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Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

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Re: Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

#11

Post by esperent »

stephenhandley wrote: post #2

This is the first I'm hearing an aeropress 30 second plunge time, what's that about?

The idea is that the more pressure you use, the more unwanted materials like fines and oils will get though the paper. So if you press slowly and stop when you hear a hiss, you should have a better brew.

It does make sense, if imagine pressing through in 5 seconds vs 30 seconds, that the paper filtration would work better in the slower press. But I'm not sure if anyone has scientifically measured this.

Actually wait, it's coffee. Someone has definitely scientifically measured it and probably published a two hour YouTube video with their results.

Re: Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

#14

Post by SamBam »

stephenhandley wrote: post #2

This is the first I'm hearing an aeropress 30 second plunge time, what's that about?

30 seconds is indeed the _original_ Aeropress recommended brew time. [1] You're supposed to mix the grounds and start plunging nearly immediately, finishing in about 30 seconds. So, indeed, much of the water passes through even before 30 seconds.

That was way too short. It looks like they've finally updated the instructions somewhat, now recommending 60 seconds before starting to plunge. [2]

It works because they also recommend a very fine grind, but that's still pretty short. It looks like Counter Culture recommends using regular pour-over grind and the inverted method and 2-3 minutes, [3] which happens to also be what I do. Though I'm not really particular, so long as it's somewhere between about 1.5 and 3.5 minutes. (Breakfast is a hectic time while also handling kids...)

1. https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/pages/product-resource/aer...

2. https://aeropress.com/pages/how-to-use

3. https://counterculturecoffee.com/blogs/counter-culture-coffe...

Re: Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

#15

Post by techwizrd »

esperent wrote: post #11
stephenhandley wrote: post #2

This is the first I'm hearing an aeropress 30 second plunge time, what's that about?

The idea is that the more pressure you use, the more unwanted materials like fines and oils will get though the paper. So if you press slowly and stop when you hear a hiss, you should have a better brew. It does make sense, if imagine pressing through in 5 seconds vs 30 seconds, that the paper filtration would work better in the slower press. But I'm not sure if anyone has scientifically measured this. Actually wait,…

I've had good results from the James Hoffman recipe [0], although I brew inverted. You can push the plunger down with just the weight of resting your arm on the plunger. For something very different, you can brew something not-quite-espresso using the Fellow Prismo cap for the Aeropress.

0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6VlT_jUVPc

Re: Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

#16

Post by vanous »

> error-prone to set a 30-second timer. Oops, I’m tired and I hit zero too many times. That’s a 3-minute (3:00) timer. I typed in 3-0 correctly, but hitting the start button didn’t quite register. Siri misheard. Siri took 10 seconds to respond about a 30 second timer.

I get the diy factor, but still, the smartphone was supposed to be smart...

Re: Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

#17

Post by duskwuff »

bsoles wrote: post #13

Driving a buzzer directly from the GPIO pin will probably fry the output port if the buzzer draws anything more than about 20-50 mA.

Small piezo beepers typically don't draw much current. The article doesn't say what part they're using, but a datasheet for a typical piezo beeper [1] says it draws 12 mA at 12V - and much less at 3.3V, which is what this device is operating at. So it's probably going to be fine, especially since it's only running the buzzer for [1]: https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/3/6118/1/cpe_350a.pdf

Re: Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

#19

Post by esperent »

techwizrd wrote: post #15
esperent wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea is that the more pressure you use, the more unwanted materials like fines and oils will get though the paper. So if you press slowly and stop when you hear a hiss, you should have a better brew. It does make sense, if imagine pressing through in 5 seconds vs 30 seconds, that the paper filtration would work better in the slower press. But I'm not sure if anyone has scientifically measured this. Actually wait,…

I've had good results from the James Hoffman recipe [0], although I brew inverted. You can push the plunger down with just the weight of resting your arm on the plunger. For something very different, you can brew something not-quite-espresso using the Fellow Prismo cap for the Aeropress. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6VlT_jUVPc

Personal opinion is that the whole point of aeropress is that you don't need to follow any recipes to get a good result. The parameters are extremely flexible to the point of being close to foolproof. Start with good beans and water. Grind anywhere between French press and very fine pourover level. Brew anytime between 1 minute and 8 minutes. Add anywhere between 100ml and 200ml of water. Press reasonably slowly.

The results will always be good. Maybe not the level you'd get with extremely high quality light roasted beans and a very careful pourover technique, but maybean aeropress isn't the best brewer for those beans in the first place.

Re: Minimum Viable Arduino Project: Aeropress Timer

#20

Post by throwaway81523 »

My trick is to re-use the filters. After the first few presses, the filters clog up somewhat and coffee doesn't drip through them as fast. So you can stir and let the mixture sit for a while, without resorting to maneuvers like the inverted method, which are unsafe for groggy programmers who haven't had any coffee yet that morning.

But, I thought Arduino had become officially evil once it joined Qualcomm. Besides which a Raspberry Pi Pico is cheaper than any Arduino-branded board ever was. So I'd just program this type of thing in MicroPython.

I do see that in the article, the project used an Adafruit Trinket M0, a very cute little board that has CircuitPython already installed. So I wonder why not just use CircuitPython. Anyway though, it's a Cortex M0 board, rather than the traditional Atmega that the Arduino world grew up using.

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