Crunch Time!

Time to pick the pace back up!

I may have mentioned it before that the pourover project came out of a currently on going project that was struggling to launch. What I may not have mentioned is that I made a bet with someone that I could make a cup of coffee with a robot before another backer of the other project. That was actually before I bowed out of the other brewer and started TipsyBrew. Well... it appears as if the other project is turning a corner and units may have shipped. This fantastic news for the backers and I really do want that project to succeed.

But this puts the crunch on my bet! Yes it is only for a bag of beans, but I love a challenge. It would seem that units are going to start hitting doorsteps THIS Monday. So is it possible to win this bet?

Difficulties

I know this is my first update in a little while. Work has been nuts and the pourover work has been bumpy with very little positive progress.

  1. The peristaltic pump is going to need to go through a few revisions to really get competitive. Luckily a generous discord user previously sent me a commercial diaphragm pump. That is what I am using while working on peristaltic pumps as a backup. This means I need to work on a DC motor driver though. The diaphragm at 100% speed appears a bit too fast.
  2. The damn cheap LCD keypad shield may have been a poor decision. I should have known better but a big focus of mine has been making the end product as approachable as possible for amateur tinkerers. However I am suddenly having all sorts of weird issues with it. The arduino is randomly freezing up. The buttons are randomly registering as the wrong buttons. These problems don't always happen so it doesn't seem to be code issues. On top of that the LCD portion uses way more pins than alternatives. I may raid the parts bin to see if I have a suitable alternative.
  3. I have a job and a family. I am human. And I am about ten minutes away from falling asleep as I write this. Stuff happens.

The Plan

Fucking win. I'm not just giving up. I've got a lot of work already invested in this. My wife has been telling me to clear all the junk off the bar for like a month now. To her credit, I don't think she knows what I am doing. She hasn't asked either though. I think she gave up fighting my project habits years ago.

I am aiming for phase 1/2. Phase 1 is temperature control, flow control, weight, and some sort of water spread. Phase 1/2 is flow control and weight. I think I can make coffee with that. Let's find out... in the morning, because I am tired.