fregolisyndrome wrote:
I'm getting a consistently overpowering, bitter-sour hybrid, but my uneducated eyes aren't seeing any indication of significant channeling. The only thing I can think of is that my grinder alignment may be off, as the burrs rub up to about 0.35 rotations throughout about half of a rotation of the crank arm. 1ZPresso feels that this is a normal amount of misalignment however.

For this video, I used my robot with pressure gauge and a 1ZPresso JX-Pro that's seen ~4kg of coffee.
video

I have had my Robot for a couple weeks and I have been having similar flavors. That said though, flavor aside, I wish I could pull as nice looking a shot as the one in your video. I cannot get an even extraction. Did you resolve the issue?

I happened to see it few weeks ago.

https://www.naked-portafilter.com/produ ... -profiler/

J.Merf wrote:Do you mind sharing where did you get that mod for the robot? It looks incredible and I am REALLY interested in getting it myself. The graphs look extremely useful!

my robot arrived yesterday - went out to my local roaster and asked for (dark roast) espresso ground a bit more finely than normal. (lido-e still in the mail.)

with very little experience pulling shots, i've been really pleasantly surprised by the ease of use -- first few goes and everything is tasting great.

i'm not getting much of a crema, though, and what's there dissipates quickly -- think of a Moka pot on a pretty good day. because i'm a novice, i wonder if some robot users might have pointers -- should the coffee have been ground finer? coarser? or do i blame it on the beans? my robot is gaugeless, but definitely experiencing healthy (not overwhelming) resistance - though if i had to pick i'd say the shots are running a little fast. of course, once i have my grinder i can experiment with different settings and better beans.

thanks!

cidadao wrote:though if i had to pick i'd say the shots are running a little fast. of course, once i have my grinder i can experiment with different settings and better beans.

thanks!

Welcome to the club!
Standard response if you can't change the grind or beans is to updose incrementally until you get something you like.
Like you I have no previous experience making espresso and got great shots from the get go, but with lots of crema as well, though my beans are more traditional Italian roasted with a percentage of Robusta in the mix.

cidadao wrote:my robot arrived yesterday - went out to my local roaster and asked for (dark roast) espresso ground a bit more finely than normal. (lido-e still in the mail.)

with very little experience pulling shots, i've been really pleasantly surprised by the ease of use -- first few goes and everything is tasting great.

i'm not getting much of a crema, though, and what's there dissipates quickly -- think of a Moka pot on a pretty good day. because i'm a novice, i wonder if some robot users might have pointers -- should the coffee have been ground finer? coarser? or do i blame it on the beans? my robot is gaugeless, but definitely experiencing healthy (not overwhelming) resistance - though if i had to pick i'd say the shots are running a little fast. of course, once i have my grinder i can experiment with different settings and better beans.

thanks!

It's easy to overthink this. Usually you grind coarser if you're not getting crema. You'll be able to vary the grind when you have your own grinder. Also espresso doesn't mean a dark roast, it's a method of brewing. Dark roasted coffees can taste good, but you're substituting roasting flavor (think of a well-done barbecue) instead of a lighter roast that will reveal more origin flavors.

sorry, to clarify, didn't ask for a dark roast specifically - those are the whole beans they had in stock. just to give you a sense of the profile.

Not much crema and fast shot sounds like too coarse to me. Like ojaw says, try increasing the dose. I tend to get better crema with high pressure, as long as it's not uncomfortably hard to pull the shot you should be good. If you go too fine or too high with the pressure the crema will start to suffer again (think ristretto).

That said, crema is overrated. Don't worry too much about it.

I removed the pressure gauge and tube a few weeks ago and have really noticed how much smoother the whole thing feels. I've seen videos of people raising the piston by pulling on one of the arms and I wondered why I couldn't do that with my Robot. Well, it was the pressure gauge assembly. I think it must push on the piston enough to cock it against the side a little bit. With it removed the Robot just feels better, cleaner, simpler. I'm planning to reinstall the gauge today and I have to say I have mixed feelings about it. Don't really need it.

Jonk wrote:Not much crema and fast shot sounds like too coarse to me. Like ojaw says, try increasing the dose. I tend to get better crema with high pressure, as long as it's not uncomfortably hard to pull the shot you should be good. If you go too fine or too high with the pressure the crema will start to suffer again (think ristretto).

I agree. Good catch.

J.Merf wrote:Do you mind sharing where did you get that mod for the robot? It looks incredible and I am REALLY interested in getting it myself. The graphs look extremely useful!

Sorry for the late reply. The Bluetooth transducer itself has been available on the naked-portafilter website for some time now, but the fitting to adapt it to the Robot was only showcased last year by Gábor at a convention. I finally got my hands on the fitting last week and as expected of anything to comes out of his shop, it works beautifully.