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LONDINIUM wireless espresso

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  • Have you or any of the other testers had any trouble with WiFi connectivity dropping or any other unusual behavior from the app?

    I'm guessing no, but those would be my primary concerns.
  • After a couple of weeks of playing around with the original LR pressure module I soon got fed up with removing the side panel and pressing buttons.
    So, I determined that 3.1 bar was a setting that would suit most of the beans I use and it has remained at 3.5bar ever since. Until today !

    Today, with the App and dongle on board I had a little play.
    Firstly, I varied the PI on a 10-day -rested Medium Roasted Guatemala Washed Bourbon.
    Sadly, I don't have the palate / vocabulary to articulate the differences that pulling at 4.1bar, 3.1bar and 2.1 bar made, but differences there were. And all within the bounds of a nice tasting coffee.

    I then decided to try a darker roasted Brazilian natural that had been hiding in a cupboard since August. Back in August, with my standard setting of 3.1bar, I could not get a pleasing cup from this semi-amateur roasted (not by me) bean. Hence it being abandoned to the cupboard and forgotten. Today, I made an educated guess for grind setting and then dropped the PI to 1.5bar, as per the image in my previous post.
    All other things being somewhat equal, that drop in PI transformed the extraction of that bean and, we have subsequently enjoyed three extremely pleasant drinks!
  • thank you for taking the time to post tony - it would be great to hear from the other recipients when time permits and dongles arrive in USA & Australia

    as an aside, and not strictly a wireless matter, other than you are much more likely to try a wide range of pressure settings now that you have the ability to do it effortlessly:

    when running roasts that are sold as filter roasts, or ultra light nordic style roasts and you wind the pre-infusion pressure up to 6 bar, or close to it, you will achieve a better extraction more often if you set the pump delay to the maximum time interval of 2 seconds (2000mS)

    a pump interval of 2S allows the preinfusion pressure to be delivered to the puck, then bleed away softly into the puck, then be raised again by the pump. this greatly reduces the likelihood of channelling

    conversely at low PI settings (<1.5 bar) you want the pump delay as low as possible as you only have a little pressure to drive to water through the puck so you want the pump to keep the PI pressure right up to target as the water seeps down through the puck, which causes the PI to drop as the volume in the PI circuit is effectively increasing<br />
    reiss.
  • Brandon McCall post=16265 wrote: [quote=Reiss Gunson post=16243]for the avoidance of doubt the dongle will be free of charge as i have committed to this since we first released the digital preinfusion module

    you will however need to pay for the delivery as the unit cost has come in cost a lot higher than budgeted

    kind regards

    reiss.


    A while back you mentioned that we will not have to pay for delivery for the wireless module as long as we purchased other items through the store at the same time. Is that still the case?

    hi brandon

    a lot has changed since we first released the LR with the digital pre-infusion module

    making good on my promise to offer the wireless module free of charge as a retro fit to machines 'out in the wild' is a significant commitment

    the dongle itself is GBP54 cost to me on top of several thousands in R&D and i also have ongoing subscription charges to Blynk to ensure the app is hosted in a professional facility and available 24/7, rather than sitting on a server in someone's bedroom

    most of my competitors would simply invite you to buy the new model

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • Today I received one of the new wireless modules which Reiss has sent out to a few of us to test/evaluate. It took a few minutes to install and understand how the app works but once I figured that out I stuck the module into its socket in the LR.

    It is extremely easy to change the pressure to match the roast being used.... Low for darker roasts and higher for lighter roasts... As I prefer lighter roasts I will be trying to find the exact setting that gets me the perfect espresso to match my unsophisticated pallet...

    Thank you Reiss
  • Michael Simanyi post=16267 wrote: Have you or any of the other testers had any trouble with WiFi connectivity dropping or any other unusual behavior from the app?

    I'm guessing no, but those would be my primary concerns.

    Hi Michael,

    If your machine is in the kitchen, is that a spot in the house where WiFi signal is strong enough?

    In my experience, if I change a value on the app and an "offline" message appears at the top, it means I need to switch the L-R off and on so that the digital module & dongle can re-connect to WiFi and then both the L-R and the app on the phone are connected to the server and all goes smooth.

    Can you specify exactly what "connectivity dropping" you observe and what "unusual behaviour" you see?
  • Brandon McCall post=16265 wrote: A while back you mentioned that we will not have to pay for delivery for the wireless module as long as we purchased other items through the store at the same time. Is that still the case?

    The way I understood/ understand that, is that it's wise to order the module / dongle when you are already paying for the delivery of something else you need, like the replacement seals for a future service of the piston. The module travels along / hitches a ride with something you were ordering/getting anyway.
  • Hi Frans.

    I am not one of the testers. I was merely inquiring if anyone experienced any trouble with that.
  • Just a report to say my wireless dongle is working fine.

    A little delay after receiving it on Monday sorting out my error in name my SSID which I had assumed to be case insensitive. It was my mistake and nobody else. Once fixed, good as gold!!

    As others have said, the app is very responsive and accurately reflect actual pressure and targeted pressure.

    Can't wait to change my beans!!
  • so that wraps it up - all recipients are up and running without issue as far as i know

    i have today placed the order for the production run of dongles and these have a lead time of 4-6 weeks, so they will not be available until the new year, which im disappointed about, but the big picture is we have got it right and in due course the production batch will arrive and we can just get on with it

    next week we take our Blynk commercial licence and this should open up much more functionality for us, including the ability to dynamically enter the wifi name and password, rather than having to hard code it as we have to date

    the londinium C is very firmly a 2020 project too, so that only leaves us with a new website to release this year, which we look forward to sharing with you, both from a pure speed and responsiveness aspect, but i also plan to improve the content once we have migrated. there are a number of functions on the current website that are a bit hit and miss and a big part of the motivation to move to the next release is to iron out these annoying glitches

    thank you to each of the testers for their help on this; your feedback has been very valuable in terms of de-risking the project

    reiss.
  • Thanks for the update Reiss! That's all great news, and I look forward to placing my order so I can enable that functionality on my LR.
  • thank you michael

    it is very easy to retro fit, and the production version will be easier still as the app will be fully functional

    i look forward to some of the testers posting about how they can compensate for the ageing of the coffee by varying the pre-infusion pressure, and also the ability to leap from a dark roast to a light roast and back

    the key thing is we are not relying on changing the heat in the system to any extent to achieve this, and as a result we do not have to wait for the group temperature to shift in response - its a massive advantage

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • In response to Reiss's request, my experience with changing the pre-infusion pressure is:-
    [ol]
    [li]control over the acidity from any level of roasting. If I increase the pressure (therefore temperature), I can better balance the shot.[/li]
    [li]deal with a wide variety of roasts. When I have bought so called Medium roaster, the definition is not just the temperature at which the beans were roasted but also the actual beans. So we can have medium roaster but because the beans have more moisture content, the result can be light to medium.[/li]
    [li]Dealing with the raging of beans since roasting. The lowering of pre-infusion pressure gives a slightly lower brew temperature and compensates for the age.[/[li]
    [/ol]
    As for testing the wireless control and phone app - it makes my changes instantaneous without having to move the machine, remove the panel, search for the right glasses to read the display (multifocal lens are the worst invention for trying to read something above your natural eye-line) and replace everything to find out you made things worst. What a relief to have a phone app that removes the problem.


    image
  • thanks for posting trevor

    the way i envisage this being used is that you can take your coffee some distance away in the house, to the lounge, or perhaps the pool, and as you sip it decide that the pre-infusion pressure was slightly too high or too low (0.3 bar either way makes a huge difference as opposed to a purely theoretical or pedantic one) and pull out your phone without moving from your seat and adjust the machine as you see fit so it is dead on for the next shot

    it also allows you to make the adjustment at a later time if you are rushing to work, eg in a taxi or on a train

    reiss.
  • Yes and that's what I do.

    The coffee cup moves with me and my phone from the kitchen into the office or may be the lounge to sip and ponder the taste.

    You then make the change for the next shot! (if necessary of course)

    Incremently changes but more of them than before.
  • It has been 3 weeks with the wireless module.... I am totally pleased to have the module as it has made it easy to adjust the settings. I don't tweek the settings but do use different roasts every once in a while as I like to experiment with different coffees to see if I can find one I prefer to my current favorite.... Love the wireless module... Test version... And will be anxious to get the final version which will be able to connect to more than one wifi address..... I just took my LR to a friend's home for a party and it could not connect to his wifi.... Not a problem really....

    Thanks Reiss for letting me be a tester of this wireless module...
  • hi william

    thank you for writing; your experience is consistent with all the other testers to the best of my knowledge

    the production batch is being made and my expectation is that they will appear in the second or third week of january

    it should signal a great start to 2020

    i also have your WhatsApp message asking about plumbing your machine in and i will reply to that now

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • Any updates on the wireless development? I'd love to experience the R at its best...
  • hi michael

    yes, the million dollar question. we have the wireless dongles made since i think late dec/early jan

    the cause for the delay now is the integration with the Blynk app - i suspect that perhaps they should have been involved earlier in the process, but anyway, i am told we are very close now

    i know this has been subject to numerous delays, and i looking at an old email the other day i noticed we were musing with the idea at least as early august 2017

    no doubt you and many others are wondering if it will ever appear. please be assured that whatever degree of frustration you feel, i feel more acutely

    i am confident that we will begin rolling them out this month, february

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • Thank you Reiss!

    I seriously hesitated about posting, knowing how much the subject must eat at you. I'm confident when it's released, it will have been well worth the wait.

    Mike
  • hi michael

    as you can probably sense, i feel my credibility has long since been washed away with the continual shifting of deadlines on this project

    against that backdrop i have decided to take the unusual step of copying and pasting an extract from an email i received today

    the responses are written from Blynk, who are providing the internet of things (IoT) solution:

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Also would it be possible if you could give me an estimation of completion please? I need an idea of the timeline and where we are if I may.

    It all depends on the readiness of your project/product.
    First, we need to investigate this issue in order to give an estimate. Our Android developer usually fixes issues quickly and most often it takes 2-3 days.
    Timeline:
    Starting your server and WebDashboard - Done
    Setting up a project and product on your server - Done
    Build Android application - Done
    Testing Android version and your prototype - Usually 1 week, but it depends on you and product functionality
    Publish the Android version - 2-3 days
    Build iOS version - 3-4 days
    Testing the iOS version with your prototype - 4-5 days, but it depends on you.
    Publish the iOS version - AppStore can review your application up to two weeks, but usually, it takes 3-4 days.
    Note: These are the main steps. Of course, if something needs to be changed / fixed / discussed, then this shifts the timeline.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    to be clear im not blaming Blynk for any of the significant delays; we have only engaged them since around xmas time and it seems clear to me that we probably should have had them involved much earlier, but hindsight is a lovely thing too

    as far as i am aware everything on our side is ready; when the blynk software package is ready our third party electronics supplier will be sent the package and they will flash it onto the dongle

    the only other thing i want done is for the 3D printed casing to be upgraded - i know it came apart for Frans (Netherlands), Dave (UK), Trevor (Australia) - i haven't heard from Tony (UK) or Bill (New Mexico) but on the balance of probability it is likely they experienced an issue with it too

    i am being told the earliest it will all be ready for you is 'late this month' which to my ears at least is a nice way of saying next month (march), but perhaps i am too cynical

    one thing i can assure you is i have had zero reports of issues from the five testers - to the best of my knowledge it is stable and works perfectly, so please do not attribute any of the delay to the technology not working properly

    bear in mind that i have emails on this that stretch back to at least august 2017, so im climbing the walls in desperation on this as i know how useful, simple, and enjoyable you will find this functionality when we finally get it to you

    for the avoidance of doubt the LC project doesnt progress until we clear this one away as i am of the view that the LR needs to have evolved into its ultimate form (as the L1/2/3 already have) before we commence work on a new model; this will help to build confidence in the LC when it is released

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • Reiss,

    I've been in Small Business since the early '90s. I know how projects tend to go, and that's without factoring in Apple approving apps for publication in their store.

    So, from my standpoint, no loss of credibility. Getting things "right" is why we buy your products. I know you're doing everything reasonable to satisfy that "itch" we're all feeling. Thank you for sharing those details, and we'll all just relax and wait for that special note that we can place our orders.

    Mike
  • I didn't see any mention of this in the thread, but I may have not looked long or hard enough...

    Is there a pre-order or waitlist available? I've been looking forward to this update since the second time I had to take the panels off to adjust... would be disappointed if I missed out on the first batch in the wild.
  • hi joshua

    im sorry, there is not. we will get there, its just a bit frustrating this month

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • i have a small, but solid, update just in:

    ******

    We are getting closer now I am told, providing there aren’t any issues or changes needed I think we will be able to start sending the dongles out the second week of March

    ******

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • we are waiting for Blynk to send us the completed app

    everything else is ready to go

    we expected to receive it this week, but clearly that is not going to happen

    we expect to receive it any day soon - no reason for delay that we are aware of

    kind regards

    reiss.
  • please find attached the production version of the dongle. you know its close when you are having a scrap with the supplier as to whether the font should be white or beige/gold. we are getting there. thank you for your patience on this one.


    image
  • the wireless dongle is here; https://londiniumespresso.com/store/parts?product_id=288

    you will need to download the app from the apple or android app store

    if you are purchasing the digital preinfusion module as a kit to upgrade your LR that currently has the pre-infusion pressure regulated with the Mater mechanical pressure switch the dongle is included with that kit

    reiss.
  • Great news! Congrats on the “release”,
    Can’t wait to get it installed and going.
  • So excited!

    I was hoping to stock up on some new shower screens but noticed the IMS screens are no longer available. Will they be restocked or am i better of just ordering the standard screens?
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