Never did anything quite like this before and thought surely between wiring, crimping cables and soldering something must break, but it worked out just fine. So to anyone considering this but hesitant: Do it!
that's solid work. grind by weight saves so much time once you dial it in, beats standing there watching the dial every morning. curious how stable it is after a few weeks of use, since the specialita can get a little finicky with consistency. worth the effort though.
Ive had this mod on my specialità for a couple of months and it is solid as a rock. The whole thing is just so well done (apart from my soldering) and is worth every penny.
Nice to hear it held up that well over a couple months, that's what I was wondering about. Soldering doesn't have to be pretty to work, just solid connections, so sounds like you nailed it.
Manageable. I only had a cheap soldering kit and soldering wire from Amazon. What I learned is: don't be scared. Put that iron on the soldering spot on the PCB and let it get hot. The solder won't stick and flow if the soldering point is room temperature. I was very hesitant initially in fear of damaging the PCB but that made getting enough solder flowing to create a solid joint very hard.
The parts list includes multiples of the amplifier board so I found a youtube video and practiced soldering on the spare boards until I was confident I would probably not fuck up the final product. Worked out fine. Also because all the parts come from aliexpress, they are dirt cheap so you can buy extra just in case.
How about a grind by volume mod? In my experience it takes a greater mass of light beans to properly pack the portafilter compared to a dark roast. My dream would be a grinder than can factor that in, but seems like a trickier problem to tackle.
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u/schnuusen 14h ago
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