all technical issues resolved – i.e the espresso tastes great
the focus has now switched to external design/cosmetics
very easy to lose weeks of time fussing over details
focus on getting the base model to market for sept
hope to have something more concrete to publish soon
ps – the drip tray has a capacity of 1.5 litres
pps – have decided that it will be designed to discourage placing cups on top. given that most users seem to only have their machine on for perhaps 15-20 minutes, then switch it off again it will never serve as a useful cup warmer. secondly, in our experience you want the cups sitting on the warmer ‘right way up’ so the cup heats from the bottom up, rather than just heating the rim of the cup where your lips go. Standing the cups ‘right way up’ on the top of your machine will scratch the stainless steel almost instantly. Placing cups that are wet on top of the machine also leaves water marks on the metal, which are a pain to polish off.
Finally, we’ve included a water tap specifically so you can heat your cups up quickly & effectively; just fill them within 10mm of the top for an espresso cup, count to 10, and tip the water out and you’re good to go. As a result it means no cup rail on top of the machine which in our experience is vulnerable to damage in transit, sometimes even buckling the casing at the point where it is mounted to the casing. Things like that are a real pain to fix so i think we are better off with out it.