This has kept me busy all morning and was either a lot of fun, or the funes from the rosin-core solder have been getting to me… I assembled my espresso controller and gave it the first power on and it seems to work marvelously! While testing it, I’ve made a few notes and discovered a […]
Happy new year! Last year (beginning of December) I had sent out my designs for my Faema controller boards to pcbs.io a few weeks back and they finally came today! I knew it would be a couple of weeks so I had them delivered to my parents house in northern New York where I am […]
I’ve finally created a full controller schematic for my Faema Special in KiCad. In typical fashion, I’ve added lots of extra features that are probably unnecessary, but I want them the same! Being that a lot of it is software in the microcontroller, I’ll continue to add features, but here is what it does in […]
So, I’m not sure if anyone has noticed that in the previous pictures (all of them) one of the main components that my machine has been missing since I bought it is the main rotary switch. You can see in the first picture there’s just a hole where the switch was, and the neon lamp […]
I decided I couldn’t wait to set up the Faema Special in my kitchen now that it was painted and looking nice. To do this, it’ll need a 2-phase (240VAC) power source, a water source and a drain. To power the machine, I’ve split the power for my kitchen range using a custom splitter that […]
I finally decided it was time to give the machine some fresh colors. It was a red color before and I wanted to keep it the same. I ended up selecting a color from the PPG auto finishes catalog that is an Alfa Romeo red. I forget the exact name of the color, but it’s […]
I finally got the machine reassembled, except for the cosmetic panels (which still look faded and oxidized). Repaired the level control board (with stuck relay). I discovered that it energized the boiler fill valve continuously as long as the machine had power. The video posted is of the first shot drawn on this machine for […]
I was finally able to finish tearing the frame apart, drilling out all the rivets in it. I’ve stripped them and primed them with etching primer and finally given them a matte black finish. I decided to rivet it all back together with stainless steel rivets, preventing future rust…it is, after all, an espresso machine. […]
Started descaling the plumbing and boiler with some citric acid. The boiler had about 8mm of scale in the bottom…so much so that the drain plug was missing and it was still holding water. Based on calculation, it holds 12 liters of water. When it started leaking, I realized the only thing holding water in […]
Started tearing down the Faema Special S87. After seeing the shape of everything, I’m thinking the best thing to do is remove all components from the frame and disassemble the frame for rust removal.