Change to Update to V2 complete.

[awong]

I can not get the clear tubing off of the steam boiler. Any tips? I am worried if I pinch it too much it will compromise it.

[awong]

Got the tubing off. Hard pull and it came off. I did not realize that there was a lip of metal I could grab for the other two. Now I can not get the heating element out of the group boiler! Looks like the heating element is bigger than the hole??? I think it is because the element has bend to outside and the temp probe sleeve keeps me from sliding it out. May need to pour something in there and descale with heating element in.

[awong]

Got element out by bending temperature probe tube. Hopefully I did not do any damage. Will take some more photos and put together something.

Just bought all the stuff to make my V1 into a V2. Now I see there is a Dream .... sigh.

[chas]

If the tube is damaged your recourse is to buy the new style temp probe that doesn't use the tube. So not a big problem other than the $30 or so for a new temp sensor. The new style sensors are more accurate, too.

[awong]

Next problem was trying to get temp probe sleeve out of steam boiler. I had the new probe already. It was impossible. Stripped screws. Bought an extractor tool and was able to get it out. So got a new probe on steam boiler. Took temp probe out of group boiler and it looks good.

New v2 board does not seem to work for me. When I installed it the water pump does not come on to fill. If I out old board back everything works. New board no filling. Group boiler will flow through line pressure but steam boiler will not fill. Also group boiler will not recognize temp. Just heats and heats way past temp and light just blinks 95. Steam comes when pushing shot button. Put old board back in and you hear pump come on to fill boilers and everything works.

Chris coffee is saying can not be board because boards rarely go bad. But have tried timer switch in various configurations and it is strange how old board makes everything work. If temp probe was bad seems both boards would have trouble.

Tomorrow will try talking to them again.

Also now my dual pressure gauge reads .7 bar for steam boiler. Have seen someone else post about that.

[chas]

Like CCS, my first thought was that the board is fine but you connected one (or more) of the cables incorrectly. However, since it sounds like you have swapped the old and the new boards in and out at least a couple of times, it is highly doubtful that you would always connect the old board correctly and the new board incorrectly in the same way each time.

As I recall the connectors are in the same positions on both boards. However, I don't remember for absolute certain that this is true. What I am fairly sure of is that the connectors are labelled the same on each board. So this is the first thing you should look at before sending the controller board back to CCS is to compare the labels on the old board versus the new one and see if they have moved any connector to a different physical location on the board.

Former member Niko, thought he had connected his new board correctly and was haven't all kinds of strange issues. Turns out he had swapped the connectors that go the the Triac boards so that when the controller tried to turn on the group boiler, the steam boiler turned on and vice versa.

That said, I still think it is likely that you do have a bad board. Too many things are wrong that don't seem related. For example, when the water level sensor on the steam boiler detects low water the pump should come on to refill the boiler pretty much immediately so long as a shot is not currently being pulled. BTW: if the group pressure is getting so high that steam is coming out of the group, your expansion valve should be opening to dump water/pressure into the drip tray. Is this happening?

[awong]

I checked triac. Actually replaced triac with dual relay. CCS suggested I had them backwards and I checked. When backwards the steam boiler heats first, It is correct.

Physical connections are identical but will look at labels. Boards are physically identical with the exception of some added pins and connections. Looks like they used same board.

I did not let group boiler heat that far before turning it off. He had me connect the Pressure gauge to the connector behind expansion valve so my pressure only reads during a shot.

What about Pressure of steam boiler? Seems to be normal steaming but pressure reads low. I can not find the post but I seem to recall someone asking about the gauge reading 0.5 bar low which is exactly what mine does. Will try old gauge at some point but going to resolve board issue first.

[chas]

When the machine is completely cold, does the steam pressure gauge read exactly zero?

Also, since you changed the steam boiler temp sensor are you saying that the pressure reads 0.7bar with the old controller board?

[awong]

Will check gauge cold when I get home.

As it is the gauge reads 0.7 with new temp probe and old board.

CCS got in touch with someone in Italy and they admit to having a problem with firmware recently. Not a bad board but bad firmware. Same difference to me. They are sending me a new board. They did not want to cross ship but once I said I would pay for new board and they can refund me when they get defective one back.

They also will send new pressure gauge. Must be common issue as they did not hesitate on that. I asked them to test it before sending.

Once everything is working I will calibrate expansion valve as it has not been done since new.

My machine is #92. 2004 production date.

[chas]

Wow, you really do have an old timer! I'm glad to hear that CCS is doing right by you. I have never heard of incorrect boiler pressure being anything but a bad temp sensor or a bad gauge except when the pressure is zero due to a bad heater element. If you really only had 0.7 bar due to a bad sensor your steam would be really weak. If your steam seems correct then it is very likely the gauge.

I have seen or heard of several gauges that are way off due to being jarred in shipment. The normal failure mode is for them to read some value higher than zero with no pressure. A typical reading might be +0.5 bar with a cold boiler and 1.7 bar when up to temperature. However, I suppose that it is possible the gauge could get jarred in such a way that the zero point reads -0.5 bar. Of course you wouldn't truly see the gauge reading this low since there is a pin that stops the needle just a little below zero, but if you see your cold boiler pressure with the needle hard against that pin, it probably is a gauge failure.

Keep us posted.

[awong]

Yeah I had an isomac Tea but when it developed a leak I managed to get Chris to trade it in for the la spaziale as it had just come out. I have had no trouble until I too, it apart. Now that I have done it a few times I will probably do the steam boiler again in a year or so. Group boiler as well. Did not have much buildup. Soft water.

Will keep you posted. I wish I ever read those gs3 reviews. Could sell my motorcycle ...

[awong]

So I figured out the board issue. If you look at the board there are more connectors than on the old board. I tried to keep same physical location. Studying the schematic I realized that I needed to move all my connections up 2 spots. This is not intuitive because one of these is rotated 90 degrees. Top connector is flowmeter and one of the others was group boiler and steam boiler temperature probes.

I will have to write this up. There were several steps here that were not intuitive and not well supported when calling for help. The board connectors, and the triac upgrade to dual relays.

New board here is on top. Note that the connections at top and the left one is rotated 90 degrees. The embarrassing part is that there are labels M6, M2, and M3 and these are correct. I did not see them.

Old and new board.JPG (86.39 KiB) Viewed 15862 times

[chas]

Since earlier owners of the V2 had the option to send their boards back in for reprogramming in order to get the preinfusion and better temp offset control, there must be one or more additional connectors to hook up for programming. I suspect that's what one or both of the additional ones are for.

If you can fully document the differences that would be great. Also, if you have larger/higher rez photos of the two boards you can upload that would be helpful, too.

Glad to hear you got everything sorted out.

[chas]

One more question, was the connector issue on the new board responsible for only getting 0.7bar from the steam boiler?

[chas]

One more question, was the connector issue on the new board responsible for only getting 0.7bar from the steam boiler?

[awong]

The old board had pressure 0.7 and the new board did as well. CCS sent me a new dual gauge and now pressure reads about 1.2.

So my update is complete and I am very happy. Here is what I have done:

Citric Acid Dip of both boilers.

1) New logic board with box and switches
2) Replaced Triac with Dual relays (No noise at all)
3) New Dual Steam Gauage
4) New front panel to fit gauge
5) New Steam Boiler and group boiler temp probes, new sleeve for group boiler probe.
6) Insulation around steam and group boiler

Also added pressure regulator for line pressure now with pre-infusion.

The result? Machine is now a Vivaldi 2. The pre-infusion seems to do something, espresso has some new flavors I am thinking are floral or citrus in nature. Nice color and body in my shots. Based on what I have read here I just set preinfusion to 4 seconds, offset to +4 and temperature to 94. Will have to play with this but initial shots are amazing!

I had a lot of learning on this one. Will have to post or make a blog about the full thing. Took lots of photos.

[awong]

Will see what I can do about photos. Forum is limiting my photo size. May post them to my smugmug account once I get some time.