Day 13 - Despair
A morning without coffee is like using a waterslide without water. Unpleasant. I look at my dead machine. The metal is cold as I touch it, whimpering pathetically. I have no means of making coffee in my home except for a water boiler.
But mama didn’t raise no quitter. Desperate times call for desperate measures. The god of coffee gives and takes. And today he’s testing me.
Sock coffee
Day 12 - I'm a monkey
It’s been only a day since I’ve tasted the forbidden fruit and already there’s trouble in paradise. The screen of my newly modded Gaggia Classic is acting up. It only turns on sporadically. No big issue for me, an expert in electrical engineering.
I’m on a call with my grandma, talking about life. I can easily do two things at once, can’t I? While talking on the phone, I open the machine and try again. Already, it seems to work better. Maybe there’s a wiring issue?
Day 11 - Flow control
I start the day with mediocre coffee. Yes it’s now 9 bar blabla; I still don’t love it. I’m thinking. I’ve created the profile I’m using to recreate what the unmodded machine was doing, at a different pressure level. It comes as no surprise that the result doesn’t change much.
There is a collection of community profiles for the Gaggiuino mod. I read through the descriptions and pick the LMD 9-8 v1.5 profile, mostly because it’s the only one that mentions “darker roasts”.
Day 10 - Gaggiuino
It’s Christmas day !! The children (me) are waiting for Santa (the DHL guy) who brings the presents (the mod kit I ordered). It’s already late friday afternoon when he finally arrives. I rush to the door and suppress the sudden urge to hug him. I wipe away one tear of joy as I sign the reception sheet.
Overview
The Gaggiuino mod comes in several flavors. Number one is the type of electronic control device inside the machine. You can either opt for a full custom build (LEGO-build) or order a ready-made PCB board that has the same components soldered onto it (SMD). I opted for number 2, seemed simpler.
Day 9 - It's the coffee, stupid!
Do you remember when I said I won’t do any experiments until after I’ve modded my machine? Yeah me neither. So here we go again. I’ve a good one today. Regular readers know my hero origin story. It all started with a cup of coffee in Vienna. I found the exact same bean. I ordered it. And it arrived today!
I pull a shot. Yes it flows too fast. Of course it does, I didn’t change the grind setting yet. Yes it’s been roasted 4 and a half months ago. According to the pros this coffee has already gone bad. But we’ll talk about them in a minute. So what can I expect? Nothing!