The machine I was using before the ViaVenezia came my way was a Krups Novo. It's not bad at all. With an unpressurized basket, careful puck prep and fresh ground beans, it actually makes pretty good espresso. Its advantage is that, being 20+ years old, the pump no longer pushes a full 15 bar. That said, it can be improved IMO with some modifications.

(It's not good for milk beverages. Insufficient steam. And this part of it cannot be improved.)

So I finally got it disassembled top and bottom without breaking it. My intent is to add a thermometer, an LED to illuminate the water level, and a dimmer for flow control. I've not decided how to do the thermometer. I'd love to have it be non-electronic, just a small dial that gives a representation of the temperature of the thermoblock. And there's definitely room for the dimmer. In the attached image, the space for that is on the left.

For the LED, a duplicate of the power LED wired in parallel to it might work. A bit of circuit testing is in order.

Once complete, I will give this to a friend.

First update: the cheap LCD digital thermometers arrived. (I tried a bimetal pocket thermometer, did not work.) The Krups has an indicator LED that clicks off when the thermoblock reaches 180F, as measured by this thermometer. Hypothetically, it's ready to brew at that point. But the temperature continues to rise to 220F before it starts to come down! And then it drops, down below 180F, before it starts to climb again.

Now of course the temperature on the top of the thermoblock is not identical to the water temperature. So the key to using this machine optimally will be a bit of experimentation. I've had success with it before, but have not used it in months (since acquiring the ViaVenezia). I think I used to flush, wait 15 seconds, then brew. It will be different now that I've installed the flow control dimmer, but probably not much different. In any event, now I won't have to guess at the number of seconds. I'll be able to mark the optimal temperature reading on the LCD, and go from there.

I also need to figure out how to install this thermometer. It uses batteries, and opening this Krups is a PITA - so a click-in mount that does not easily click out for battery replacement would be problematic.

Next update: it's complete, at least for now. I'll reconsider the LED for water level at a later date, as that's really not essential.

But flow control IS essential. My first shot was..... I guessed right. I pulled a 'flush' shot, which dropped the temperature on the LCD to 184 and heated the brew head. I then waited until it reached 210, and started pre-infusion. Six seconds, then turned it up. On this machine that lacks OPV, the dimmer knob goes to about 70%. That gets a 28 second shot. It's fun to watch the temperature drop as the water flows.

The shot was delicious. The aftertaste, ten minutes later, is sweet.

Just added one of the temperature displays to the ViaVenezia: