Hey folks! I currently have several balls in the air and will give a brief rundown on each of the tasks I am currently working through.

Shallow Cone Mech: One of the unforeseen side effects of the cone mech weight sensors is that they raised the entire mech assembly too much, resulting in the grinder output being too close to the pour over cone.

In order to get around this, the mid section of the cone mech has been updated to require less vertical height. To accomplish this, I replaced the Nema 17 pancake stepper with a round Nema 14 stepper (Model: 14HR05-0504S).

This swap worked perfectly. Power/Steps/Torque are all well within requirements and it can use all existing code/wiring as is. I did have to design a new motor mount and I am still tweaking the idler positioning/belt length.

This took about 1/3rd off the height of the mech. Combined with a slight repositioning of the strain gauges on the mech platform, and the grinder output -> cone positioning is now exactly where it needs to be.

Water Level Sensors: As mentioned in the last update, I was working through a few bugs with the water level setup. I have moved on from yet another set of weight sensors under the reservoir to an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor. I tested it for a few days against a Vl53l0x Time of Flight sensor. At the distances we were working with, the SR04 was much more accurate. I have coded the sensor functionality and linked it to the API. I still have to link the front end to the new data source.

I put together a quick prototype reservoir mount for it that you can see here:

The production mount is designed and is currently being fabricated in laser cut stainless. Should be here on Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Wiring: As you can tell from the above prototype video, wiring has been streamlined even further to also use 4 wire TRRS cables where appropriate. Combined with the Cat6 for routing and high pin count hardware, about 95% of the wiring is now using cheap off the shelf materials.

To get the most out of this change the PCB needs to be updated. This redesign is in progress and should be completed and sent to fabrication by the end of the week. I will have a rundown on the board once completed. Delivery of the first batch should take just under a week.

Cloud Control: At a lower priority than assembly, but still important, I have spent some time moving the Cloud Control set up from a full VPS to individual AWS services. The primary function of Cloud Control is to manage outside/public API integrations. All it really needs is:

• Secure User/Machine registration

• A DB to link machine meta data and integration API keys.

• A few functions to add/remove/manage integrations.

• A simple interface.

This can all be accomplished using AWS Cognito, a few tables and a couple of Lambda functions. Now, I’m not about to go all “microservice all of the things!”. But over the last couple of years I have worked with the AWS stack on a daily basis at the day job, and it’s perfect for these requirements. I’m hoping to have registrations open back up sometime next week. I will also be pushing the forum back up when that goes live.

Please note: Cloud Control is only meant to simplify the management of public API integrations. MugsyOS still runs directly on the machine itself and you never need an open internet connection to use Mugsy’s basic functionality. Public integrations can still be utilized without Cloud Control, the set up without it is just a more manual process. I will have more info on this subject once I move on to docs in the coming weeks.

Shipping: I don’t have a firm date right now. At least a couple of weeks before the initial assembled units get out. Possibly more. I should have a better idea once I finish the current in progress tasks and will speak on this again next week.

Ok, that is all for now and I’ll see everyone again in a few days. Cheers!