selmerfudd Thank you for your response , please understand that my comments do not reflect a negative view of the machine - I love the coffee it produces but as an engineer we are always wanting to refine so please take my comments here as a simple wish list
1-wish i had known about the 26 I would have asked Paolo to include one,
2-on another note there is one issue that could have been thought out better -
Let us say the auto flush setting is set to 4.9 bar for a double shot and the pre-infusion setting is set to 5.5 bar- in this case because the pump cycles its way to the full five bars of pre-infusion instead of ramping slowly - and does so in pulses of pump activity causing a bouncing pressure as the grinds absorb the pre-infusion water – the auto flush will engage and empty the group of its water during pre-infusion –this could have been thought out and thus preventing the auto flush to engage so early
3-what about water quality does the water used need to have a mineral content in order for the probes in the boiler to work correctly , can one use distilled or demineralized water - in other videos and machines you used RO water - how did you manage to get the water level probes to function correctly
4-did ACS ever consider a standby mode at a lower boiler temp
- You can buy them relatively cheaply from Amazon, or extremely cheaply from Chinese web sites. ACS alreay include more useful bits and pieces/accessories than many other manufacturers. Including things like Molykote, baskets etc.. simply pushes up the sale price. Unfairly against other machines offering less. Also not everyone wants the same things. e.g. They actually include a proper tamper and portafilter ring, other manufacturers don’t.
- If the auto release is set to 4.9 bar, that is very low, but fair enough, lets examine the straw man. The auto flush is engaging because at 5.5 bar measured by the machines main board and the auto end of shot pressure measured by the small board on the tiny display, could be out slightly. 5.5 bar is far to high for preinfusion really and so close to a 6 bar programmed limit where the system detects you have moved from preinfusion to main shot.
This changes the timer and activates the release function, so it can now operate. As the release pressure is only slightly lower than the group and during PI the pressure can drop slightly…especially as you pull the lever down, then the autorelease will immediately go off.
If you really have a need to use those values for PI and AR, you are better off selecting manual release and pressing the middle button at your desired pressure. In this way the programmed design so the machine works correctly for 99.9% of users, won’t prevent you from doing what you want.
You might say why not have settable values for all this, but this would make the complexity level in the small board hugely complex for most normal users
- No, machines will function correctly on water with a TDS of 3%, this is true of all machines. RODI which has 0% will probably function as well, but I have never used RODI water.
- Yes, the Vesuvius has this function, but the Vostok doesn’t. This is because the entire machine is ready to use in 15m from Cold, and most prosumer E61 standby systems take about the same amount of time
As for all the other stuff around timers The Vesuvius had a slightly more complex timer (it used the same main board), but it’s hardly ever used as it’s much easier and more flexible to use a smart switch and program it to do what you want via a phone app or Alexia routines.
The main board used is the same for the Vesuvius, Evo2, Vostok 1, 2 and 3 group. It’s an older tech board, but hugely reliable and made by Gicar, it has a limited amount of programming and inputs it can accept. In fact for the Evo/Vostock extra input pins had to be added!
The Vesuvius had one set of programming, the Vostok another and neither can accept more programming, they are close to their limit. Changes by Gicar are very difficult to get, taking sometimes years, but always 9 months or so are hugely expensive, and often they make mistakes. This is because very large manufacturers like Lelit all get priority.
This is why ACS have developed their own main board to move away from Gicar, which most manufacturers use, the rest use Proelind.. ACS will be using their own main board in the Falcon I, and gradually roll out it’s use to their entire range. This board is an “entire powerful system on a chip”, graphics, memory, WiFi, Blutooth, processor etc.. It will then interface with other daughter boards and components, like the auto shot release board….using a CAN bus system, just like in cars. This will be more advanced than any other machines on the market.
This main board has the advantages of being very robust and much much smaller than the current mainboard and able to accept a huge amount of programming and variety of displays of any resolution and size, as well as great software version user updatability as new functions become available.
It’s far better ACS continue to develop what is the future, than throw large amounts of money in adding a few new functions to old Gicar tech.
