[Tjinez]

Yeah, the Aeropress is amazing. Buy, buy, buy and pick up some coffee from Tim Wendelboe when you're at it, krmathis.

Here are some coffeepics from me:

My little setup

Naked

Many pics but I hope you'll forgive me

 

[krmathis]

^ Ordered an AeroPress from eBay yesterday.
The price in there is USD $25, while over here it is USD 80 (NOK 460). So even with shipping I save a nice lump of money.

I will drop by Tim Wendelboe one day. Never heard of him before, but sure looks nice.

 

[linuxworks]

another silvia owner! cool.

did you PID yours yet?

want to?

the LCDuino-1 board (driving that display) is now in beta test. I have one of them running my silvia thru an lm35 temp sensor and an SSR (solid state relay):

software is free (up at my site). let me know if you'd like to beta-test it (and the board).

 

[Tjinez]

krmathis, nice price for the Aeropress. Hope you'll like it as much as I do. Definately try some coffee from Tim W, I've tried the espresso blend and Kenya Tekangu, and they were great.

linuxworks, I haven't PIDed, but really been giving it a thought lately.
Would be damn nice to control the temperature of the shots. The problem for me is that I know nothing about these things and am afraid I'll screw up and destroy my little Silvia

Would it be hard to PID the Silvia?

 

[linuxworks]

not hard at all. I was a little worried (high temp inside and sort of high voltage).

the machine mod involves installing that SSR near the drip tray and running wires up inside to the head area. very easy. then taking a temp sensor (I used lm35) and then bolt that to the boiler metal. my detail for that:

screw that to a location on the top of the boiler, give one wire +5v, one ground and the output goes to the arduino/cpu board.

to control it you need just those 2 things: temperature as input and SSR (pulsing the heater element) as output.

I chose NOT to modify the metal on the silvia and instead just install the lcd thing in its own box, sitting on the counter near the machine. the wires that go into the machine are +5v, ground, temp wire and 1 SSR wire. inside some wiring changes are needed but not very much. a good ref is this:

CoffeeGeek - Espresso: Espresso Mods and Restorations, New Silvia Mods - Wii Nunchuck, Clock, PID, Water Level Alarm

it also adds safety stuff, such as an inactivity timer (after 1 or 2 hours the machine turns itself off) and also if you go into steam mode, it will turn THAT off after a minute or two and go back to BREW mode.

if you go the next step up in wiring, you can have the cpu control the machine entirely, even doing a 24second shot timer and actually turning the shot off after that timer expiry.

the base silvia is accurate to 5 degrees or so. not very accurate at all (mech sensors). with a PID its close to half a degree or so (depending on how you tune the PID).

I would not run it any other way (lol). give it some thought. its not hard, really.

 

[kwkarth]

Truly beautiful!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tjinez /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, the Aeropress is amazing. Buy, buy, buy and pick up some coffee from Tim Wendelboe when you're at it, krmathis. Here are some coffeepics from me: My little setup Naked Many pics but I hope you'll forgive me

 

[00940]

I'm not that much of a coffee connoisseur. A small moka pot and some Kimbo is all I need to be happy.

However... I'm tempted by the Bialetti Brikka, which is apparently an improved stovetop with an integrated pressure valve. Has anyone here tried it ?

Bialetti Brikka

 

[kwkarth]

I might be interested if they produced one in all stainless steel.

 

[Cianyx]

Yeah, I've got a Brikka. It makes coffee fast, may not taste like an expresso machine nor does it make that frothed milk, it gets the job done. Doesn't give you much to drink though.

 

[Born2bwire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth /img/forum/go_quote.gif I might be interested if they produced one in all stainless steel.

They do, I had to get the stainless steel version because I have an induction hot plate. I do not like the look of them as much as the original because these are only found in the other designs. I have Venus model.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Born2bwire /img/forum/go_quote.gif They do, I had to get the stainless steel version because I have an induction hot plate. I do not like the look of them as much as the original because these are only found in the other designs. I have Venus model.

THX man!

 

[00940]

Yeah, they have stainless steel classical moka pots. But the Venus doesn't have the Brikka system apparently ?

 

[00940]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cianyx /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, I've got a Brikka. It makes coffee fast, may not taste like an expresso machine nor does it make that frothed milk, it gets the job done. Doesn't give you much to drink though.

I didn't expect it to

How does it compare to a classical moka pot ?

 

[voltraizer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 00940 However... I'm tempted by the Bialetti Brikka, which is apparently an improved stovetop with an integrated pressure valve. Has anyone here tried it ?

tried that stove top model but i prefer the coffee press or electric percolator

Coffee Press, stove-top and electric percolator.
Electric and stove top- Brew time is approx four minutes in electric and takes longer time with stove top ,
both units does not require paper filters found in drip.
however,the temperature is better controlled in electric models than stove top units since
burning the coffee will result in a bitter taste.
Ground coffee if properly perked will result in more robust flavor .
Some prefer coffee press . less bitter taste than perc according to coffee-addicts.

 

[JadeEast]

Picked up a nice Japanese manual coffee maker and hand grinder today. Made a great cup of coffee right out the gate. I was prepared for a failed first cup but I seemed to have lucked out a bit. I still need to dial in the grind and technique but it's too late for cafeene experiments tonight.

I've been using a Moka pot for my morning dose and a syphon for fancy time but I'm kind of digging the "analog" grinding and hand pour over method.