Kostverlorenvaart

The hopper on my Mazzer Mini is a bit big for my method of single dosing . I typically grind just 14 to 20 grams of beans at a time, enough for one cup of espresso. This way the beans stay as fresh as possible in their bag. In a cafe environment this would be too fussy and there the hopper is very handy as a lot of coffee can be thrown in. There, kilos of beans are used every day so the freshness of the beans should not be at risk.   From the top, the beans travel downward, through the burrs. Peter van der Weerd exchanged the original burrs for the ones made for the heavier Super Jolly model which are identical in size but different in cut. They grind faster which is a bit of a strain on the engine but no problem in a home environment.  Below you see a metal sheet cut and bent to cover the chute , the little tunnel from the side of the burrs into the metal funnel. It is supposed to protect the fingers of any curious kid so they...

The little Mahlkönig grinder needed te be cleaned as it hadn't been for a few months. I'm playing with the idea to have it modified and if I take it to a workshop, it should not be clogged up with coffee grounds. The grinder standing up (note the ugly smoke-dark seventies look of the hopper):   Lying down, hopper and top burr taken off: The burrs after a bath -- screws on the left burr need a scrape still: The grinder beneath the lower burr before and after the vacuum cleaner: The micro switch that 'feels' if the hopper is in place. If I replace the ugly hopper, I need to make sure the switch is still on: Lower burr re-installed: Upper burr tightened in as well:

A friend handed me a Pipo M3 tablet that's gone into some kind of screen freeze and asked me if I could fix it. Although I do have a soldering iron, I'm not really good at such things but I was willing to try. And it worked: This is what I did. First a picture of the two diodes that I bought: There's a website ( http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/41687-solved-mod-pipo-m3-touchscreen-issue/page__st__20__gopid__749161#entry749161 ) with a brief description of a possible fix and I used that as a guideline. The trick would be to solder a Schottky diode 1N4148 or 1N5819 to bridge two very tiny parts on the board. I bought both diodes and used the tiniest of the two. Opened the back using a credit card to un-click the front/back connectors. The electronics were insulated by thin plastic sheets fastened with sticky tape. I used the soldering iron to temporarily disconnect the red wire (the plus wire from the rechargable battery). Then I used gaffer tape to isolate t...