Slayer single group review - Page 3

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
UFGators
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#21: Post by UFGators »

FotonDrv wrote:I never thought about pasta but it is not a bad idea! Thanks :)
I can't even take credit for it, I saw my wife doing it one day and it helped me justify my investment! LOL

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FotonDrv
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#22: Post by FotonDrv »

Creative wife!
That Light at the End of the Tunnel is actually a train

waroros
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#23: Post by waroros »

My single group has arrived. My biggest concern is a touch screen and very loud noise. A big disappointment with a touch screen, terrible responsive, very hard to use. It took me more than 2 hours last night to press up and down, and I still cannot make it. I hope anyone do a mod to replace that touchscreen with old school, super ugly, but easy to use button.

Moderator note: This post and the responses to it below have been moved from its original posting in Single Group Slayer - A Production Preview.
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shadowfax
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#24: Post by shadowfax »

I tend to agree with you on the noise, and after a couple of months, I am pretty convinced that I will be outboarding my own pump. With a little bit of perseverance, you can definitely tweak the noise to pretty acceptable levels, but I've found that odd resonances tend to re-emerge over time, and you have to readjust. It's a nuisance, to be sure.

As for the touch screen, I really like it. It's not as nice as a smartphone, but it works. It does take some getting used to, and I agree that the down button is the hardest one to get "right" at first, but I can say that over the last month, I have become extremely proficient with mine-as I anticipated I would in the review. I think I prefer it to buttons at this point. I have made a bunch of videos of working with the programming interface, which need to be edited. I will do that this weekend, but for now, here's a small sample that I posted to my instagram account just moments ago. You'll also find some 15-second vignettes of different flow profiles there, which I will elaborate on in my next review installment.
Nicholas Lundgaard

waroros
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#25: Post by waroros »

Hi Shadowfax, thanks for your comment and I've been looking forward to your full review. The touch screen is a real pain for me. After about 2 hours of my efforts, I've just successfully move it once. I quite getting used to swipe left and right, but a more simple touch, left/center/right would create a much better experience. I found that the 1/3 right of swipe area is a problem for me. It's the least responsive area, so make a complete swipe a problem.

However, I still cannot figure how to press up and down properly. Do you need to touch it hard or softly? Which area is most sensitive?

I do post my vdo last morning, please feel free to live my experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_7Gc4qn ... dtrEwku8Ag
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waroros
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#26: Post by waroros »

Moreover, could you suggest how to work with on/off and power saving mode?

Mine is come with no manual. I see a schedule menu, with 2 types of schduling or something. I didn't play with it yet, since, I cannot press up and down at all.

I have absolutely no idea about its power saving or power on/off. Can I put it off and automatically start at 6am every weekday morning, or only always on with power saving mode possible?
I'm using Slayer at my home for a quick session every weekday morning. My current approach is to put a plug in and out power outlet, since there is no power switch on the machine.
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shadowfax
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#27: Post by shadowfax »

If you email Slayer, they will promptly send you a copy of the manual. I bought mine direct through them, and I communicated regularly with them in the months leading up to my machine's delivery. They sent me the manual (as well as draft versions) long before the machine arrived. It sounds like they need to make sure that their distributors email it to new customers too, or publish it on their site. I recommend bringing this and any other issues you have with the machine to Slayer. Maybe they can give you better touch screen pointers than I am about to.

The touch area below the screen is actually just an array of 3 touch sensors, spaced evenly. The "swipe" action is basically just software detection of a sequence of touches. It only takes two to detect a swipe, so I have found that starting in the middle and swiping in one direction or the other works very well. It also helps to "pause" briefly at the end of the swipe, I find. It makes it more reliable.

The swipe area "buttons" are used as individual buttons in the date/time setting interfaces (like what you showed in your video), as well as the PID parameter setting interface (my video). I notice that you seem to be touching high and to the right on most of your presses of the rightmost one. A lot of your other misses on that button row look like they are due to this. I would also suggest using the the pad of your thumb, not the tip (note how I do it in my video). This will likely also help you a with the arrows. I had some trouble getting the down arrow to register when I first got my machine, but using the pad of my thumb rather than the tip resolved. These are the quirky details that you notice after using it a lot, and they become muscle memory pretty quickly. It could be more foolproof, for sure, but I don't think it's a problem.

As for setting the machine's schedule-get the manual from Slayer. It's not very intuitive. It supports separate Monday-Friday (MF) and Saturday-Sunday (SS) schedules, and you program it with a start time and a duration (it displays the off time dynamically as you change the duration). You can program 1 or 2 of these periods for each mode (MF, SS). Also, you cannot turn the machine off without either unplugging it or turning the two heaters off through the programming interface. It's not intended to be turned off, for better or worse-it goes into a "power saving" mode where the brew boiler is held at 120F and the steam boiler should be set at 0.2 bars or so. This is Slayer's solution to the problem of keeping the vacuum breaker valve from opening up (which happens when you turn the machine all the way off), which eventually leads to a shorter life for that valve. I forgot that I hadn't composed my notes on this into a section of the review; I will make sure to add this soon.
Nicholas Lundgaard

waroros
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#28: Post by waroros »

Thank shadowfax for your explanation. I'm following your main review post, haven't seen this thread before. I get a much better picture of operating Slayer. Instead of schedule sleep time to arrive, can I put it to sleep immediately after my session?

Thank you again, you save me days, I'll email Slayer to get the manual.
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waroros
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#29: Post by waroros »

I do found the espresso quality is superb, comparing to my last db e61.

What about a basket and dose? Are you switch to vst, or still use the stock basket? I always get a screw mark on top of my puck, even, I dose only 18g in stock basket.
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shadowfax
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#30: Post by shadowfax »

waroros wrote:Instead of schedule sleep time to arrive, can I put it to sleep immediately after my session?
Not really. If you don't program at least one period in the schedule, It will be "always on." If you do program in a period of time, then it will enter the "power save" mode outside of that timeframe, as I described previously. Anytime the machine is in this "power save" mode, you can move the shot actuator to the left and back to "wake it up" for an hour. It will heat up and stabilize in about 15-20 minutes.

One caveat with this mode is that it doesn't use an "idle timeout," meaning that, 1 hour after you wake it up, it will go back to sleep, regardless of whether you were using it 30 seconds before. So, sometimes I find that I am doing prep and it has gone into "power save" while I was preparing my shot. I wake it back up, and it recovers in a minute or so, depending on how long it took for me to notice that it switched back to "power save." It's a nuisance for my usage pattern, and I have suggested that they implement an override to keep it awake for 10-15 minutes after last use to prevent this. That may come to future machines/software boards, but for now it is pretty easy to deal with it by increasing the "on" period or just accept the infrequent interruptions it causes when using it outside the programmed "on" time. Overall, the power saving feature is nice to use and reduces power usage noticeably. I will expand on this in a future installment of my review.
waroros wrote:What about a basket and dose? Are you switch to vst, or still use the stock basket? I always get a screw mark on top of my puck, even, I dose only 18g in stock basket.
I have switched to my VST 18g basket for the most part. It does hold slightly more coffee than the Slayer basket. I frequently see a screw impression on the puck after extraction, especially when using 18-19g doses. However, I have not seen an impression in the dry puck prior to extraction-meaning that if I lock the portafilter in and remove it without pulling the shot, there is no impression. That is the thing to be concerned about, I think. The puck expands mainly after the pressure relief when the shot ends, and it's not a problem in terms of the extraction itself. It just makes the shower screen messier and probably shortens its life (it may start to deform eventually).
Nicholas Lundgaard