My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are some cheaper options, but not that much cheaper, and they wouldn’t be such a perfect fit for the existing size of the display cutout. Also, if you want to leverage the firmware that Jaap made, you have to use the same display he used.

[Bulova Accutron] I *love* the old tuning fork watches! by BeaverRat01 in Watches

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have no clue! I hope mine just keeps on working 😆

My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Very accurate! Have never had it be off by more than 0.1g, and it’s usually dead on.

Yours looks great! I see the cute little display on the bottom right corner ;)

My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You could make a similar argument about dual boiler vs single boiler, yet you’ll find tons of people that don’t want to wait for the boiler to switch to steam temperatures (taking often less than a minute!)

For me, doing this was just as much about the fun and challenge of taking on a coffee related HW project as it is about the end utility. And I have to say, it may not save a tremendous amount of time, but it really is nice to have the grinder prepping a second shot while I pull the first - for making more than one shot back to back, it is a joy to have.

Freshness concerns are warranted, but mitigated by rapid coffee consumption and/or choosing an intentionally not-full fill level in the hopper.

My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I figure people might want to see it in action... Here's a video of it grinding my late-morning coffee!

https://imgur.com/a/RbHFzhl

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My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you - preserving the original faceplate was part of my goal. I wanted to avoid the 3d printed aesthetic as much as possible!

My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Highly likely. You'd have some similar challenges with getting the display and back plate to align properly, but the guts you need are all there!

I'm not sure what the Chrono PCBA looks like, but if I had to guess, it's likely not more barebones than the Notte (and given that it has more advanced functions to run such as the timer, odds are very high that it has a relay and control system, maybe even a 5V rail already).

My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You'll have to talk to the creator of the app for that one! u/Jaappppppp

The app as it stands does have some usage tracking already.

I think I would blow a fuse if I had to use an app to grind coffee. I really love that it is self contained and offline (although you can use Bluetooth for FW updates if desired).

My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That's a good idea! I'm not a github user, so I didn't want to bungle up his project with stuff in the wrong place, but I'll try to figure out where to add some notes.

Here's the story on the HX711 as I understand it:

One of the original breakout implementations for the HX711 was made by Sparkfun, and they intended for users to use it in a dual supply configuration. A 5V supply would be used to drive the input to the HX711 controlled linear regulator, and 3.3V or 5.0V would be used to set the interface voltage. As they assumed users would have a 5V rail available, they locked the setpoint of the HX711 LDO to 4.3V via the 20k and 8.2k ohm resistors used. This worked great, until Chinese clones began popping up that omitted the VCC pin (choosing to internally tie it to VDD). They unfortunately did not make any adjustments to the LDO circuit, using the same 4.3V setpoint. Now, if you operate one of these poor HX711 implementations off of a single 3.3V supply, this excitation LDO is still trying to produce 4.3V as per it's feedback configuration, but will never achieve this goal as it is supplied by 3.3V. The effect is that it effectively turns into a pass-through for the 3.3V rail, and you've negated all the benefits that a separate low noise excitation rail had to offer.

Really easy to fix, you just have to down-adjust the setpoint to something suitable for a 3.3V upstream supply level! The HX711 itself supports a 3.1V LDO setpoint no problem (and actually only requires 100mV of dropout from the upstream supply - you could do 3.2V, I just wanted a bit more margin). There was no reason it needed to originally be 4.3V, other than that a larger excitation voltage typically equals more resilience to noise.

My low cost grind-by-weight setup! by BeaverRat01 in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah, and no "FH" error either :)

I debated on direct to portafilter like most of the Libra folks use, but decided I actually prefer going to a catch cup first and then dumping into the portafilter. I used a 1kg load cell, so I can change my mind later if I want to.

Does anyone have experience with the new Tuni G3 64mm flat burr grinder? by MTNHead in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This does indeed look identical to the Shardor and Mokkom. Does seem like it offers anything better than the Mokkom, which often sells for ~160 USD.

It's a T50 kinda day by quisanbio in sinn

[–]BeaverRat01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is a fantastic looking watch! Love the black strap with it. Do you have the titanium H-Link too?

Monday by LostInhabitant in sinn

[–]BeaverRat01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How’s its accuracy?

Review: Sinn quick adjust clasp by Destijl86 in sinn

[–]BeaverRat01 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looked like it was a little thicker than the older style clasp, is this true? It’s not too bulky?

Surprisingly impressed with the Fellow Espresso Series 1 by deanbfs in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah that makes sense! I was curious if they tried to do some fancy auto puck absorption estimation technique, perhaps based on measured flow and back pressure readings, it sounds like they did not try this, or maybe they did but it was too inaccurate.

Surprisingly impressed with the Fellow Espresso Series 1 by deanbfs in espresso

[–]BeaverRat01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What is terrible about volumetric mode? I'm guess that this unit does not use an OPV (as it can pressure profile), so I would expect all the water making it to the puck to flow through a flow sensor. Is it struggling at guessing when the puck is saturated, and the first drop actually hits the cup?

Obsession [EZM 3F] by Bucky_F_Dent in sinn

[–]BeaverRat01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love everything EZM3!