Hey folks! Well, it certainly has been a crazy week for planet Earth. I hope all of you have made it through ok and that things start looking up for everyone as soon as possible!

Let's get to the bits...

The Bits

This last week was pretty much a wash in relation to Mugsy work. I had hoped that by Thursday things would have calmed down but obviously the Corona fallout kept escalating, both across the globe and locally in NYC. This evening was my first few hours back in Mugsy land and I hit a bunch of important tasks and improvements.

mugsyOS

I started working on a new release candidate for mugsyOS. While assembling the files, I made a pitstop to update the grinder endpoints for Mugsy's D.E.C.A.F API.

Currently, the grinder endpoint uses a time value as its main variable. Set it for 5 seconds and it keeps grinding for 5 seconds. Easy peasy. But when dialing in the perfect brew or following along with your favorite recipe, time to grind doesn't make much sense. This was always meant as a stop gap, but I had not gotten around to exposing Mugsy's weight sensors to the API.

Tonight, I integrated most of this functionality into D.E.C.A.F. You can now send a single weight value(example:45.0 grams) directly to the endpoint to grind the perfect amount of beans.

Mugsy's Grind By Weight API endpoint JSON response.

A couple of notes:

The request currently requires a GPIO pin number so it knows how the grinder is connected to the relay. This mapping is stored in the database and this requirement is only temporary, I just need to add the mapping info to the API call.
In the above image, you can see that although we requested 45 grams, we actually ended up with 45.4 grams. This is because by the time the grinder switches off, there is already more grounds filling the grinder's output. Point 4 grams is not a big deal, but we want to be as close to perfect as possible to maximize recipe repeatability. I am working out a couple of methods to resolve the overage. I think the best option is to pulse the grinder as we get closer to the desired weight. In this example, we would grind until we hit 40 grams, then we would pulse for 1 second cycles until we hit the desired weight. I'm not sure what the pulse timing should be just yet, but should have that dialed in soon.
This code is currently in a new branch on the D.E.C.A.F. repo(https://github.com/margyle/decaf). I have added the endpoint routing to decaf.py and am finalizing the endpoint functionality in models.py.

I think the first day to drop the completed OS release candidate is on Wednesday or Thursday.

Build Manual

I have continued working on the build manual and have started adding some additional lettering/iconography to simplify some of the instructions. I'm mostly working on finishing the specific images so I can release those while working on copy.

Mugsy Build Manual: Simplifying busy illustrations.

There is still several days of work here. My hope in finishing the illustrations before completing the copy is that it will allow folks to dive in and get building sooner than later.

The build manual is my main priority after shipping so I will be working on this every chance I can. I am planning to drop a large portion of the completed illustrations on Wednesday with a second final batch going out on Friday.

Other Bits

The Alexa app is still waiting for approval. I'm not sure if the delay is related to Corona staffing or just the standard waiting period. I will let everyone know the second it's live. I will also be releasing the full source in the coming days.
I have been working through my email/ticket backlog and have gotten through a lot of them. My earlier plans to bring on an email answering service to speed up response times has been been put on hold until we get out of this Corona crunch. Adding more bills right now is just not a smart move. Because of that, it will probably be another week before I have handled 100% of tickets and email requests. So if you are still waiting for me to get back to you, I have not forgotten you and am working hard to get you a response as soon as possible.

Shipping Bits

New Direct Shipments

There were zero new direct shipments last week as I have not been able to get to our storage location. It looks like our first chance to do so will be on Monday or Tuesday. Once there, we will be packing and shipping several units. This will also be our first chance to get content for the requested rundown on our current inventory and packing process. Although I have shared lots of pics of bulk parts as they came in on different channels, it will be good to get a full gallery of everything in one spot. This is a big priority for me and I apologize that I have not been able to complete it just yet.

Distribution Center Shipments

These shipments are around 3-7 days from shipping depending on region. I have had to take a much more hands on approach to getting these last mile units out and with the way the last week went, it was just not possible to get any hands on it at all. I will be sending out updated ETAs for all units over the next 48 hours. Until then a good rule of thumb is this: If your ETA is at least a few weeks out, you are probably still on track to hit that ETA. If your ETA has passed or is within the next week, you should add 5-10 days to the ETA.

Bits I Need to Hit

There are still a couple of information requests I want to hit that I have not gotten to yet. These are very high priority to me but I just did not have the bandwidth this week to get these things done or written out.

The inventory and packing rundown/pics mentioned above. This is high priority for the first half of the week. I will have an update and at least a significant portion of it completed in time for Wednesday night's update.
A rundown and description of our initial test shipments and second round shipments from last year, and why those shipments did not continue until completion. This write up will be completed in time for Wednesday's update.

Ok, that is it for tonight. The next update will be going out on Wednesday night, sometime after 10pm. I feel quite good about how the next week will shake out for Mugsy's progress and look forward to finishing off these last milestones. I know a lot of you now have an abundance of time where there rarely was any, so I'm working really hard to get these units into your hands as soon as possible.

Good luck out there to you and yours!

Cheers,

-m

Locals in a Strange Land