This is like something out of AHS.

Perhaps next season Sarah Paulson can be a two headed freaky barista that measures EY with one head while steaming a half/half soy rice milk latte with the other. The two heads can then argue if to up dose or reduce temp.

Love AHS. The juxtaposition of the silliest (almost non-existent meandering) storytelling with stunningly good production values.

How do you guys do pre-inffusion?
Assuming I have 16 gram of coffee, medium roasted.

We allow the lever to drive down, and then, we leave it as it is, or we put some pressure (I assume we need some pressure, but is enough just to put hands on the levers)? How long should it take roughly, to see PF sweating, and then first drop appears in the cup?
Do you see the coffee appearing all over the portafilter or just in center during preinfussion?

leveralex wrote:- acaia lunar doesnt fit between the legs... just by a few millimeter, i solved this by grabbing two acaia cinco editions (ridiculous solution money wise of course... you can just grab a $10 amazon scale that fits too), they complement the whole over the top and design aspect of the robot wonderfully especially swith their slide casing.

One thing to be careful of is that unlike the Lunar, the Cinco is NOT impervious to water.

Lunar's main board is conformally coated so that water does not adversely affect it. (The H2O indication is when water drops "short" the capacitive touch sensors).

Cinco's board, however, isn't. It isn't hard to do (obviously have to mask the connectors and display with masking tape) but may affect any warrantee provided by Acaia.

pj.walczak wrote:How do you guys do pre-inffusion?
Assuming I have 16 gram of coffee, medium roasted.

We allow the lever to drive down, and then, we leave it as it is, or we put some pressure (I assume we need some pressure, but is enough just to put hands on the levers)? How long should it take roughly, to see PF sweating, and then first drop appears in the cup?
Do you see the coffee appearing all over the portafilter or just in center during preinfussion?

Personally I do just a bit of pressure. I try to not get the manometer to move much.

And I try to get the drops to appear everywhere. Just like on the GS3.

Thanks, and roughly how long is your preinfussion time? With this light pressure how long does it take to have first drop in the cup?

I think about 7-20 seconds. It isn't as accurate as on the GS3 as the water is poured on top and then I fiddle with the cup and scale and what-have-you. Lots of fiddling.... BTW - if you press harder, depending on the grind, it may take longer. There is some sweet spot in there.

BTW - While I am getting great results on the Robot - I am not getting as good results as I am on the GS3 (lighter crema, faster blonding etc.). Having chosen to believe that the espresso machines (obviously above a certain set of capabilities) do not really make a difference, I associate this difference with the Manual Grinder (Aergrind) vs. the Versalab and the more meticulous prep on the GS3 (distribution, grooming, the lot). Also, I have a bit more experience on the GS3 (Since 2009 ).

Interesting. Why not try the versalab with the Robot and see if it brings it closer to the gs3 experience?

+1

leveralex wrote:- acaia lunar doesnt fit between the legs... just by a few millimeter, i solved this by grabbing two acaia cinco editions (ridiculous solution money wise of course... you can just grab a $10 amazon scale that fits too), they complement the whole over the top and design aspect of the robot wonderfully especially swith their slide casing
- above 6bar most people will have to lean over the machine to get a constant e.g. 8 bar pressure going till the end, you cant really see the gauge in that position anymore, i will probably see if i can come up with a adjustable thing for the gauge

I just stick one corner of my Lunar between the Robot's legs and put it in manual tare/start mode. Works for a 2oz shot glass. I've also found that I don't use the gauge as much as I thought I'd do, I just try to keep the flow at 1g/s by watching the numbers on the Lunar and trying to keep the weight equal to time.

IMAWriter wrote:My method exactly (^^^^), and I really don't even bother to look at the gauge any longer. Strangely, I see no water in the tubing when I'm pulling a shot..I try my reading glasses tomorrow.

I mentioned this to Gary several weeks ago. I thought the gauge will help you acquire a sort of muscle memory of the forces required and the resulting flow. After a while the gauge will not be required. I think the gauge is a good tool but I like the clean look and simplicity of the simple Robot.

The water in the tube is bizarre. I test each machine several times (no coffee just clean water with a pressurised basket) and have noticed water and no water in the tube. There is no rhyme or reason to it. Originally I was looking at a one way valve at the lower fitting so the tube is always full of water, but never found a good one. But then a few days ago I realised if I had a one way valve then the gauge would not go back to zero after a shot It shows how sometimes you can't see the wood for the trees.


I designed a plastic clip yesterday that will anchor the gauge tube away from the lever rods, a sort of strain relief as well. We will get those 3D printed and test. I'll try and make it the least intrusive as possible, and should be an easy retrofit to all gauge machines.

Re: scales. It looks like I will have to make a new die-cast tool for the main body and base so it should be possible to adjust the leg width so a popular scale could fit inbetween.