Coffee hack?

[Alisa Ex]

So, while cleaning the food area last week, I realized that we have a coffee pot and espresso machine that I've never seen anyone use, along with all that food back there. I really feel like it being back there in the shop is diminishing the capabilities of it's awesomeness. While I agree that food/snacks shouldn't be the first thing people see when they initially enter the lab, it would be more beneficial to have it in Kipp Hall somewhere. I'm thinking that if we move the refrigerator where to chairs and robot are right now, it'd be a nice medium for not being the first thing people see, AND not being in the shop area. What if we switch the vending machine and 3d printers? The hacker dojo camera where the soda fridge is, and move the boxes with all the other ones, and had food where they used to be. Can we set aside a night to rearrange things(no hurry)?

On this note, I think it'd be awesome to have a night where we have Sam come in and teach a class about coffee. Making it, drinking it, enjoying it. I also think having a coffee pot in use would be nice seeing as a lot of us are here during Sam's off hours at lo fi (or are just lazy/broke/lazy), and maybe this night would be a good time to take apart some coffee pots/machines.

I personally don't think we need the espresso machine, and it's just taking up space currently. I don't know who brought it in, but it's not getting used nor do I think it will get used.

Another side note, the reason I was cleaning the food area is because someone left 3 or 4 frozen dinners out, on top of the fridge.
1. It's a waste of good food.
2. It caused the place to smell preetttty rank for a while.
3. It was gross to clean.
Just a friendly reminder: put stuff back, don't leave shit out, & be excellent to each other.
^_^

[Chad Stearns]

I support Alisa on her great journey to better space lay out.

Could you provide some kind of drawing showing where you envision these things to be? Did you just want to switch the 3d printers with  the front-fridge? Or something more elaborate?

-ChadCS

[Nate Caine]

Some of this has come up before. 

 

The further away from the bathroom sink (only sink we have), the more trouble it is to run the coffee pot, much less clean it.

 

As for cleaning up food, it sure would be nice if people who have lots of food to discard, actually took it out to the dumpster (outside the building).

 

And please don't dump half-filled soda (can, cup, etc) in the various trash cans in the building.

 

Try to make the distinction between TRASH and GARBAGE. 

 

If it's GARBAGE, take it outside. (We've had lots of trouble with ants due to soda, pizza, donuts, etc.)

 

If it's TRASH put it in the containers in the building.  If you have topped off the trash, it's time to take out the trash. 

 

Guess what?  You're it!

[Brian Aday]

+1 Alisa! Go for it!

[Brian Aday]

Hey! How about we shift to one of the single cup coffee makers? If we put it next to the water cooler we have water and there isn't any pot to burn and empty. 

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Brian Aday <proje...@gmail.com> wrote:

+1 Alisa! Go for it!

[Jasper Nance]

Woah, that's brilliant!!

--
 
 

--
----------------------------------------------
Jasper Nance - KE7PHI
Creative and Scientific Imagery
http://www.nebarnix.com/

[Ryan Mcdermott]

I wonder if we could just make a k-cup brewer?  My understanding is that it's just some coffee grounds with a little filter at the bottom.  All it's really doing is regulating the speed at which hot water passes through the cup.

If we made a gravity fed machine, we could probably just pour hot water in the top, and use a valve of some kind to regulate the flow rate of the water.  (Or maybe the grounds regulate it?).  I think a k-cup is just a nicer, automatic version of this: http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/gutcheck/coffee_brew_methods2.jpg

Or a brewer is $150 (for a nice one) on Amazon :-P

--
 
 

[Jerry Davis]

yeah. but beware, the k-cups are expensive.

kinda like buying a cheap printer only to find out the each cartridge is 1/4 the price of the printer!

just sayin ... (I don't drink coffee! never liked the stuff)

--
 
 

--
Licensed Amateur Radio Operator: K7AZJ
Registered Linux User: 275424
Arduino programmer

Recursion: (noun):
      see: Recursion

[Ryan Rix]

They also taste like feet in my experience.

That's only mostly my coffee hipster talking, I never liked those single
serving things even before finding Good Coffee.

> --
--
Ryan Rix
http://rix.si

[Nate Plamondon]

-1 k-cup. wasteful, expensive, and nasty.

--
Nate Plamondon

> --
>
>

[Ben Humpherys]

Not gonna lie, I've been eyeing that kitchen area for a while. Removing it in favor of a table for more work space would be awesome. Let me know if I can help

[Ryan Mcdermott]

I was thinking of actually tying people to one of the tables and forcing them to use a single service coffee machine if we had one.

I would use their tears to make salted caramel to flavor THEIR OWN coffee.

Should I submit the coffee torture table as a HYH proposal, do you guys think?  Or should heatsync buy the ropes?

On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 1:17 PM, Ben Humpherys <moog...@gmail.com> wrote:

Not gonna lie, I've been eyeing that kitchen area for a while. Removing it in favor of a table for more work space would be awesome. Let me know if I can help

--

[Will Bradley]

It counts as an art project, get a grant for it ;)

Seriously though, there seems like a lot of energy for playing HeatSync Tetris. Even the best laid plans can fall flat in this space, when the reality of funky oak beams and weird electrical placement comes into play.

Maybe we should make next HYH a _real_ space hacking day?

--
 
 

[Alisa Ex]

I think the K cups are a bit excessive. I was just thinking it'd be nice to drink some coffee at 2am while hacking when no place is open. I don't think we need fancy coffee, or even expensive coffee. (The K cup stuff does taste like crap too) I feel like just having coffee (Which by the way, we do have in the back), creamer and sugar should be enough. If you want more, go support local businesses like LoFi. I don't want to integrate a coffee shop (unless Sam wants to expand).

Also, to ease everyone's minds. I love coffee. I love clean things. I'm at the lab quite frequently. I will take over the duty of coffee pot cleaner.

I also love the idea of doing an HYH tetris night. We can get together and make a gameplan on the whiteboards, throw around ideas, etc. The one thing I've been worried about is I have this awesome idea, but the practicality of it isn't there due to the internal layout of the lab.

Ryan, that's pure gold. +1 coffee torture table.

[Brian Aday]

I am addicted to my coffee maker, so here is the scoop. The K cup machines come with a "you-fill-it" K-cup replacement (K-cup filter unit) , you don't have to use the cups. K Cups are pricey, roughtly .75, about the same as our soda. 

--
 
 

[Jeremy Davis]

Being a coffee snob to a degree I find for single servings a grinder and an aero press to be awesome, as a HSL project I have had the thought about an automated one and plan to build one at some point. But lack of wet bar or anything up front does conflict with putting the pot near the people.

[VicSilva]

There are K-cup filter cups that are reusable and you add your own coffee.  We have one in our house.  We just buy coffee beans and only grind a few, enough to fill the k-kup filter, and voila....one cup of good coffee without half of the coffee pot to throw out because you forgot.

http://compare.ebay.com/like/330771496852?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

[Nate Caine]

A mug full of hot water is readily available around the lab (water cooler/heater or microwave oven).

 

Bring whatever floats your boat and make your own coffee and tea.

 

I don't see why HeatSync should be supplying some the above mentioned coffee solutions.

 

We don't supply free sodas and snacks (despite what some people seem to think).

 

So some sort of donation jar arrangement is definately in order here.

 

 

[Alisa Ex]

Guys, this was to start a night in order to learn about coffee, and remind you that we already have a coffee pot, we should just use it.

The K cups are excessive and unnecessary, and we already have a coffee pot and coffee guys!

I do agree though, that it should have a donation jar similar to the one for food and drinks.

How many people would be interested in the coffee hack night this whole thing was suggesting?

Why don't we hack together our own K Cup machine that night instead of just buying one?!

Or moreso, who would like to get together with me sometime to discuss moving the lab around so the coffee is easier to access, or even the food if possible?

I can be there anytime Sunday - Tuesday. I'm thinking Monday night might be good for it, but I'm not cross checking this with the lab schedule so I'm not sure.

[Jeremy Davis]

I'd be interested if tues or wed, Monday I won't be around and thurs is thanksgiving, assuming you wouldn't want to do anything then.

[Ryan Mcdermott]

I'm bringing in k cups just to spite all of you.

--
 
 

[Ryan Mcdermott]

Not sure who brought in the coffee machines, but THANK YOU! :-D

[Alisa Palson]

BUMP Sam from Lo Fi has taken interest in resparking this thread. He is willing to donate an espresso machine to see if we can hack it with Raspi. I'll be in talks with him, and we'll set aside a night to do this. Anyone have input on when would be a good time to do this?

--
 
 

[Jerry Davis]

What needs to be hacked? I mean what does he want us to do with it.?

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "HeatSync Labs" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to heatsynclabs...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
 
 

[Ryan Mcdermott]

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes also yes, also yes, yes, and also yes.  But also yes.  (And yes).

Go there, take the espresso machine from him (by force if you must) and bring it to the lab.  I'm on my way.

(Also is he dead set on Raspi?  No matter, just lie to him and tell him we'll use a raspi and then we'll use something else)

[Alisa Palson]

Sam would like to try to control the espresso machine using a raspi instead of a control panel. I know he can explain it better, because I don't know too much about espresso machines. Also, for clarification, Sam is donating it for the night so that we all can hack on it, but I'm pretty certain he is not donating it to the lab. Sorry for the miscommunication.

On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 3:50 PM, Jerry Davis <jda...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Alisa Palson]

Sam is picking the espresso machine up tomorrow.

[Ryan Mcdermott]

Oh, snap :(

That's really the type of thing that would take more than a night, methinks.  But no matter!  A night will be a good start!

[Alisa Palson]

Yes, we were thinking about leaving the espresso machine here, and then having a couple night where we would hack on it.

[Jerry Davis]

ok. here's something I have thought about. it's sketchy.

1. devise a hardware hack that essentially is a stomper which is driven by a servo motor. it sole job in life is to either stomper the spigot, or pull its arm (stomper) out of the way to let the fluid flow.

2. attach that servo to a GPIO port of the rpi.

EITHER:

3. get one of those small 4 inch screens for $40.00 that attach to the rpi, and write a python Tk script to let them punch a row of buttons.

lets say buttons for a small medium and large drink. small say == 3 seconds of flow time, med == 4.5 seconds, and large = 7 seconds. or some other values determined by actual measurement.

OR:

3. write in cherrypy, a small REST webservice on the rpi that allows a client anywhere to connect, and write like small medium and large in the url. to do the same thing as above.

I have done cherrypy before so thats not too difficult. and I have done tk, but with just a few buttons, it wouldn't be much to do.

Of course the only thing thus far I have done is to blink an LED on the rpi, so it would take a little more effort to do this.

ALSO, if there were several machines involved, we could have several rows of buttons -- one for each machine.

Anyway those were my thoughts. What do y'all think?

Jerry