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Barri, thank you for the great review! I think we can all imagine a Decent somewhere in the future.
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Back in Hong Kong
Back in June 2019, Bugs and I left Hong Kong for what was supposed to be 9 months of intense outreach (many, many cafe demos on road trips), and several big trade shows. We managed to be at World of Coffee in Berlin, and CoffeeFest New York, and then covid happened. Trade shows we had booked in Brooklyn and Portland were cancelled. Talk about bad timing.
To compensate for the closures, I've been doing regular Zoom calls which anyone can join, and they feel like they're actually much more impactful than trade shows.
We've been living in California since February, waiting for "covid to blow over". That didn't happen. I applied to be a HK Resident, so that Bugs and I could get back there, and be back among all the staff we left to run the show while we were gone. That paperwork was approved 10 days ago. HK is only letting residents in, to try to control covid.
The flight from California to HK was 13 hours long, plus two hours of immigration, and multiple checks. Mandatory (but free) covid tests. 10 hours waiting in a big converted trade show hall in HK. After landing at 5:10am, at 7pm we were allowed to go to our rented apartment when we got stamped proof of covid-freeness.
We now have a "StayHomeSafe" HK government app running on Bugs' iPhone, tracking us via bluetooth enabled wristbands. We're in a strict quarantine for two weeks, in a very pleasant place called "Happy Valley". Waiting now for our first coffee in days to be delivered, from the earliest delivery that would come (9:30am sigh) but a very nice pastry https://www.passionbygd.com/ . It'll just be Illy beans, but I'm ok with compromising at this point.
We ran out of coffee beans 2 days before leaving California. Both Bugs and I immediately got day-long headaches, from caffeine withdrawal. We're now fully detoxed, and ready to up our caffeine levels again!
At 11:30am, Coffee Academics opens up, and they deliver. They're on some of the "top 10 worldwide best cafes" lists, so we're not at all unhappy with that choice. Plus, 5 years ago when we started Decent Espresso here in HK, Coffee Academics was our local, at the hotel where all of us were living, so it's great to come full circle, to an old friend https://www.the-coffeeacademics.com/
-john
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Future drip tray design
Ben has been working on a new drip tray design, to enable easier integration of a scale placed underneath, out of the way.
Besides being a little bit shorter, there is a cutout space for the drip tray cover to come up and around.
like so:
We'd like to make this part using a new process for us: ceramic coated aluminum. This is the same stuff you might have seen in camping gear stores.
It's still ceramic, so it has the same food safety and longevity as our current drip trays.
However, the shape and strength is defined by a cast aluminium inner. This makes it much more resistant to breakage, thinner, and lighter.
This'll mean :- more accurate weighing of your espresso,
- less worry about breakage,
- better fit on the DE1 (due to tighter tolerances)
- about 1kg (2.2lbs) lower weight, for easier transportation of your DE1
- and better fit with the current stainless-steel drip tray cover design (less wiggle) due to better tolerances.
- a plumbable version will have a hole on the far side (not the center) so that an under-tray drip pan can be used which doesn't get in the way of the scale. This will allow a scale to be used even in plumbed-in situations.
- We're having a difficult time finding an affordable supplier. Manufacturers are very nervous about taking on new clients at the moment, due to all around global uncertainty. I think we'll eventually get there, but it's going to take some time.
- The hope is to have this for early 2021. It will (of course) work on all DE1 historical models and be available at a reasonable price, on our web site.
- Hopefully some of the people who make existing Scale adaptors, will come out with versions that work with this new drip tray model. I'll be sending free samples of this new part, to those who have design drip tray adaptors, to encourage this.
- Note that we're planning on making the water tank out of this process as well. That's how we get 1kg (2.2lbs) of weight reduction, as our 2 liter-capable water tank, being made of porcelain, is fairly heavy.
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Just curious (I may have missed the discussion elsewhere), why does a drip tray need to be made from food safe materials? Isn't it's contents always just tipped down the sink? -
Because eco minded people drain the water from their drip tray into their garden plants. I never want anything on the Decent to taint the water.
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Does anyone know if a software patch could expand the brew temp ceiling beyond 99 C, by totally turning off the cool water jet to zero pulsing, thus taking the brew water temp up to the 110 C that natively comes out of the hot water jet? Note that water under pressure does not boil at 100 C, but instead at some higher temp, and we have gotten amazing shots by running a GS3's brew at exactly 110 C.Comment
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An Insight about different espresso recipes
by charting the first derivative of the puck resistance
"Puck resistance" is a concept I added to the DE1 a few months ago, but we’ve been struggling a bit to understand what to do with the information.
Collin Arneson yesterday posted an interesting writeup arguing for the 1st derivative of the puck resistance number. This is a chart of the change in puck resistance.
This number shows us when puck integrity falls apart, regardless of flow rate or pressure changes that might obscure that trend.
What I found interesting was that it’s also a way to compare espressos recipes.
Those recipes that result in linear puck degradation should make better tasting.
The author’s tests with Rao’s Blooming seems to confirm this. Pucks hold up better after a 30 seconds bloom, and degrade in a cleaner fashion.
-john
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Zoom call: all about the Decent Tablet app
Bugs and I are in quarantine in Hong Kong for another 10 days, and I'm without a DE1. So.... while I'm happy to host a Zoom call, I can't make any coffee. So...
I do have access to the Decent app on my Mac and can "share screen" so I can do a "focus on the Decent App" zoom call topic.
My thinking is that I'd
- walk through every screen of the Insight Skin
- and all the Settings pages pages
- the ❤️ section,
- God shots,
- Your Setup,
- exporting CSV to Excel,
- and whatever questions people have about the app.
If Damian is available, he will do a complete walk through all the DSX skin features.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84187338701 - Meeting ID: 841 8733 8701
- August 1 - Saturday 6pm (pacific USA time)
- August 1 - Saturday 9pm (east coast USA time)
- August 2 - Sunday 9am (Hong Kong time)
- August 2 - Sunday 11am (Melbourne time)
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Here's a Youtube video capture of the zoom call from today, covering the decent tablet app.
FYI you can download the app for free, and run it on Windows/Mac/Linux
https://decentespresso.com/downloads
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I have just discovered on a you tube comment that you will no longer be making the cafe model that will brew and steam at the same time. And no more mirrored panels. I had my heart set on both. Considering the amount of shiny espresso machines in existence I find it odd that China cannot produce this kind of panel easily. Such a shame. Will the new 2200 watt version you are bringing out start the shot in two seconds still? Or does that remain 10 seconds?Comment
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As I understand most of the machines with a mirror finish have a chrome plating applied to the steel panels. Decent was trying to polish the metal to a mirror finish, which is in another league of difficulty and quality of the finished product. Now, why they were trying to do this instead of chrome plating (besides having a much better finish of course), is beyond me. -
No, this is not correct.
We were buying mirrored stainless panels. And then bending and cutting them to shape. That offers much superior optical quality to chrome, since the goal is using the surface as an optical mirror.
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That is correct, we are not attempting to make a machine that can steam and brew at the same time. Our technology for temperature control does not allow for multiple streams of water at the same time.Originally posted by FineGrind View Post
However, we are working on a cafe model, with even more powerful steam. The v1.3 firmware has dropped the time to steam 200ml of milk from 47s to around 32s for me, with a cold pitcher. 27s thereafter.
We expect the cafe model will half that time again.
We have new firmware in testing that uses both the hot water heater, and the steam heater, to make steam. That stabilizes the output further, as the hot water heater gives 95ºC water to the steam heater instead of room temp water. That will be released, for free, for all machine models, in a few weeks.
This opens the door for our planned 220V only cafe version, which will not only use both heaters to make steam, but will bump up the wattage for each heater to 2300W (up from 1500W).
Most every cafe that uses our machines has 2 or 3 of them, so that steam-during-brew is not an essential feature for them.
Note that as always, you can steam immediately after your shot ends.
Most shiny machines you see are chromed, but not mirrored. Mirrored means an optically acceptable mirror image you can use to watch the shot. It's not easy to do.Originally posted by FineGrind View Post
At any rate, we do have mirrored lips, which are on the DE1PRO and DE1XL models. But we make these now by gluing a die cut mirror onto the panel itself.
It looks like this:
All machine models can now start shots almost immediately. They also stop immediately and are ready to start again right away.Originally posted by FineGrind View Post
I say "almost immediate" because we do also now offer the ability to ramp the pump speed up to preinfusion speed before the shot starts, sending that water to the tank, so that when the valve flips, the flow rate is already at the goal speed. That makes for slightly faster preinfusion, as there's no pump ramp up needed.
This was aall firmware upgrade we released a few weeks ago.
I demonstrate that feature here on a zoom call, with a 110V machine, and explain the various options:
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In regards to wanting shiny steel, I am talking about the front panel which only needs to be shiny stainless steel. I am not talking about the mirror you view your shot with. I am wondering why the whole front panel can't be shiny instead of brushed only.Comment
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If you mean, "why can't we make a chromed front panel, and then glue a mirror on the lip" ? The answer is we could. We made one, and it looked terrible. Mixing two different levels of mirrored did not look good.Originally posted by FineGrind View Post
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Thx John that is what I was wanting to know. Looked terrible huh, didn't see that coming. Oh well brushed it is then
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We're at the end of our final "push" to try 10 more vendors, to see if anyone can achieve success. So far, 8 out of 10 have failed. 2 look promising with failure rates under 50% for 10 samples.Originally posted by FineGrind View PostThx John that is what I was wanting to know. Looked terrible huh, didn't see that coming. Oh well brushed it is then.
The problem is that getting a perfect mirror surface cut and bent is not easy. Here are two typical small defects that cause us to throw away this panel. It's an eco (and econo) disaster to make something and throw away 90% of them.
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Short Decent Funnel
We've made a few prototypes of a shorter version of our funnel. Still aluminum, but these now have magnets to hold the funnel in place.
The shorter height of this model works well in cases where there's not much space between the portafilter and coffee ground exit chute.
We've specifically measured this funnel to work with the Niche grinder, and our double spouted portafilter stand. https://decentespresso.com/portafilter_stand
Our current funnel design doesn't fit with the Niche if you use our taller stand, which you'd use for double spouted portafilters.
I'll be testing these next week.
-john
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Slayer's preinfusion flow rate
I have always wondered if the Slayer factory was calibrating their preinfusion flow rate (via their needle valve), and if so, to what setting?
I happened across a Slayer maintenance FAQ this morning, that gives the answer:
https://desk.zoho.com/portal/slayer/...te-calibration
Step 6: Prebrew flow rate should be set to 40g-60g/30 seconds. If the output is more than 60 grams, turn prebrew knob clockwise to tighten. If the output is less than 40 grams, turn prebrew knob counter clockwise to loosen.
So that's a flow rate calibration between 1.33ml/s and 2ml/s.
Based on recipe times I'd found on the internet, and my own tests, I set our "Innovative long preinfusion" profile (which comes with the DE1) to default to 1.5ml/s:
For me, with an 18g dose, that gives me 37 seconds of preinfusion before the first drip comes out. That seemed in line with the 30s to 40s recommendations I'd seen for this style of espresso.
I am going to test speeding up the default flow rate for this recipe to 1.6 ml/s on the DE1, so that it's right in the middle of Slayer's recommended range.
-john
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