Wiring the La Pavoni for the Fuji PXG4 controller

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(Finished project on
http://kostverlorenvaart.blogspot.nl/2015/01/finished-pavoni-fuji-pxg4-pid-probe.html)


To safely connect the SSR output of the new Fuji PXG-4 controller to the heating element of the La Pavoni, I drilled a hole in the side of the foot of the little espresso machine. A flexible cable (formerly the 220V cable of a Macbook Pro) goes from the Fuji box into the bottom of the La Pavoni and the two connectors that the pressostat was switching are now connected to that cable with cable shoes.

Pressostat wires still in place
I used tie-wraps to ensure that the new cabling does not touch any of the hot surfaces and another wide  tie-wrap to make sure the cable can't be pulled out by accident.

I decided to connect the K-type thermocouple to the bottom of the boiler at the same spot where the thermal fuse is connected.
K-type probe at the bottom centre left, SSR cables connected

This way, the probe cable and the SSR cable can both use the same exit and be also tie-wrapped together. The advantage is that this new addition of a thermo-controller does not come with too many different wires that will trail the espresso machine if for instance I want to unhook it and empty the boiler into the kitchen sink.

Also, if the probe is securely fastened, one avoids that it accidentally comes lose and then causes the temperature controller to fire up the heating element on full capacity trying to raise the temperature of the probe that's dangling somewhere at room temperature.

I do wonder if my SSR cables are robust enough to stand the heat in the foot of the machine. The older wires all have a different type coating, the same type you see in very old radios or toasters. The wires inside my bigger more modern espresso machines are not very different than what I used now though.

I configured the Fuji PXG4 using the detailed blog I'd written early last year. Happy to have saved that step-by-step procedure at the time.
Ready to roll, Fuji PXG-4 on the left, USB cable center, La Pavoni right
I manually went through the menus of the PXG4 as described in the "setup" blog listed below and I noticed when making the connection to the Artisan software that I had left out the setting of the decimal value in my earlier setup description. So do not forget to do this as well: as per page 75 of the  full PXG4 manual, set one decimal place. Then, Artisan will not see 24ºC as 2.4ºC ;-)

Also, I struggled a while getting the PXG4 to communicate with Artisan over the USB port and just before hacking into the normally "hidden" communication menu I found out that the tiny "audio type" jack under the PXG4 needed to be pushed in a tiny bit more... I want to thank the Fuji France director Stéphane Montbrizon for his amazingly fast late night response to my request for assistance!

Related links:






PS 23 July 2017 Guy Tzur asked me for more pictures of the wiring:














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