Coffee Maker Repair And Modification - "For The Perfect Cup"- The Keurig! 

To learn electronics in a very different and effective way, and gain access to Mr Carlson's personal designs and inventions, visit the Mr Carlson's Lab Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/MrCarlsonsLab

Love this. Video's about fixing today's "disposable" electronics would be a great series.

Creating quality content without doing stupid things is getting rare. Thanks for teaching and entertaining us.

I didn't think a coffee maker fix could be as interesting as an old tube radio, but Boy!! It sure was. Thanks Paul.

Only Paul Carlson can make a coffee maker interesting, and interesting for a non-coffee drinker. I love the "ain't no stinkin' chip going to get the best of me" attitude. Absolutely brilliant.

Thanks Mr Carlson. That was top quality. Channels like this are why I stopped watching TV a long time ago.

A pacemaker for a Keurig?? You saved its life Dr. Carlson! Awesome video.

I think that this particular Keurig machine in your fleet needs a, "Carlson Signature Series", or at least a spiffy, "Custom", badge. Cool video, thanks for taking us along.

"Nothing leaves this bench without working." I love this mantra.

Not even a faulty IC can stop the mighty Mr. Carlson!

WOW, when I saw this I said, "An hour video on a coffee maker ... really Paul?" That was a lot more entertaining and informative than I originally expected - I love to see your thought process and "fearless" probing to get the supporting data. Yes, nothing goes across Mr. Carlson's bench without getting fixed!

Mr. Carlson.. you are the best electronics-guy on RU-vid. I won't watch anybody else's RU-vid channels. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us.

I was a coffee fanatic and in 1980 when I was grinding beans in my electric coffee mill, the power went out. I had no coffee that morning and that made me pissed, so I bought a Klingenthal hand coffee grinder at a thrift store, a kettle for my gas stove top, a Melitta cove and paper filters. From then on, I would wake up in the morning, put water on the stove and count up 150 turns of that grinder to get my perfect cup of coffee. I used that manual grinder until 2014 when I quit having an every-day coffee. It never failed me.

Mr. Clarlson needs to win the "best audio on youtube" award. Every video I watch my ears are in delight.

Mr. Carlson fixes a coffee maker? Yes , it was a fascinating hour of video! Maybe the folks at Keurig should take note! Steve

15 minutes into the video. Never realised a coffee maker would be such a sophisticated piece of electronics. This is gonna be fun. 🤩

I knew this would be no ordinary coffee machine fix. Always the next level up Repair

Calibrating your cup with an oscilloscope... that's a new thing in the world of coffee. Congratulations! :D

When Mr C offers to make you a coffee you know it is going to be the best. Brilliant content. Thanks!

After watching about a dozen of your videos I'm fairly convinced you are a Wizard.

I have no idea about electronics, I just find this channel relaxing. I would expect that by the end of the video there would be a couple vacuum tubes and the coffee maker receiving SW 😆

35:12 And "will not defeat me" and being able to learn along with Mr Carlson while he whips a machine into shape is awesome and why I support him on Patreon. Thank you!

I love your attention to detail and refusal to be beaten. Fantastic video! The logo reveal with the mug at the end is just the cherry on top.

You have once again demonstrated the power of logical thinking. My hats off to you!

A fantastic example of understanding ability and pure determation in the area of electronic design and repair.

I had a very similar issue to yours on a coffee machine, with an extremely simple fix. The amount of water pumped out can be customised for each cup size button by pressing and holding down the corresponding button until the desired amount is dispensed. Next time each button is pressed, it will fill the cup to the same level. Somehow the machine had forgotten its custom values and didn't reset to default values after a 'factory reset'. It appeared broken with similar symptoms to this video, but all that was needed was to manually recalibrate each of those Small, Medium and Large Cup buttons.

Even a coffee machine gets really interesting when you are repairing it. Thank you for uploading this video, even if it is not the usual type of machines you have on the bench.

Great show! Using talent like this to achieve the perfect cup-of-coffee is not, NOT to be sneezed at! Thank you!

Every time I see one of his videos I always think he must be from the future. How can he know so much! He's amazing.

This makes me so happy!! Keeping stuff out of the landfill and learning something along the way! Don't ever change.

Loved it! Please fix more everyday items! I love the old tube stuff as much as the next guy, but it’s even more impressive to watch you apply the same repair logic and instrument use on today’s electronic gizmos. More please!

I really enjoyed this video Mr C . I too am an amateur radio operator, tinkerer, experimenter and own multiple Keurig coffee makers. Thank You

GREAT VIDEO, I would never have considered adding in PWM signal to a signal to extend a programmed signal--absolutely genius!

I actually started to miss these types of videos from your channel. I was very glad to see a long one come along. I'm a big fan of your detailed tear down/repair/restoration videos! Your videos are always entertaining and informative, I learn a lot from every one. Thank you for your great content!

Throughly enjoyed that, it's alway good to see a top quality engineer doing what they do best. Brilliant as always Mr Carlson's lab. 👌

$500K worth on knowledge and education went into fixing a $100 coffee maker! Love it.

almost the only channel that I'd watch hour+ videos! thanks Sir 🎩

Interesting. I enjoyed it. Going back about 50 years, my dad and I were listening to a football game in the living room. Suddenly there was a loud buzz on the AM radio, drowning out the game. It was a year or so later that I learned that my aquarium heater was going on and off very rapidly creating the interference on the AM radio. The aquarium heater was oscillating on and off at about 10 cycles a second. Changing heating units eliminated the problem. But learning why it happened was worth the noisy aggravation.

Excellent demonstration of RF decoupling! Thank you! I like these kinds of videos of your the best. A practical problem solving session on common equipment. Please do more!

I misread the mug text as "Wake up and be Carlson", and had a smile. You really should make it as a merch

What a genius Mr. Carlson!

Paul, I’ve said this over and over again. You are AMAZING!! Not only do you make the perfect radios, and oscillators, etc., but now you make the perfect cup of coffee!! Talk about thinking out of the box!! That was not only entertaining, but absolutely outstanding! Fantastic across the board. When your next video comes out, I’m going to grab a good cup of Joe and enjoy! Great stuff Paul!!

Passion! Passion for everything fixable, that’s what Mr. Carlson possess! Soft spoken, highly informative, confident on troubleshooting and repair, there is no better viewing to inform! I can’t afford Patreon, but I do appreciate the RU-vid projects seen on this channel! Can’t wait for the next! Love from the lower 48. Thanxz.

Such a Good video , I had to watch it twice for a 2nd Full cup

Really nice video, Paul! I was not aware that custom programmed appliance MPUs could partially corrupt their programming just by plugging and unplugging the machines from their power sockets repeatedly. Terrific work-around repair, too, your "nothing goes across Mr. Carlson's bench without getting fixed!" reputation is once again, secure! I once had an older model Keurig that right out of the box wouldn't pump water. Called them up and let the technician run through her flow-chart, and when that failed to make it work she reluctantly conceded that it should be replaced under warranty. While waiting for the new one to arrive I took apart the old one well past the point where the technician would allow me to disassemble it over the telephone, found and reinserted the loose silicon tube that hadn't been inserted properly at the factory, reassembled it and the thing ran perfectly.

You remain most amazing, clear thinking, precise dialogue, beautiful testing and superb construction. Dead on Results. I have been thrashing on a Model Train controller and saw that beautiful Fluke Instrument. It must be fairly expensive but my God you were using it so seamlessly, Clear screen and color too. Thank You So much for being you and sharing your massive brain with us. All the best and stay well, the World certainly needs you. Dennis

I went through 4 Keurigs and thousands of cups before I realized that there are some excellent instant coffees available. I bought an electric kettle and never looked back. That was very interesting, thanks Paul.

That FET cup was well-played, Mr. Carlson!

As an old communications NCO (US ARMY) I truly appreciate your "die hard, no fail" attitude! (Insert salute here)

Aside from the radio alignments you do, I think this is my favorite type of content that you produce. very fun

Ah yes, the start of the day, nothing like a ‘dang, what’s wrong with my coffee maker, let’s get this baby rolling again’ moment. Mr. Carlson never ceases to amaze, entertain and teach! Thanks for sharing this cup-of-joe journey Paul!

35:00 _"This coffee maker if it has dead parts or a bad IC, will not defeat me"._ Famous last words for many electronics technicians, but not for Mr Carlson. *_Nothing leaves his bench without working!_* Thanks for sharing.

I love how you never give up. You usually solve the problem in style. Thanks for the great video.

I really enjoyed this, a really honest troubleshooting process with clever solutions to independent problems! Great stuff, thanks.

I guess what you do is no great shakes to you, but to me it's absolutely amazing. Even though I'm not an electronics guy, watching your methodical diagnoses and repairs is not just fascinating, it's instructive. Thank you for taking the time!

You sure make the complex seem simple. Fabulous!

This was probably the cleanest and most professional way to apply a repair hack. The headers on the board suggest that Keurig could even reflash the controller. We need Keurig to go open source :)

"This coffee maker... will not defeat me." Excellent! Almost Churchillian. I nearly spat out *my* coffee laughing.

Hi Paul, thanks for uploading this repair and modification video,. I would have never thought that type of mod would be possible to trick the IC like this... In one word "AMAZING". Please keep doing what you are doing 👍🏻

In this day and age of everything being disposable, you're a breath of fresh air. I love to fix stuff even though it doesn't make any sense economics wise because I find it fun and love the feeling of control over my environment that is so lacking nowadays. I love watching someone that shares that spirit. When my supposedly "smart washer" rolled over and died way before it's a time and they wanted almost $300 for a replacement board, I took that as a challenge. I ripped the computer out and replaced it with an Arduino and some ancient relays I had in a box somewhere. Now my washer runs exactly the way I want it to. $10 worth of parts, $10,000 worth of labor, and an incalculable amount of satisfaction. 😁😁😁

Re-engineering a product and making it better, awesome Mr. Carlson.

You are amazing!! You are a very patient and wonderful teacher, as well as a knowledgeable engineer. Although I would never attempt to repair or modify a Keurig coffeemaker, I certainly learned a lot from your thorough explanation and diagnosis of the problems you had with yours. Thank you for making these high quality videos.

I know it is never great to pull apart a working machine, but would have been nice to compare the PWM of the bad machine to a good one. I wonder if it could still be some weird motor fault that causes it to not go fast enough at the set pulse width. ..... That said, I am not sure why they need to make coffee machines so complex :). Thanks for a longer video. I like the longer video format, even with a coffee machine :) Thanks for posting this one. Saved another machine :)

This video is well-timed. I have a very strong 80khz noise machine somewhere that I need to track down. Narrowing down the source by scanning the breaker panel with a receiver is a great idea. Thanks, Paul!

I am still using my 17 year old Black & Decker coffee maker. Simple repairs were all that was required. Replacing "o" rings, and another few things such as a switch repair, brought it back to life.

I was waiting for you to come to with some sort of vacuum tube controller. Excellent solution. I find the RF issue to be a no brainer. They are always cutting corners with these things. Happily, no pixies were angered in the making of this video, and you didn’t pull an Electro Boom, and send sparks flying. Always appreciate your videos. Thanks for everything.

Really great fun. I loved the one with your wife's hair tongs and malfunctioning fridge too. I wish (sorry about this!!) that more of your office/household devices would malfunction :-) I also like that you seem to have more coffee-makers than the average British hotel, all dedicated to your own solo caffeine needs!

The ultimate geek out video; thank you Mr. Carlson!

I am a Patreon and this video is just what you get there or in fact do you often get even more, plus all his amazing inventions!! :-)

I loved this from start to finish. Good troubleshooting and workaround. And I learned a new term, Frother. Glad to hear it’s supposed to do that. My model is operating normally.

Absolutely fascinating video! You are a wizard, Mr. Carlson.

What perfect timing. My Keurig machine decided that it wasn't going to make coffee yesterday. I did a search for a new machine and purchased one. This morning, your video popped up! I didn't even consider that I wanted to repair my lazy machine. But now, maybe!

Mr. Carlson, sir, you are a genius ! Congrats from Brazil !!!

I'm sceptical regarding the partial failure of the control IC. I would have been tempted to open up a known working machine to compare the sensor signal. To me it seems as though the controller believes the motor is spinning faster than it actually is and so reducing the duty cycle accordingly. The sensor signal seems far too clean to be a direct feed from a hall sensor so I'm guessing there's some circuitry between the hall sensor and the signal line, especially if the signal is 5Hz, the motor surely spins faster than that. I'm guessing but I reckon there's a PWM controller in the motor that's taking an RC filtered input from the hall sensor and converting that to a PWM that's fed to the controller. Now hall sensors are somewhat fragile and seeing as the unit was making lots of RFI due to poor filtering, that can work both ways, allowing external RF into the unit. I guessing you pack some impressive transmit power there. Could it be that before the device failed, you were having a long distance TX on high power? Maybe that get in and fried the hall sensor making the PWM controller input go high?

Mr. Carlson, you are amazing. Thanks for another informative and well produced video. Your channel has inspired me to revisit the electronics class I took in engineering school almost 50 years ago. Looking forward to your next adventure.

A whole lot of care and consideration for a coffee maker that doesn't really deserve it. Well done Mr. Carlson. I would have probably given up after discovering the problem like you did.

Fanatic content. My Patreon contribution adds whole new dimension to my content enjoyment. Bravo, sir!

That was the most fun repair video I've seen in a while! I really like these off-topic, non-radio repairs once in a while, hope you do some more of them in the future.

How does the most laid back guy in the electronics universe own at least _three_ coffee makers?!!

who knew a coffee maker repair could be so interesting

Really enjoyable! I like your dedication. "Nothing leaves Mr. Calson's desk not working". Very creative solution :)

Again, fantastic overview of decoupling RF. In lieu of attempted DX radio listening, I have a great need for this, including automotive LED lamps that interfere with the FM band.

I just took one of these apart last Fall!! Couldn't figure it out, but I suspected the circuit board had an issue. Looking forward to this one ESPECIALLY since that broken coffee machine is still waiting in my garage. Thanks for the content. Keep up the good work. BS'D

I'm a shortwave enthusiast with a number of receivers with SSB and I have to tell you lad, I would not be happy. Thanks for the great content. Bloody brilliant in fact.

It's been enjoyable to watch. Great job as always!

God, I love this channel! I must get back into it and finish my project. 🇬🇧👍

Hi Mr Carlson. I like these repair vids 👍

Mr Carlson, you are amazing. Today you found a cure for a swolen prostate restricting flow.

Love your videos!! I call you the Bob Ross of Eloctronics!! Dont take it personal its a compliment on how you present your work and your tone. Thanks!!

Another one for my favorite list. Many thanks Paul. I just love to see things being fixed and improved. And your knowledge on electrical/electronic equipment is amazing. It would be fun to know a little bit about your educational and professional background. Maybe one day you will tell us something about that? Best wishes everyone. Stay safe🌈

Very fun repair! I’ve been working on a project where I want to override a timing signal in a similar way and the solution I’ve been playing with is very similar to yours. Seeing your video suggests I may be on the right track.

I love how whenever I get busy with work and my own projects and I don't have time to watch any videos for a while, I come back to a handful of really good videos every time :D

A great video Paul. I have never seen inside these machines and I was surprised at its construction. Toy motors for the pumps with inbuilt sensors that make replacing with a generic motor almost impossible. I admire your determination to make it work. Of course this repair would cost way more than the machine price, but it’s great to see it being done. I make my coffee by using a century old hand grinder I found on the dump which I repaired. I put the ground coffee in the cup pour on boiling water stir and wait five minutes, just as they do in many arabic countries Great coffee.

I think the frothing bit at the end is actually just clearing liquid out of the lines, otherwise the spent kcup would make a huge mess when you pull it out to throw it away (it would also avoid starting the next brew with however much room temp water is contained in the lines).

Paul, I restore vintage electronics and have been plagued with this same RFI problem from the same Keurig coffeemaker for almost 2 years, without having an effective solution. And you've nailed it! Great! Thank You!

You’re a genius, I can smell the coffee.

Serial Debug? I wonder if the parameters can be changed through that! Great video as always. Nice to see your approach with a modern device. Thanks :)

I expect to see you working with valves and tubes, but this was unexpected. And fascinating.

Outstanding. Just in time for the Oscars! Awesome.

Just wow. I've dreamt of being that good at repairing electronic equipment. The theory is simple; a FET switched motor on the ground side, using a PWM to vary the speed of the motor, mixed with the signal from a Mask-ROM pre-programmed micro-controller which has become partially corrupted. But to actually test that theory then design and build a PCB and fit it - that's the bit that really impresses me. Thanks again for another great video.