tompoland All very interesting, a little dickie bird told me they have actually got a group (or perhaps more than one) for the long awaited Vectis made by Fracino for Londinium. From your post it seems like the Vectis might be a little late to the party and potentially a quite dated approach compared to the Argos. Especially considering the flexibility to be both a manual and spring lever, plus PID control of boiler temperature.

Good luck to Ross as he is building the machine himself, a big undertaking rather than being a large commercial machine builder like Fracino.

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    tompoland

    I think the real question is whether it will replace my Strietman, I reckon that I will keep my Bianca as a workhorse.
    🤔

      Pretty sure the Streitman will be staying, should be fun to play with the Argos though and there is definitely only enough room on the coffee island for one of them.

      First dibs on the CT1 if you sell it? (Potential travel machine 😀)

        tompoland
        I’m modifying a new 2 metre long sideboard at the moment to accommodate them all.
        It has been too cold to apply the last couple of coats of stain but I figure I’ll get it finished before the Argos arrives.
        😃

            DavecUK

            Would that be around 22C?
            I had a couple of weeks in Queensland recently and then got back down to Victoria and a fortnight of 11-12C maximums.
            TP has it easy.

                Amberale

                Amberale Someone who is aware of my rule that I limit my espresso machine addiction to whatever fits on my coffee island, suggested I simply add another story/level to it. Pretty sure it would not get past the Missus Committee though.

                    Yes we do have it easy up here in the North, sunny most days during winter and around 21. But summer can be a tad hot!

                    DavecUK

                    It was quite interesting how much the coffees I made on Friday and Saturday were affected from the dialed in grinder settings. The water flew through the pucks.

                        23 days later

                        Latest photos including two powder coated versions that were on display at Host Milan recently. Note the black powder coasted version has the steam wand on the left and the white version has it on the right.

                          The Argos is certainly the best “bang for bucks” lever option, assuming the quality is up there with the others.

                          It’s not just the price advantage that appeals to me though, it’s the versatility that I find tantalising: add a pressure gauge if you like (or not), add the digital Bluetooth transducer (or not), switch from direct to 9 bar spring or to a 6 bar spring (yes please).

                          The options are quite extraordinary and I don’t know of any lever machine that has that range of features/options for any price, let alone under US$1,000.

                          Temperature stability is going to be the most interesting feature for me. The Strietman is not as temperate stable as I would like. It requires some temperature “surfing” and whilst it comes up to full heat in under ten minutes, there are significant fluctuations within the first 30 minutes and even after that there is a four degree variance at any given point in time. I can live with that but if I had the choice, I’d prefer not to. If the Argos can deliver better temperature stability in addition to all of the options I’ve listed above, that would be a simply amazing “icing on the cake”.

                            DavecUK I’m beginning to think that Londinium is a bit like owning a Harley. Both have a cult like following and evoke a feeling of pride but based on price/features/quality/service comparison, purchasing either of them would be hard to justify.

                            That’s not to say that a feeling is without value. It’s a matter of the buyer’s priorities.

                              I’ve been looking for an excellent coffee Discord. Do you belong to one that you’d recommend?

                                tompoland

                                Totally agree. That’s why I bought one!

                                For anyone interested, here’s Ross’s update to backers today:

                                Odyssey Espresso Argos Update: July 12, 2022

                                 

                                Hello all! I have done a horrible job with updates over the past month but I assure you that significant progress is still being made. We have finished hiring all of our Assembly Technicians/ Manager for this initial run of parts and plan to hire more in the future to keep up with demand.

                                We decided to do a quick last minute trip to World of Coffee Milan. This was a fun experience where we had a small booth with the powdercoated units on display. It was a great opportunity to connect with other lever machine manufacturers as well as suppliers for Italian made products.

                                While hardware is being finalized and procured, I am working on figuring out the best way to keep track of assembly and quality control tracking for when we start assembly. This will allow us to track which technician has performed each assembly task for each machine in the event of any defects or malfunctions.

                                Hardware

                                When sourcing on/ off switches we made a significant change from 2 toggle switches to a single on/off rocker switch next to the plug and a custom temperature knob with an integrated push switch into the knob. We like this design as it cleans up the back of the machine while integrating all temperature related control on a single knob. Users will be able to set the brew temperature from 85C-95C then push the knob in to turn up steam temp which will be indicated by a 3rd LED on the top.

                                Previously exposed screws on the top of the machine have now been moved to mount the boiler to the top plate from the underside. This will clean up the overall look.

                                Powdercoated parts have arrived and were on display at World of Coffee Milan. We are working on getting product photos for those options to add to the site. Anyone interested in changing from a stainless steel finish to the black or while color will be able to purchase the “Machine Color Add-On” from the site. This will go live when the photos are released and on the site as well, ideally by next week.

                                An additional person has been brought on temporarily to help finish up drawings for production.

                                You can check out the updated checklist here.

                                  ez4prez espresso aficionados. If you look for the lever folder there is a sub folder for the argos

                                    4 months later

                                    Email update from Ross this morning included this:

                                    “I expect to start shipping first thing next year once certification has passed.”

                                    So his original estimate of “shipping in April” was pretty close after all. I mean, to be fair, we forgot to ask him which year 😅 🤷 🙃

                                    Still, it’s getting closer.

                                      Production is a very different thing from prototyping, and I would imagine his running into lots of things he needed to modify and change. So it’s not really unexpected that the Argos is going to be quite late. I would think he doesn’t want a Vectis moment.

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