 2 or Decent Pill Scale for 1/3 the price. The $170 you save with a Skale 2 could almost pay for [choose insanely priced accesory]. Or go towards any of the mods you'll need to make to your drip tray to effectively use said scale.

ira wrote:Kind of like having your machine lock up with a picture of a bunch of people sleeping in chairs, turns out it means there's a bluetooth problem. It's not documented and if you don't know how to kill things on an Android tablet, you'll never recover. Turns out once I asked about it, I find it happens to people more often that you might think.

Also, Basecamp seems to me and many others to be the worst possible platform for this purpose. I've basically given up trying to find anything there.

I have an early version 1.0 DE and never realised the cause of the "bunch of people sleeping in chairs" screensaver lockup. So thanks for that! I'll now check/reset Bluetooth whenever it happens.(and it does from time to time).

Sort of confirms your next point really.