$200 crowdsourced thermoblock with PID as standard

Koffee_Kosmo

Kelsey wrote:

These guys want to build a $300 thermoblock machine with a PID that aims to be better than any single boiler on the market. They reckon they've redesigned the thermoblock for better stability, it'll have a PID as standard and uses as many non-proprietary parts as possible for ease of serviceability. Interesting project: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zpmespresso/pid-controlled-espresso-machine

I wonder if this kick-starter concept would be good for a new model and design of the KKTO Its got me thinking KK

Kelsey

That thought occurred to me also. I think it'd be a great idea. Happy to help out, of course.

beanflying

Interesting to see someone having a go at designing a better mousetrap but I won't be adding my pledge to a saturated section of the market. By the time the tooling is done and it is anywhere near a showroom several $100kwill be needed to then be pushed around by the big retailers and squeezed on margins no thanks. Venture capital type startups like this are interesting but I have a very good mate who was squeezed out of his own business of 15 years after a major expansion with this sort of finance.

Koffee_Kosmo

Bean Flying wrote:

Interesting to see someone having a go at designing a better mousetrap but I won't be adding my pledge to a saturated section of the market. By the time the tooling is done and it is anywhere near a showroom several $100kwill be needed to then be pushed around by the big retailers and squeezed on margins no thanks. Venture capital type startups like this are interesting but I have a very good mate who was squeezed out of his own business of 15 years after a major expansion with this sort of finance.

For the roaster I was thinking of a prepaid beta tester concept at a discount so the tooling for the metal spinning can be paid for in the first run Small pledges can have roasted beans KK

shape_shifter

You can't half tell they are engineers can you 😃 It's about time the 'little' people had a go and made something, it will shake the coffee world that's for sure when people realise how little you really do have to spend to get something that can often work better than what has been around for years...

Brett_H

The Gee wasn't popular. I can't see this being a run-away success event half the price of a Gee (after they became unpopular). I would love to be proved wrong!!!

Kelsey

I think the GEE was a bit of a different story tho. They were trying to position it at premium level (almost like the BDB) with all the bells and whistles. And it was priced that way too. The problem is that it looks cheap and cheesy. By contrast, this machine WILL be cheap (and possibly cheesy!) and they make no bones about it. Of course, the proof will be in the cup. It'd be interesting if they released it as a kit.

beanflying

The Gee is basically an upmarket Sunbeam with a few tweaky bits. The biggest failing of the Gee locally it was really Prehyped to blazes then followed up with the average steam performance and possibly how it has been then marketed in Oz after release. I believe Crossland in the US are still doing ok with them. Now it will suffer to find a place if the the BDB holds up to longer term use. This one will if it gets near the market be copied to within an inch of it's life (badly) reduced in price and flogged off out of china like the typical Aldi, Delonghi, lower end Breville and Sunbeams. Still would love to see them trying to keep it to the suggested price by the time they finish R&D and tooling up.

Lacehim

Question. Can it have a lever instead of a pump? ;D

Kelsey

You could start your own crowdsourced lever design!

askthecoffeeguy

looks like a great initiative at a price that's right - I hope they manage to get it up and running and to stay on target and on budget!

UNM

Don't know if anyone is interested in how this is progressing, but they now have a web site at http://zpmespresso.myshopify.com/ Even has its own forum. first production in May (Real Soon Now) and it is now officially named the 'Nocturn' gotta love the tag line 'engineered from the grounds up' 😃 The blog has a Forbes (Russia) magazine interview. One thing of note - no warranty. The people getting first machines didn't buy the machine, but invested in the project so it will be interesting how this one plays out legally if there are major problems.

RichardM

UNM wrote:

One thing of note - no warranty. The people getting first machines didn't buy the machine, but invested in the project so it will be interesting how this one plays out legally if there are major problems.

The same kind of thing stands up where people buy shares in a cow so they can drink unprocessed milk (read up about people selling "Bath Milk" in health food stores for drinking, which is illegal if they know people are drinking it). If it stands up there, I'd say it'd stand up for this scenario (in Australia anyway).

Hatchy

Pity only 240V if you'd donated $1000 It's closed up now - they got a fair sum too at over $300K!

UNM

240V should be trivial if designed for a global market - my gaggia can be converted between 110 and 220 in a few minutes simply by replacing the pump and changing element wiring. The PID has universal power and the two elements are designed to either be in parallel or series. I seem to recall the pump on the ZPM is supposed to be driven by a PWM signal and may not be a 110V pump (not certain of this). Perhaps the 2013 ETA for 220/240V is based on regulatory approval?

beanflying

Crawling it's way to some machines being finished. A cautionary tale for complex Kickstarter projects I guess. Update as of Yesterday http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zpmespresso/pid-controlled-espresso-machine/posts Still going to interesting to see the finished results in action.

Lacehim

Looks like an interesting project BF, but I can understand the slow place because putting a machine together from scratch is very time consuming. Good luck to them though.

derrilex

Fuck thats ugly

Lacehim

but cheap, and might be better than a crapy bottom of the range Sunbeam/Breville in the same price bracket!

derrilex

True, but it looks like a series 1 land rover. (no offense BF)