GDM528 wrote:Appreciate the additional photos - they are different than what I expected.

So, there is a 'positive' and a 'negative' end - do they indicate which end is which?

The back end (with the power button) is designed a lot differently from the LED end. I had the impression that the user was supposed to experiment with which end to use, but it looks like the back isn't meant for reducing static effects.

The front (LED) end is vented, but you've indicated its completely silent, implying there's no fan inside. But there are vents along the side of the cylinder that could allow a very subtle air flow, driven by the high voltages involved. That would help spread the ions faster and further. I'm guessing the static reduction would be enhanced by starting the ions up to a minute before starting the grind.

Now that I've seen the carbon brush emitters, I would minimize turning it off around coffee grinds, lest they get stuck on the brushes (although turning the ions on should eject them).

You can feel air flowing. It's just very subtle and inaudible. Only one end is designed to be used pointing at the coffee - I would guess the electrodes on the back are some sort of source or sink for ions.

GDM528 wrote:Apologies for not having a known-working answer for your question, but does it respond to a long press? Sometimes industrial design gets too focused on visual simplicity over operational simplicity. An extra 'on/off' button would add less than a dollar to the manufacturing cost.

Two presses = high/low settings for the ions produced, or is it just for the lighting effects?

Do they recommend even turning it off? Seems like it could function as an air freshener when it's not reducing your static mess.

I double click to turn it on, which also gives the brighter LED. Then one click to turn off. It really isn't that big of a deal to cycle through off/low light/high light.

espressoren wrote:You can feel air flowing. It's just very subtle and inaudible. Only one end is designed to be used pointing at the coffee - I would guess the electrodes on the back are some sort of source or sink for ions.

Cool. So, the rear electrodes will oppositely charge the air behind the ion generator, which is attracted into the side vents and propelled out the negative end:



Note that I'm guessing that the primary output is negative. Similar in principle to a signature product from Sharper Image - at least until it all went sideways for them over health concerns.

The "business end" of that looks familiar

Around $5 on AliExpress, delivered to the US -- Untested past confirming that it draws around 6 mA at 12 VDC

(I also have the single-brush variant at basically the same price)

Kudos to the first person who builds one themselves with two of those (negative and positive?) a toilet paper roll, fan, lipo battery + charger circuit, switch, and LEDs!

GDM528 wrote:Cool. So, the rear electrodes will oppositely charge the air behind the ion generator, which is attracted into the side vents and propelled out the negative end:

image

Note that I'm guessing that the primary output is negative. Similar in principle to a signature product from Sharper Image - at least until it all went sideways for them over health concerns.

That's probably about right. Just on a micro scale - the electrodes in an Ionic Breeze are roughly two feet long and have maybe 300 square inches of surface area, optimized for a lot of air contact.

Of course we don't know yet what may be inside the Acaia device but in comparison the visible electrodes would maybe be an Ionic Breeze for ants!

Curiosity got the better of me this morning and I took a quick peek inside.

I immediately noticed the Bluetooth chip and was reminded the website mentions BT5.0 briefly. Nothing in the manual and not obvious how to use it but I suppose the idea is the grinder can turn it on and off automatically. Would be nice to see the battery level via an app or something as well.

No fan. I guess I am just feeling ions beam!

That's a lot of computing power for a ion beam generator.

Whoa, Acaia has some big plans for this.

Wireless module, microcontroller, and a USB interface chip, plus several (6?) voltage regulators. Your smart phone might be able to scan and detect this as a Bluetooth device. Device sync with grinders/scales, variable power, cool lighting effects, proximity detection (auto on/off) are possible here. They put in a data interface to the USB port, so this product is field-upgradeable.

Didn't find any immediate search hits on the high-voltage module (FIO-E-DC12V), and the brackets and wires are obsucuring visibiity on the output voltage of the module (doh!). All I can pick out is "O/P <something> V DC" It's probably somewhere around 6-7KV. Wasn't expecting there would be two high-voltage modules, seems excessive, but over-the-top may be Acaia's design ethic.

Good news the battery pack looks pretty generic and therefore replaceable, giving you many years of anti-staticy enjoyment.

I can also see at least four unused attach points for additional wiring. Two of them (the 4-pin connectors) might be for programming the microcontroller and wireless module, but the other two (2-pin connectors) could be for more blinky lights or even more high-voltage modules for yet some other gonzo ion beam product.

Acaia had their choice in high-voltage modules, with their respective specs for output voltage and power... and they still wound up putting in two of them. I'm speculating they wanted to 'flood the zone' and crank out a lot of ions. Given their reputation and first entry in this market, I get why they decided to over-engineer this product so that initial reviews would be positive. If this gets a reasonable amount of market traction, knock-offs won't be far behind, and there's a lot of room for cost cutting.

2.5kV

They are planning a more powerful one, so the board may be set up with extra ports to handle that as well.