20061126

Rancilio Silvia "PID PIC NES" mod


I have long admired the pioneering work of Rancilio Silvia owners in modding their espresso machines. Here, I present my Silvia given a PIC 16F876 microcontroller brain, a 20 character VFD display, nintendo controller, three zero-crossing solid state relays, IC thermometer, laser cut acrylic top, cold cathode ground effects and shot light. This project has stretched out for quite some time, and will likely continue on as I pick away at it some more. But for now, the bulk of the first wave of coolness is complete. First, a silly demo video, followed by a list of features and discussion.


PID
A microchip PIC16F876 gets temperature readings from a boiler-top mounted National LM34 Temperature Sensor. These temperature readings are processed using the PID control loop which I learned about in detail from the excellent article PID with out a PhD. A thrift store modder's favorite NES controller can set the PID gains, espresso and steam setpoints, temperature calibration values, and heater control PWM period. I wrote the NES code by reading a fantastic spec available from the iGamePlay project. The NES gamepad's popularity is well deserved as is a tough little controller with enough buttons to be useful, yet still very simple. For example, the select button switches between the main mode and setup mode, and the arrow buttons allow you to choose and alter variable values. It works out pretty cleanly. The main display currently shows a) the current temperature, b) the heater power setting (0 - 100 percent, which translates to a PWM heat amount), c) a timer showing how long the machine has been heating up, and d) a timer that alternates between a shot timer, and a timer showing how long the machine has been temperature stable and ready (remaining within 0.5 degrees of the set point).

One of the most interesting challenges so far has actually been tuning the PID loop. Currently though, after it settles, the machine appears to be indefinitely stable (I've seen it stable for over 2 hours before shutting off the machine) to about 0.1 degrees of the set point temperature. Interestingly, stability improved substantially after I finally closed the machine back up (after easily a year of being in terminal state of "operational dissassembly") and insulated the boiler from room drafts etc.


Shot Timer
One of the big motivations to go the distance and give the PIC total machine control was to enable a shot timer. When the top switch is thrown, it starts counting the seconds. It was basically a lot of work to make the machine act like it always does, but just so the PIC knows about it. The front panel switches are all "virtual" just pulling pins on the microcontroller which in turn throws the relays. One cool side effect of this is that starting a shot no longer makes a click sound on my stereo speakers. I think this is because the zero-crossing relays remove the spark-gap that occurs with a normal 120 switch (that's just a guess, but something changed because the grinder switch still sends out an electric 'pop' . . . for now).

A closeup of the VFD display showing a slightly outdated version of the interface.

Remote Control
Once I had the PIC sitting between the switches and the relays, and I had a NES controller setup to change PID values, my inner (or is that outer?) nerd forced me to add a useless "remote control" feature that replicates the front panel switches with the A, B, and start buttons on the gamepad. Eventually, I would like to put a solenoid on the steam wand valve so that I can call for water and steam completely with buttons and switches, and get rid of the squeeky knob (btw, does anyone know how to lubricate the steam valve with something more edible than WD-40?).

Bling
A combination 5v/12v power supply left the door open for some code cathode lights to sit on the 12v rail. While there is some utility in adding light under the brew head, this is mostly just silliness-- especially my "ground effects." A laser cut clear acrylic top allows for the VFD display to be viewable without undermining the sleek boxy shape of the Silvia.

While there are still quite a few wires swimming around under the top, the overall number has been reduced, and it makes for a fairly clean appearance from above. I removed both top-mounted thermostats, and the switches have only 2 wires each instead of 4 going to each switch. Sadly, the little switch lights don't work. Though perhaps its possible to get them back?

Plumbing
I also drilled and plumbed a drain from the bottom of the drip tray. The plumbing technique was the great idea of a clever hardware store employee who showed me to the lamp parts section. The key ingredients are a threaded tube and low profile gnurled nut. A tube feeds a growler under the table and greatly reduces the number of spills from an overflowing drip tray. I am the kind of person who forgets to fill the water tank and empty the drip tray., so I really like this mod. I used to have the intake plumbed out to a remote water tank as well. It was great to be able to see the water level (a feature I hope to add for the internal tank), but ultimately it doesn't look as clean and the internal reservoir gives a little preheat to the water as well (Has anyone tried preheating their water out there, perhaps with a fish tank heater?). Heres two pics of the drain plumbing.

A view down into the tray. I've since trimmed the top off the tube coming into the tray.

Underneath the drip tray, taking advantage of a factory access hole in the bottom of the machine.


Some Guts

I had originally planned to make space for the power supply and electronics by remoting the water tank, but everything ended up fitting. The electonics was luckily simple enough that I could just solder it all on a perf-board instead of needing a real circuit board (which would still be cool, especially if one were to make more of these...)

Screw terminals on both ends of the perf-board work great as the interface to the rest of the machine. Plus, it's fun to wire stuff up solder-free with just a crimper and some terminals.

Well, if you made it this far, thanks for reading. I'll keep my eye on the comments section here if there are any questions.

20061121

PSP Firmware 3.0 Released

The latest PSP firmware has been released. All you have to do is access Network Update and download the file. Of course you will lose all hope of running any homebrew for a while. So make sure you have 2 PSP's.... :-) Here is what's new:
  • [Remote Play] has been added as a feature under [Network].
  • [Online Instruction Manuals] has been added as a feature under [Network].
  • Timed recording has been added as a feature under [RSS Channel].
  • A visual player has been added as a feature under [Music].
  • 3-speed fast forward and fast reverse has been added as a feature under [Music].
  • [Camera] has been added as a feature under [Photo].
  • [UMD Auto-Start] has been added as a feature in [System Settings] under [Settings].
  • PLAYSTATION Network titles are now supported under [Game].
If you do not have wifi on your psp you can download the update from joystiq.

20061120

PSP Firmware 3.0 supports PS3 syncing

Here are a few of the new features that will make it into the 3.0 release of the PSP firmware:

Remote Play - Remote play is a new feature in Firmware 3.00 that allows you to remotely control your PlayStation 3 from your PSP. This also includes the display of PS3 content on the PSP. "You can display a PLAYSTATION®3 system screen on a PSP™ system and play content that is on the PS3™ system. To use this feature, you must adjust the necessary settings on the PSP™ system and the PS3™ system." Using this new mode of playback, one can control the Photo, Music, Video, and Internet Browser features of the PlayStation 3 from a remote location via their Playstation Portable.


Video Compatibility - In this updated version of the Playstation Portable firmware, you are also able to play a few new video formats. The Motion JPEG format (M-JPEG), is an "informal name for multimedia formats where each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is separately compressed as a JPEG image" (Wikipedia). The PlayStation Portable plays both the Linear PCM and the μ-Law versions of the Motion JPEG video format. In addition, you will now be able to access the Camera (functionality) from the photo option menus, for quicker easier access when taking photos or video. Another nifty function is the ability to finally turn off Auto Play for inserted UMD Discs via UMD Auto Boot. (Thanks zerojay)


PlayStation Games - Here's the big tip you've been waiting for. Finally, Sony is going to drop their highly anticipated PlayStation One emulator onto the PSP. From the manual however, there seems to be a unavoidable catch. If you don't have a PS3, your not going to be enjoying PlayStation One games emulating on Sony's PlayStation One emulator for PSP anytime soon. From the manual it states that you must connect to the Playstation Online store with your PSP connected to the PlayStation 3 in order to download and play the games. In addition, they mention that you can in fact share the games, but you must activate the other system in the Friends menu as a PS3 Network Account.

More info can be found in the PSP 3.0 Firmware manual:
http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/psp/current/

20061117

PS3 to PSP Sync - Use PSP to control PS3

I'm looking for someone who has a PS3 and a PSP to test something for me. If you have it please contact me.

20061107

Time to preorder a PS3? How the PSP will Interact with PS3

The Playstation is just days away from being released. If you have not gotten a pre-order yet, getting a PS3 now would be like winning the lottery. With such low shipments, and such high demand, people are going to be willing to pay 3 and 4 times the $ for these things when the holidays roll around.

So how will the PSP play with the new Playstation 3? Sony has been pretty tight lipped about this one. Here are some good guesses:

Sony will follow in Microsoft's footsteps, and do a video distribution channel. Now that the PSP can talk wirelessly to the PS3, it will be easy for the PS3 to download high def movies for your home theater and also down convert it's high def video on demand to make it playable on the PSP screen over wifi.

It may also all tie in with Location Free. If anyone has not seen this before, you hook up a base station to your cable box and you can stream it to these nice Wireless LCD panels, your PSP, or to your PC by using software for windows XP to watch the live streams. Does anyone else notice how the new LocationFree Player Hardware looks similar to the PS3's case style?

The PSP may also be able to act as a remote control to the PS3 to make it easy to preview and queue up videos and music wirelessly throughout the house. I'm sure Sony has been itching to outdo my PSP Home Control Setup when I did that over a year ago.

I am going to try, but I don't think I will have a PS3 when it comes out. Nevertheless I'll be watching the scene to bring you the latest and greatest in PSP hacks and soon PS3 hacks. I've opened a new ps3 hacks blog called: LiquidIce's PS3 Hacks. Be sure to bookmark it and check back after launch for all of the ps3 hacking tips.

20061104

Stream Live TV to your PSP using TVUPlayer PMP and VLC

Wow, this is really cool! This video demonstrates how to get live TV on your PSP over the wifi network.


PSP controls PC via WiFi

This kid rigged up his computer so that the PSP can act as a controller for the PC. He is playing a Zelda N64 emulator on his PC using the PSP as the controller via WiFi. Pretty Slick kid!



20061102

PSP Touchscreen in the Works

Looks like the firmware guru's are taking a break from creating the latest PSP firmware hacks, and actually putting their efforts into creating a PSP touchscreen. I have long waited for the day I could use my PSP Home Control Software with a PSP Touchscreen. That day is getting closer.

The touchscreen will not work with any games, it will only be for modded PSP's with custom homebrew software that has been coded specifically with the psp touchpanel drivers.

Check back for more information on the touchscreen overlay for PSP soon.

Speaking of touchscreens, does anyone know of good touch screens that will open a browser in Kiosk mode? Can't get it working with the Nokia 770, and I'm not yet sold on the UMPC devices. Tablet Kiosk makes some nice panels, but I'm still not sure if it's worth the $$. Please contact me if you know of a good touchpanel solution.