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Update #26: A Tisket, a Tasket, a Really Awesome Basket
Hi Kickstarters,
Since we last met, we’ve put in initial orders for all of the parts needed to make the first set of 10 prototypes, and sent off our CAD models for the custom parts, so we’re gearing up to begin test model assembly as the packages trickle in. At this point, we’re still on track with the schedule we laid out in the last update - yay!
VST Precision Filter Baskets Will Come Standard with our Machine!
We’re proud to announce that all ZPM machines (except those who opted for the ESE-pod baskets) will ship with a 20g VST precision portafilter basket - the same used in this year’s World Barista Championship in Vienna.
We’re pretty excited, and you should be, too! VST precision filter baskets represent everything we’re about: innovative design and careful engineering in the service of our favorite beverage.
Those of you who have heard of VST baskets will be stoked. For anyone who hasn’t: VST precision baskets are one of espresso’s “next big things.” An irregular portafilter basket can cause channeling and uneven extraction in your puck, no matter how perfect your technique is. VST uses a new manufacturing method to make precision holes that are way more standardized than those you might find in your typical portafilter basket. And their Digital Filter Imaging System allows them to individually test each basket for hole size, circularity and uniformity, as well as total open area. (You get a printout of the test results for your individual basket, which is pretty sweet!) They’ve even engineered the extraction yield performance for each basket size to ensure optimal brewing. (See an early rundown, and a compilation of VST press.)
VST’s filters have been adopted by the world’s top cafes, specialty roasters and World Barista Champions. You’ll also find them standard in great machines like the La Marzocco Strada, the Kees van der Westen Spirit and Nuova Simonelli’s new Aurelia II T3. Oh, yeah, and the ZPM Nocturn.
They’re a bit pricier than your average basket - retailing for around $30 - but we figured we couldn’t skimp on the last thing that touches your espresso before your lips. Why engineer all of this control into a machine, only to leave the basket quality to chance?
We’re always on the lookout for more places where we can stamp it out, and the VST baskets are another step in the right direction. Now when you get a sub-par shot, you’ve no one to blame but yourself.
In order for us to be able to offer this pro-grade add-on to your orders, we are only offering the 20g basket. (You can always expand your VST basket collection by going straight to VST.)
Change of Screen
We know the elimination of the analog gauge was a little disappointing, but we’ve replaced it with a full-color 3.5 inch, 320px X 240px LCD display. We were having a hard time cramming the timer, temperature and pressure on the brew screen with our previous screen pick. This bad boy gives you plenty of space to display all of your desired brew parameters, make data animations, run your LOLcats screensaver - you know, the kitchen-appliance necessities.
Here’s a render of the new front panel, complete with LED-lit buttons, accurately sized d-pad and the new 3.5 in. LCD:
We’re closing in on our final UI design, and we’ve started a thread where we’ll post architecture, screen mockups, and other UI-related odds and ends as we get them. This is a great place for you to make suggestions (nothing’s set in stone yet), or just start familiarizing yourself with the way the menus will (probably) be laid out on the machine.
Screen mockups to come!
All $10 and $25 Rewards Have Shipped
We shipped all of the $10 and $25 rewards about a month ago, and tracking numbers say they’ve all arrived. We hope you’re enjoying our tokens of gratitude! If you’re not yet, but you feel you should be, drop us an email (info@zpmespresso.com).
Love,
Gleb, Igor, Rachel & Janet
Update #25: Time for a Timeline
Hi Backers,
Remember us? We know it’s been a while, but between SCAA Portland (great to meet all the backers who were there!) and lots of behind-the-scenes work, we just couldn’t find the time to write! But don’t fret, this missive here is packed chock full of info.
Want an Encore?
(This is mainly news for visitors to this page, rather than current backers. It’s also the last we expect to be posting about pre-orders here. All future info on pre-orders can be found on our website.)
A lot of you have sent emails or started threads on the forum asking for a less expensive grinder that performs at fine espresso grinds. The Encore is a brand-new addition to the Baratza line, and it’s basically the first decently priced grinder that performs admirably at espresso settings. We’re happy to be able to offer a Nocturn + Baratza Encore combo (and the grinder all by itself, for those of you who just love us that much).
Our current plan is to offer pre-orders until production is up and running, but once machines start rolling off the line we’ll tick over to full retail mode, so get ‘em while they last!
Calling in the Big Guns
Gleb and Igor have returned from their sojourn into the noble...well, it was still the South, but a whole different state. In Kentucky, they spent three days at the manufacturing facility/assembly house we’ll be using, working through much of the design. They discussed scheduling, tooling, optimizing for manufacture, and a few key design components. They worked out a few bugs, like figuring out how to set the wastewater tube so the drip tray can be lifted out vertically instead of at an angle, and got some professional input on revising our production timeline given the issues we’ve encountered and where we are now.
These guys have a lot of experience in manufacturing, and we’re really excited to be working with them and getting the benefit of their vast experience.
Wibbly Wobbly Timeliney Wimey
What’s been up with you guys in the past month or so? Anything cool? We’ll start: we’ve been tweaking. Tweaking the water path; tweaking the front panel; tweaking the UI...basically tweaking everything. As you might imagine, there are a thousand tiny details - from determining the exact path of wastewater into the drip tray, to sorting out the best way to insulate the screen and circuit board from moisture and heat - and, unsurprisingly, they’re taking a bit longer than we’d hoped. Another important factor has been building everything with UL/CE/NSF certifications in mind.
This means more up-front work, but hopefully better machines out of the gate.
Now let’s talk schedule. We’re spending a few more weeks in the design phase. In part, this is because of a huge number of problems we’ve had with the parts we’ve been getting for prototyping. As any of you who have gone through major online electronics retailers - or better yet, the ‘Shack - know, these parts tend to be very faulty, and we’ve even run into several with completely wrong specs! Needless to say, these aren’t the industrial suppliers we’ll be using for our ultimate machines, but they’re the parts we have available, and they’ve been dragging us down. Now that we’re collaborating with an assembly house, we have access to much more reliable parts, so this portion of the design should be moving right along.
We’re also expecting a delay in tooling for various parts. We’re now being quoted at 8-12 weeks rather than the original 2-4 week estimate - which is kind of a bummer.
These delays are unfortunate, but not completely unforeseen, based on what we know of other projects like this one. They also represent a lot more time being spent on absolutely perfecting the design and failure/safety testing of the machines, which, you know, is kind of important to us, and hopefully to you, too!
Don’t be too sad: initial production may be delayed, but the good news is that we expect to put machines out much faster than previously estimated. The assembly house should have a production capacity of around 300 machines/month, so though we’ll be starting later, we’ll be getting machines out a lot faster than we originally estimated.
What follows is a tentative schedule of the coming months. This is pretty much “for informational purposes only,” as we want to give you guys an idea of what the overall trajectory of the project is between now and go time. Ballpark, not gospel. If there was one major takeaway from talking to the manufacturers we met at SCAA, it was that every single project in the history of manufacturing gets delayed.
With that in mind, here’s a tentative timeline:
Next 2 weeks:
- Milling what we hope will be the final revision of the thermoblock.
- Writing up our final bill of materials and getting final quotes, and sending off all of our orders for parts and tooling. Tooling will take between 4-12 weeks, depending on the part.
- Working on the circuit board and putting the finalized prototype together, ready to take some video of a few quality shots and get some data out on temperature and pressure stability.
- Designing the packaging.
- Designing the user interface.
May/June:
- Setting up tooling, getting parts and lining everything up for our first production samples.
- Coding, coding, coding. We’ll complete the circuit board design and coding (the circuit board has a very quick turn-around time). This includes working on self-test protocols for the production machines, and setting up testing protocols to run on the first 20 machines to make sure everything is safe, secure and reliable.
- Receiving our first 10-20 production machines.
July/August:
- Test, test and test again. We’ll be putting those first machines through their paces, pulling as many shots as possible on them and running them through safety, stability and usability protocols to programmatically identify (and correct) flaws. Of course, this step can take a variable amount of time depending on the problems we discover and the complexity of correcting them.
September:
- Full-scale production at ~300 machines/month!
- Once production is running smoothly, we’ll be looking at the modifications and parts sourcing for the 240V machines.
As always, all of this is subject to delays, so take with a big ol’ grain of salt - but we wanted to give you a better idea of what we’re all looking at.
Design Notes
- We’re replacing the steam lever with a pushbutton. This gives you a little less control of the steam via the lever, but it does streamline the internal plumbing, which means that it reduces a lot of potential failure points (and we’re into that). Also, it’ll be fairly easy to implement a steam profiling tool in software that allows you to control the steam pressure that way. If you prefer, it’s also possible to perform a mod yourself to add a pressure-sensitive push button.
- We’ve eliminated the analog pressure gauge. We thought it looked nice on the front, and gave the machine a really balanced and familiar look (as you see analog gauges on many other machines). But the thing is, it doesn’t really serve a function, since the more accurate digital pressure is read from a separate pressure transducer. Eliminating the analog gauge frees up a little capital to reinvest into other components that will directly affect extraction quality, and also simplifies the internal plumbing.
- Bigger screen, bigger button. Nixing the gauge also frees up space on the front of the machine, so we’ll be looking for a bigger screen and navigation button.
Lots of love,
Igor, Gleb, Janet and Rachel
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James Olney on April 30
@Gleb Polyakov and Igor Zamlinsky - is there a mailing list I can subscribe to so I will hear about future updates posted on the website?
Thanks for the update, great to hear it's coming along. -
Gleb Polyakov and Igor Zamlinsky on April 30
@James We have a newsletter signup on our homepage (www.zpmespresso.com), but the best way to get notified of new Kickstarter updates is to subscribe to the RSS feed. At the top(ish) of this page there's a "Get updates via RSS" link, which you can click to take you to the RSS feed. You can then subscribe to that by email (in Safari it's in the right-hand bar) to get automatic updates.
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Jan Rod on May 3
Disappointing news with the design. Reasons for eliminating the pressure gauge are understandable (no real functionality - there it goes), but the lever and "analogue" control of the steam is a big bummer. Any new renders how the design will actually look after these changes?
Good luck with the design progress!
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Update #24: Backer Cartography and Other News
NOTE: For any updates to your survey (address or order preferences), please fill out the Survey Correction Form instead of emailing. While we’ll try to keep your emails straight, the form is the best way to get your changes in our “system.”
Dearest Everybody,
This was a big week for us here at ZPM. First, we had Igor here in Atlanta for an action-packed week of meetings with the GUI designer, parts suppliers and manufacturers to hammer out some more details. Then, we got a few new parts to play with!
New Shells, New Colors
We got our second round of shells this week, in four new and sassy colors! (The colors are not necessarily the final versions we’ll be using - but that’s a nice orange, isn’t it?). Each sample - in addition to being a different color - has been made in a slightly different way, as we try to find ways to cut cost on the shell (currently our only over-budget part). The differences are in the way they’re welded together.
Longer welding surfaces = more labor = higher cost.
In response, we’ve changed the shell design to minimize welded surfaces by reducing the number of stamped pieces from which the shell is made. The original was 7, and we now have these down to 3 pieces in a variety of configurations.
These also look a lot cleaner because we were able to work out the proper allowances for bending and painting, so edges line up much more cleanly and the top piece sits flush on the base section.
*More pictures on Facebook and G+.
Design Notes
-Toggles v. Momentary Switches
Our current design has toggle-type rocker switches for the steam/brew and pump on/off functions, as is common in familiar home espresso machines. We like them because they give you that really satisfying sensation of physical ‘switching.’ However, this creates an interface design problem when you add the shot-timing function (and in a few other circumstances where the pump has to automatically cut off).
If you’re using the internal timer to stop your shot, you end up with the pump on/off switch in the “on” position, even though the pump is off. This makes for a sloppy and potentially confusing design.
So, it looks like we’ll be going with a momentary pushbutton switch, similar to what’s seen here. They have an expensive feel, even if they do take us in a different direction from the ‘rustic charm’ thing we had going.
-Thermoblock Casting
We also talked about the best way to produce the thermoblocks. In the beginning, we had planned to sand cast the blocks and then mill them down, because setting up a foundry and getting a CNC mill were things we could do on a relatively small scale. Sand casting doesn’t let you get many of the fine details or precision necessary for the block, so you have to do a significant amount of milling. This was fine with us - because our labor is worth nothing - but given the current scale, we’ve been searching out better methods of block production.
We then went to die casting, which involves making a much sturdier steel die, and allows for casting of much finer features, thus reducing the tooling and labor costs. This week, the consultant suggested shell-mold casting. This involves making a resin-covered sand mold, and yields precision parts with higher productivity and lower labor costs. We also found a facility (still in the US) that can do essentially all steps of the production process, from casting to assembly to packaging.
-Thermoblock Design
We’ve been making tweaks to a series of prototype thermoblocks over the past months, but we think the next will be our last. It will incorporate the new check valve design Igor came up with (mentioned last time), along with a few more optimizations to the water path. It will also include the revised position of the temperature sensor, which will run through the side of the block.
Once this is machined and thoroughly tested, we’ll be ready to make the production molds of that.
Where in the world are our backers?We did up a little map of our backers, for your viewing pleasure. A few numbers:
- We have backers from 33 countries. The most backers are from the US (go figure), Canada, Australia, Germany and the UK.
- 90% of you are male.
- Over half of you are between the ages of 28 and 43.
- 34% of you are engineers or computer science professionals.
- There’s an interesting split between surgeons who “cut people open,” and surgeons who “sew people back together.”
So basically, we’re all over the place. Mostly. Greenland, we’re coming for you next.
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David Pereira on April 8
This was a fantastic update. My friends are flying through greenland again this summer (http://flyms.org/index.html) let them know if you want to set up a photo op.
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Richard L. Hill III on April 8
I like the momentary pushbutton switches! It definitely adds to the overall class of the machine.
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Update #23: No News is Good News
Hi Kickstarters & Co.,
So we’ll be straight with you: if you’re looking for earth-shattering information, this is not your update. We don’t have any big news, but we know we’re due (and we just can’t keep ourselves out of your inboxes for nearly two weeks - it just doesn’t feel right). Here are a few snapshots from the recent past, and a preview of the coming week:
All eyes on you
Eleven boxes of shot glasses arrived on our doorstep today, and they look pretty sweet. We hope you find them to be worthy vessels for all of your liquid creations.
Now that we have t-shirts and shot glasses, we can start sending out our $10 and $25 pledge rewards! Those will start shipping this week and next week, so start getting friendly with your mailman or -lady.
If you are in the $10 or $25 reward levels and you have not responded to the survey, you can either complete it right this second, or just send your address and Kickstarter username to info@zpmespresso.com. If we do not know your address, we cannot send things to your address (#logic).
School’s (almost) out for summer!
As you know, at the outset of this project, Igor was working in the DREAMS lab at Virginia Tech. He’s finally been able to close out his projects (any of you who’ve worked in a lab know that this can be a long, long process), and will be moving to Atlanta for the summer! This means no more, “Gleb and Janet are in Atlanta meeting with people, but Igor’s in Virginia keeping all the machine’s charms to himself.”
Igor rolled into Atlanta last night for a week of meetings, and will be transitioning to Hotlanta (yes, everyone here absolutely calls it that) over the next couple of weeks. Rachel’s also planning on moseying on down for the summer once her grad classes finally terminate themselves.
One big happy ZPM family, together at last!
What was that weird picture you posted?
For those of you following along on Twitter/Facebook/Google+, you saw that we posted a picture earlier this week of a crazy-looking contraption, which fell somewhere between a warp drive component and an 80’s bangle. Well, it’s really a wave spring, and it’s part of a new check valve design Igor’s been working on. We’ll be testing it out in our next iteration of the thermoblock, but the simulations we’ve run show that it’s going to produce a much more even flow pattern through the dispersion screen.
Here at ZPM, we believe in treating every granule equally. If this works, it should result in much more even flow through the puck, which brings us that much closer to the perfect pour.
We’ve also made progress on the shell design. Our first shell was 7 pieces of metal, over budget, and not optimized for manufacturing at scale. We’ve since changed the design to get it down to 3 pieces, which is great. We’ve also eliminated the slot on top for pouring (didn’t work as planned), and instead incorporated the tilt-back tank for easy refill. The redesign puts us much closer to budget on the shell, without compromising on materials, function or feel.
The leaky sensor gets the gasketEarlier we encountered some issues (a few times, including once right before we were supposed to do some Scace work at B&B - fun!) with leaking through the sensor leads, which looked hilarious, but was pretty concerning. In part, that was because the port for the pressure sensor came down through the top of the thermoblock and through the gasket to its position near the channel. We couldn’t get a tight enough gasket seal to prevent water from leaking into this port, and that’s what was causing water to travel up through the leads and spurt half-way across the room.
We’ve now moved around several things in the block to make space for the pressure sensor to enter through the side of the block. This means it doesn’t pass through the gasket, and isn’t exposed to the possibility of leaks. So, basically...crushed that problem.
Menus, menus, menus
It’s a feat to get all these options crammed into a machine with a d-pad and two toggles, but we’ll manage, with the help of our awesome user interface designer! We met with him last night to go over the various menus and submenus, and we think we’ve got some pretty sexy UI features in store. A little taste: we’re thinking of having an option to toggle between the live temperature digits and a live graph of the temperature and pressure displayed on the screen during an extraction. Is your mind blown yet?
When we get farther along, we’ll post some sample screens on the forum for comment.
We’re still on schedule!
Which is to say, nothing has yet put us off schedule. We’ve gotten a few emails over the past week asking when the machines will be delivered, so we just want to let you know that we’re still chugging along, and according to our projected schedule for various design processes and parts delivery, we’re still slated to start shipping in May/June.
Which brings us to...
The coming days...
We have a few things scheduled for this week that should make for an informative update next weekend.
We know you’re all pretty concerned about schedule. (We are, too, trust us). We’ll be meeting with a manufacturing/production expert on Wednesday (tomorrow) to talk about the best assembly strategy, and to have him look over our parts sourcing and find any and all opportunities to streamline and optimize. We think this meeting is going to give us a much better sense of how best to get these things built and out the door.
We’ve also handed over a list of backers who ordered beans to Batdorf & Bronson. If you ordered beans, you’ll soon be contacted with the details on ordering your beans straight from the horse’s, er...roaster... - directly from them, is what we mean. As you may recall, we’ve set up a system that lets you go to their site and order your beans when you need them most, so we don’t end up watching a mountain of delicious Dancing Goats go stale in our garage (which, in any event, has pretty much reached capacity, what with all the t-shirts and shot glasses).
We’ll also be paying a visit to Advanced Metal Components on Friday to talk more about the shell design and hopefully pick up a second prototype.
Until next time,
ZPM Team
info@zpmespresso.com | Google+ | Facebook | Twitter | Site | Forum | Flickr
Update #22: Happy Pi Day! Here’s an Update
Hi Backers,
In celebration of Pi Day and our return from the wintery North, here's an update!
The Bestival Festival
We survived our first trade show! We spent this past weekend at Coffee Fest NYC 2012, a three-day bonanza of industry professionals, from Ghirardelli (peddling chocolates and syrups) to Wega (touting their Green Line machines, which were outfitted with color-changing track lighting). They had all come together under the capacious roof of the illustrious Javits Center in Manhattan. For those of you who were in attendance - we hope you stopped by! We met many of our backers, collaborators and well-wishers in person for the first time, and y’all are lovely.
We also spent a lot of time with Steve Rhinehart of Counter Talk, who did a great writeup of the weekend, and we’re featured on the FRSH/GRND Coffee Fest blog. For a photo tour of our Coffee Fest experience, see our Flickr album.
And a special shout-out to Astoria, who let us borrow a grinder to pull some shots. Thanks, guys!
500 pounds of ZPM t-shirts arrived on our doorstep this week, and we proudly sported them around Coffee Fest and the city of New York. Soon you, too, will be able to enjoy the same privilege - if you ordered a t-shirt. If you didn’t and you’re starting to get jealous, we’ll have the shirts available for order in our online store soon.
Pump it Up
We put in our order for ULKA EP5 pumps! They’re great pumps, ULKA is a great company, and we are...well, pumped.
All Good Things Come to an End
… And so too must our pre-order period. This doesn’t affect most of you directly, since you’ve already secured your spots, but if you know that you have friends and neighbors who are on the fence, let them know that the time has come to act boldly. As of 11:59 p.m. on March 20, we will no longer be taking pre-orders for the special prices of $349.99 for the Nocturn, $449.00 for the Baratza Vario Grinder, and $699.99 for the pair. After that, when we start taking orders again, it will be at full retail price (around $400). So come and get ‘em!
Happy Pi Day!
- ZPM Team
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Phil Montgomery on March 15
Great Update Guys!
Is there any way we can increase our pledge - I'd like to up from my machine pledge to include the grinder.
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Gleb Polyakov and Igor Zamlinsky on March 18
@Phil Send an email to info@zpmespresso.com with the reward level you want to switch to, and we'll send a PayPal invoice for the difference. Thanks!
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Florian on March 18
@ZPM team: I've got that problem im Apple Mail (5.2 in the latest Lion version) and in my webmail client roundcube (http://roundcube.net/), which of course just uses the browser rendering. And yes, updates like #20 without pictures are fine.
But actually, I'm not sure if that problem is worth getting much attention – the first thing I do when receiving the update is scrolling to the bottom and clicking on the "View this update on Kickstarter" link :)
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1,546
Backers
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on January 20.
Pledge $1 or more Pledge $1 or more
And they say you can’t get good coffee for $1 anymore! But your $1 is getting us that much closer to great at-home espresso - we couldn’t do it without you! A hearty thanks, and we’ll put your name on our website. Every dollar counts!
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
Shot glasses are more than just cute miniature versions of regular glasses - they’re great for your espresso, for your liquor, for growing tiny plants in...With a $10 pledge you get shot glasses with our logo! Just use responsibly.
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
Coffee is great for warming you up on a chilly day, but sometimes you need to take it to the next level and put on some clothes. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered (literally! - you like that?). Enjoy one of our cozy, and stylish, ZPM T-shirts. And the shot glasses are all yours, too.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
Our machines do a lot of the work of making perfect espresso, but you’ve got to help out too. To show our gratitude, we’re making it as easy as possible by giving you the tools you require - namely, a fancy-schmancy tamper for all your tamping needs (probably just espresso, but who knows?). Add that to the t-shirt and shot glasses, and you’ll be sitting pretty.
Pledge $75 or more Pledge $75 or more
There’s no better feeling than unwrapping a box of presents - except maybe the feeling of playing with a bunch of presents. Forgive us for spoiling the surprise, but here’s what you’ll be getting from us: a shot glass, a t-shirt, a tamper, and your very own bag of artisan coffee beans. With our box of gifts, it’ll feel like Christmas in...whatever month you get your box of gifts!
Pledge $200 or more Pledge $200 or more
For a $200 pledge, you’re pre-ordering one of our very first machines, a $400 retail value! It can be hard to be one of the first to brave new frontiers, but don’t worry - there’s no river-crossings or dysentery in store for you, just awesome home-brewed espresso.
Pledge $250 or more Pledge $250 or more
If you want to boldly brew as you’ve never brewed before, this is your level. For $250, you’ll receive everything you need to craft the perfect espresso - one of our first machines, a bag of artisan coffee beans, shot glasses, and a tamper. And you can savor it while wearing one of our t-shirts. A $470 value!
Pledge $300 or more Pledge $300 or more
So you didn't manage to snag one of our $200 reward level machines and now you're sitting around all bummed out. Well, buck up, my friend, because we're not going to abandon you. For $300, you can still pre-order a machine. And our later machines will incorporate any user feedback we get from the early birds - so sometimes it pays to wait.
Pledge $350 or more Pledge $350 or more
We know you were just dying to pledge at our $250 reward level, but, you know, a lot of stuff came up, what with the holidays and TV being so good lately, and you never got around to it...and now it's sold out! Fear not, dear backer. You can still pledge to get our machine and box of goodies that includes shot glasses, t-shirt, espresso tamper, and a bag of artisan roasted coffee beans; a $470 dollar retail value! They'll arrive a little later, but the anticipation is half the fun.
Pledge $675 or more Pledge $675 or more
So you know you want our espresso machine - great! But you also know you'll have a hard time tamping whole beans. We're in the business of solving problems, so let us help you out. For $675, you get our machine AND a Baratza Vario grinder (a $869 value)! Grind away! (This is a 120V/US-shipping only reward level.)
Pledge $725 or more Pledge $725 or more
You're clearly in it to win it at this point, so you may as well spring for the deluxe edition. Our machine, a Baratza Vario grinder, a t-shirt, a tamper, shot glasses, and a bag of Batdorf & Bronson Dancing Goats coffee (a $939 retail value). That's right, we will meet all your fashion and beverage needs. You never need to leave the house again. (This is a 120V/US shipping-only reward level.)
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
If you’ve always dreamed of being a self-sufficient one-man (or -lady) coffee shop, this is where you need to be. For $1000, we’ll custom build a machine to your specifications (!), send you all of our ZPM logo products, shot glasses, a tamper, a bag of artisanal coffee, and your very own grinder. Now all you need is a patch of good bean-growin’ land in Colombia, and you’ll be set for life.
Project By
Connected as Gleb Polyakov (484 friends)
Gleb Polyakov studied physics at Georgia Tech and worked as a financial analyst for Emperion Investment. He now runs a deli in Atlanta, and is working on an espresso machine start-up company.
Igor Zamlinsky BSME ‘10 Virginia Tech, is a roboticist and aspiring graduate student and is currently working at RoMeLa and DREAMS Lab at Virginia Tech, and on an espresso machine start-up company.
@Owen Our baskets will be ridged. Assuming that most people won't be changing them out, they stay in better.
@James and Brandon It was originally going to be an OLED, but when we eliminated the gauge, the smaller screen did not look great. However, we were unable to find OLEDs that were both large, and in our price range. OLED was great, but this LCD is pretty cool as well. Since it's both larger and higher resolution, we'll be able to build a much more effective and intuitive UI.
I hope you have some innovative plans to manage the effects of all that steam on the LCD and other electronics, I'd like to use this for a number of years and thousands of shots.
@Gregory Please do not use steam on the LCD and other electronics! But more seriously, the internals are all sealed and insulated, with the electronic circuit board having conformal coating to protect it from condensation. There should be no problem with the machine lasting years and many thousands of shots.