Howdy! I'm Tate, and after 6 years of experience in the coffee industry, from barista, to technician, to business owner, to firmware engineer, I'm sharing all of the fun projects I work on!
Hi Tate. My machine will not stop heating until the point where the safety valve releases steam from the front center bottom round port. and the pressure gauge is way too high. Is there a quick fix? I can guess that some thermostat sensor is not working. it should shut off the heating once it has reached the correct temp and pressure.
Not a bad mod at least the solenoid is not activated to release pressure off the puck! I do this with a dimmer mod for pre infusion of my Gaggia Classic. With the dimmer turned to off position I activate the brew button first that drops water left in the line onto the puck with no pressure for 5 sec than I turn on the dimmer gently until 2 bar ( usually 5 sec) is reach than turn off, it holds the pressure and I wait for 10 sec, usually a drip or or two come sout than I ramp it up to bar and slowly decrease to 6 bar replicating a lever shot.
So I replayed the video footage of the updated pump and pulsar to the footage of that plus sound deadening material and I could hear the difference. Your probably better modifying your grinder with that car deadening material !
Hey Tate, Keep up the good work dude. really enjoy what you do. Do you have any info on Guy and his decent. I'm curious what he did. I can't imagine it was only sound deadening to quiet down his machine. Thanks
Awesome build! For the Fluid-O-tech MG304, was the primary motivation to be able to change brew pressure electronically? I am looking at replacing my appartamento pump because I believe it is failing, but I was thinking about replacing it with the Lelit 4000040 silent pump, as I don't care about having the ability to adjust brew pressure on the fly. Thoughts?
Thanks for that, because I looked at sound deadening mat material a few times and found the price a bit steep, but this Noico stuff is heaps more affordable! Adding that screen shot was a huge help. I will do my coffee grinder and probably an enclosure so my family can sleep in.
When I open just the valve while leaving the pump off on my Silvia V6 I get no water flow at all. How do I get preinfusion, do I run the pump for a second, then kill it while leaving the valve open? Thanks
Looks like you'll need to run the pump briefly to push some water up into the group head. Test with no portafilter to see how it works. Let me know how you go. I'm about to perform this mod on Rancillio V4.
Im thinking about damping the machine too but im unsure about thermal heating and its effect on electronics inside. Yours now in place for a couple of months. Did you see any problems? Cheers!
Hi, I wish to install your magic on GS3av (2024) and have 2 questions: does your board is delivered with a software already and if for GS3 I also will need separate power source for the board? Thanx! This is awesome btw:)
Yes they come pre-flashed and ready to install. Version 2.0 and newer can now be powered directly from the machine. Check the links in the description for more details!
Great video. May i ask if there is any different fittings needed for either the plumbing or the electrical connections when exchanging the pump for the Lelit Mira pump? I'm looking to do this modification myself and am unsure if it's just a simple case of exchanging the pumps or if any different fittings are required. Thanks!
definitely! I brushed over this in the video, but I found that Db didn't really give the whole picture, since this project was more about shifting the annoying higher-pitched noises with a more pleasing dull hum. In all the comparisons, the audio sensitivity was the same, so you can make your best judgement! Hope that's helpful 😊
So I have been wondering about the solid state relays. I have electromechanical relays on my own machine but I don’t like the clicking 🙈 Main thing holding me back from switching(pun intended) is that the SSRs get so hot… what is your experience with this?
Good question! SSR's are pretty much standard on commercial machines. SO using commercial-grade SSR's on this little machine has been barely enough to get them slightly warm, especially since I used the large stainless steel sheet as a heat sink.
Hey Tate! Need some help please. I tried to do this mod but failed. Watched your video over and over to follow the wiring and bought the recommended dual switch mentioned in the description. For some reason, when power switch is in the off position, the led light is on. When power switch is in the on position, led light on switch goes out and machine doesn’t turn on. What am I doing wrong? I also noticed on the new switch, there’s 6 poles. On the original switch, there’s only 4 poles. So right now, I got the wire plugged to the top and middle pole. And also same with the pump wires, top and middle pole. Any help would be awesome. Thanks! Oh, btw, gonna also do the quiet machine mod also after I get this sorted. Already got everything needed for that.
Hey sorry to hear it's not working well. RU-vid comments aren't easy to troubleshoot on, id suggest heading over to the espresso aficionados discord where a lot of people have done this mod already;
For now, I put the original switch back on. But I left the added pump wires and got it crudely coming out of the machine and put a simple on/off 2 pin switch to it. It’s ugly but it works. 🤣 There’s a noticeable difference from before and after taste wise in the espresso. There’s more body and it’s a lot smoother. I like it!
Did you also change the service boiler pump? I am not sure to do it on my machine. Because of the ~1/3 lower flow rate and time controlled pump cut-off after activation the service boiler will not be refilled to the regular level. Will still work (if to low, pump is activated) but with less steaming power I guess?
I only used it on the brew pump since I don't steam very often. The steam boiler will still fill to the same level since it is still depending on the fill probe to check the water level. The only issue you might encounter with replacing the steam boiler pump is during the initial fill of an empty boiler. It'll probably trigger an alarm thinking the steam boiler isn't filling, but it's just slow. I've had similar experiences on another machine and I just power cycle it once or twice during that first fill
@@tatemazer Thank you so much! The second OLAB Silent Green is already here, waiting for some spare time. Plus a 90° fitting and a second Quickmill pulsor. Add some aluminum butyl and the machine will become really quiet. Where I live, in Europe, OLAB Silent Green costs about 30 EUR. So it's not really expensive to change both pumps. Talking about the Lelit assembly, this is really expensive but not necessary. You only need the pump
Did you put a pulsor only at the brew pump or also at the service boiler pump? If both, it would be interesting to know how you installed it for the service boiler. I think an additional fitting is necessary here to avoid contact with the boiler (not enough space for the pulsor alone)
If you're still checking this: I noticed your boiler appears to have a thermal jacket on it, and I was wondering what material you used / where you got it, as I was considering doing that to my Appartamento to attempt to improve temp stability + efficiency
It's fiberglass insulation for automotive exhausts, it's honestly kind of awful to work with and doesn't do a great job of insulating. It also required that I completely remove the boiler and all it's fittings 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Thanks for making this. Can you elaborate on the electronics components? Also the dual pressure valve shoes pump and boiler pressure, is that correct? What do you use for the controller? I love the idea of the analog measure for the lever. Would the controller allow you to save profiles so you can just reply a profile that you put in manually by pulling the lever on? Is that decoupled? I have a rancilio silver and a Sanremo cube. I think for the cube that be so awesome! Ps: I’ve got a tour from Ricardo on the belweather in Berkley. Cool stuff
Hi, yes the switch I originally used seemed to fail prematurely, especially when I used both the steam and brew boilers. However this will not cause any premature wear to the original components.
@@tatemazer thanks for replying. One more question. On Pro X would stopping shot during soft infusion or even just doing the flush cycle and then starting shot produce a similar effect to this mod?
Fascinating. I'm wondering if you could somehow add a line of code that runs the pump with the group closed so it back flows out of a over pressure valve like a commercial espresso machine has to automatically bring the group temperature down automatically. It would likely need to be tapped in right before the valve on the group which would be a lot of custom work. That or it could auto cycle before loading the ground coffee. Really great work here.
Hey people. If you do these mods, don't buy the pump from 1st Line. It's like half the price on Coffee Addicts. Also, they aren't assholes. Also FYI, a Gaggia Classic Pro Evo doesn't have room for a pulsor.
Hello, we just recently purchased a Linea Mini and have also been doing research regarding this. Wonderful video! I might've missed it in the video but how can I purchase a board? I'm not exactly handy when it comes to these electronics but would love to give it a shot! Thanks!
I really liked your video. I just ordered the Pro X and the only thing that was a bit of a disappointment was the lack of real pre-infusion. I want to be able to experiment with all different variables and feel like pre-infusion is something I want to play with. I will definitely do the mod.... Thanks again for a great video
