pcrussell50 wrote:I'm confused. What does a delay timer give you when you remote your pump?

-Peter

It's quite simple. Its a delay relay, when power is applied to it, it waits a number of seconds and then it lets the juices flow to the pump motor. Basically, the solenoid of the machine is on, but the pump motor is off for a determined number of seconds (only works with preinfusion). The delay is mechanically adjustable on the unit.

pcrussell50 wrote:I'm confused. What does a delay timer give you when you remote your pump?

Hi Peter

I think it depends on how you set it up or maybe machine to machine on how and when the line pressure solenoid and pump gets turned on. Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't you mention previously that you shut of your plumbed water supply manually? If you were too have the pump and line pressure solenoid turn on automatically when you activate your pump, you could add a delay timer to allow for PI before the pump kicks in. Me personally, I don't want to use a manual shut-off other than to perform maintenance or maybe if I go on vacay.

Thoughts?

I'm afraid I might have confused you. Sorry about that. I don't use a manual plumbing shutoff in the course of making espresso. I have have a water shutoff under the sink so I can shut off the hot and cold water when we go away on trips... minimizes the chance of a blown hose flooding the house while we're gone.

Otherwise, I have what you have, (with the exception of a needle valve* that I use to control flow on the fly, like a Bianca or a Mina). I just have separate power for the solenoid and the pump. The solenoid power comes from the machine just as if it were totally stock. The pump power is on a separate switch, so I can switch it on and off on the fly, at my pleasure.

*With my needle valve, I can stop the flow entirely, when I want to do a Scott Rao-style "soak and bloom". But that's using a needle valve mounted in the machine just before the group, not an under sink plumbing shutoff.

-Peter

Okay now I am all straight... probably more due to my aging memory:) You added a switch specific to your pump power. I am doing it without and adjusting my PI time with a dial on a delay timer. Or that is at least, my plan.

I came across an opportunity to grab an FG304 gear pump for a good price and wanted to get some feedback from folks who used it. I'm in the process of outboarding my current rotary pump and I was going to use the FG304 in the future, should I decide to monkey with my Linea Mini.

Gear pumps are much more amenable to flow control than rotaries and vibes. I can't imagine they have quite the precision of a needle valve but still a whole world of control that the LMLM community does not yet have, if you gain control of the pump. If I didn't already have a needle valve, I would have looked at a gear pump for my outboarding job.

Does it come with a speed controller like the Fluid-O-Tech gear pump in this video? One more thing... Even if you don't use a controller, gear pumps have another desirable characteristic... on vibes and rotaries, as the puck erodes, flow increases (unless you slow it with a needle valve that you close on the fly). With a gear pump, it tends not to increase. It may not slow down like you like, but at least it doesn't increase. So that's kind of cool.

-Peter

I tried outboarding my pump this weekend and it was a failure. Connected everything up except the braided hose from the new pump. When I tried connecting the braided hose from the new pump, where the output of the old pump connected I realized my braided hose connected which was 3/8 bsp was too big. Switched everything back and decided to take a break and just enjoy the coffee. The FG304 gear pump is coming my way and maybe in the fall I'll try again. My wife noted that the machine is a lot more quieter than the grinder and to just let it be.

Yeah, I took another stab at outboarding the pump, the results are pure bliss, I can hear the coffee dripping into the cup, no more rattling of stainless steel.
Since I didn't want to modify my machine by removing any parts, e.g. motor, pump, hoses, I bought additional parts.

I grabbed the following:
- 1/4 bsp braided hose from Clive Coffee
- Motor, pump, bracket and damper mounts from Chris Coffee
- Pump PA074 with the backflow preventer from eBay
- Various adapters from espresso parts
It was about $250 worth of parts.

Here are the motor, pump, bracket, and dampers:


I connected the power cable (I bought the cable from Home Depot, it's a 3 wire power cable that was cut to length, crimp the ends to match the new motor connectors) from the new motor to the motor power connectors on the Linea Mini, I had to buy the round connectors and crimped the ends to match the connector on the Linea Mini :

1/4 BSP braided hose connection to Linea Mini:

Routing of the hose and power cable

The motor under the kitchen sink, the braided hose on the left is the dishwasher hose, ignore it

blondica73 wrote:Yeah, I took another stab at outboarding the pump, the results are pure bliss, I can hear the coffee dripping into the cup, no more rattling of stainless steel.

Looks great Christian.. Next week my wife will be out of town for a few days so I am hoping to tear apart her kitchen and complete my own outboarding project .

Welcome to the club!

I got my three wire power cord from Big Orange Racing Supply too (Home Depot)

-Peter