How difficult was it? I keep talking myself into and out of buying a Decent machine, but if I could get some of the functionality with LESS expense, I may be interested.
It was not too bad. I finished it on two afternoons over a weekend. And I don’t have a lot of experience with electronics. I do recommend having a multimeter on hand to check the connections.
The documentation is not perfect, but the people behind the project are constantly improving it. Also, they are very helpful on discord (even though I cannot stand discord as a platform).
some links for people wanting more info about the project:
And I just saw there even is a version for the Rancilio Silvia !
Thanks. I forgot to add links to the project.
Did you choose the kit? Pro or standard? How do you feel about the results vs manual operation? I’ve been on the fence about it because I’d want the pro model and that’s half the price of my classic. But, if this brings it to the level of its $2k sibling GT, that definitely seems worth it.
I chose the kit. It was just easier this way. I got the pro because I think that the price difference between the pro and the normal is pretty small.
For the results I definitely see an improvement. Probably mainly from the more stable temperature. I’m also excited to try the pressure profiling. So far I have not tried it. I can say that the espresso from it is at least as good good as that from the la Cimbali we have at work.
I’ve got my kit, just haven’t gotten around to installing it yet!
Edit: also worth noting for others that this system is FOSS, unlike Gaggiuno, which went closed source. That’s why I chose it.
Yes, that was also my main reason for choosing GaggiMate.
Looks cool but what is the purpose of this? There are no controls for setting temperature or pressure on this model, so isn’t it kind of useless?
It looks to me like it added them, no?
Edit: Yep.
exactly that’s the whole point of the mod. GaggiMate adds PID temperature control and a pressure transducer (“Pro” version only). The devs are actively working on the software and are releasing updates pretty much every week.
Yes. Since last weekend the pressure profiles work in the stable version.
Oh wow, didn’t realize the mod did this! Very cool
