Our next iteration of the new foam for the DE1 suitcase, just arrived.

One major goal with this is to unify the DE1XL and DE1PRO foam so that we use the same for both. The foam is much more dense and more long lasting. The stronger foam also means we have spaces for commonly used accessories (tamper, milk jug, etc)...

This is still a work on progress, and is planned for v1.45 machines, for July 2023.

Oddly, I haven't found anyone on Youtube or elsewhere, who has explored what's possible, cooking with an espresso steam wand.

I think James Hoffman made a video about making scrambled eggs with steam wand.

Almost magical AI to improve Decent audio on our videos

Adobe recently released into beta, and AI that essentially "reperforms" the speaking on a video, and the effects are almost magical. https://podcast.adobe.com/enhance#

Here is a video we recently shot, where the sound is quite echoey, switching the AI off and on. The echo here was because I move around a lot as I point to things inside the Decent, and so the mics were often not close to me.
When there is no background noise, the effect is perfect. Echo is removed, but so is background noise, and the sound quality of our voices is recording studio quality. The AI also removed the slight audio distortion on my voice, as the gain was set too high on the original.

I wanted to see what would happen if there were substantial background noises.
The AI can't handle extended background noises at all. However, it does a good job handling the "tinkle" sound of the funnel tapping the portafilter, and other such short-duration sounds. It's particularly amusing at the end of this clip, where the new audio track makes incomprehensible sounds that are sort of like words.

We'll definitely be using this AI on all our no-background-noise videos, as there's no downside. The result is really amazing.

-john

Cyberness wrote:I think James Hoffman made a video about making scrambled eggs with steam wand.

Yes, so did I, 6 years earlier.

I don't like the results. In general, I'd say that espresso steam cooking doesn't work well if the thing you're cooking will become solid when cooked. Scrambled eggs, thus, don't work well, but ice cream custard base, does work well.

Here's what I'm currently working on... full video to be shot live on monday.
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An espresso machine makes the best poached eggs, because the steam wand is able to keep a gentle whirlpool going during the entire egg cooking process, while traditional cooking methods cannot.

Recipe:
- Set your DE1 to "two tap steam stop" (important!)
- 1/3rd fill a fairly large pot with cold water
- Steam heat the water to 95ºC, while perfecting your whirlpool
- Stop the steam
- Break a raw egg in the center
- Let the "two tap steam stop" continue to slowly circulate the water
- Cook egg for 3 minutes
- Serve

Ruby, the Decent Christmas Tree

Here's Ruby, who alone builds all the "group head controllers" that go on every espresso machine we make, getting into the Christmas spirit.

She dressed up as a Christmas tree and surprised us all by wheeling around gifts for all of us.

Bugs and I are taking the whole staff off "shrimping" in a few minutes. This is a restaurant where you try to catch your own shrimp (and lobster) and if you catch it, the cook will prepare it for you. Yum!

And afterwards, we're all off for a 3 day weekend, see you next week!

What's new in DE1 hardware v1.44
- Black machines will come with handles made from resin, that's much longer lasting than black painted wood.
- We're removing the 3 small front screws that hold the front faceplate, as it looks better that way.
- A new water intake filter, switching from the off-the-shelf mesh we've always had, to our own design. Needs less frequent cleaning.
- We are moving off NBR rubber, which is the standard on Italian pro machines, to Silicone Rubber, which is preferences of the Home Barista community.
- Torx screw heads for all group head pars, so you won't strip the heads.
- New standby switch design, to improve clarity of how it works

New 360º view of our espresso machine

We're working to replace the 360º movie we have of each espresso machine model we offer, with real photography instead of a 3D render. We're close to having some we like, and here you can see how we do it.

Hey John, those new images / renderings look great. I saw your recent video on the various color and body customizations that are coming. Do you have any pricing and timing info on the vinyl wraps?

I don't yet have final pricing on the vinyl wrap, no. In the next few weeks I'll get focus time with Bugs and we can decide.

The big problem with pricing the vinyl option is that the customer will likely want a lot of my artist's time to apply their graphics to the shape of the vinyl decal. It's not an easy thing to get right.

So, either we price the labor into it, or we charge an hourly rate for our time, which is likely to cause ill will as the customer likely won't realize just how much work it is, and believe we're price gouging. Or we make the customer do the graphics work themselves, in which case the result might not look good.

I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Here are some graphics to give you an idea of the process.