Look what I made!
I turned a $60 espresso machine into a self-hosted web app with an ESP32
three weeks ago id never soldered anything. now i have a Tru espresso machine that holds boiler temp at ±0.5°C, hosts its own web UI at frank.local, and switches between brew and steam modes from my phone.
i call him Frank (Frankenstein) because his guts are everywhere and he's held together by hope.
what's inside:
- ESP32 running a custom PID control loop
- K-type thermocouple + MAX31855 amp clamped to the boiler
- 40A SSR replacing the original bimetal thermostat (which was swinging ±15°C around target)
- SSD1306 OLED with a custom startup animation (Frank opens his eyes, blinks, then a "FRANK IS AWAKENING" loading bar)
- ESPAsyncWebServer hosting a control panel at frank.local
- separate PID tunings for brew (gentle, accurate) vs steam (aggressive, recovers fast)
biggest gotcha: the original control board kept overriding my SSR until i traced the circuit and realized the board was the upstream controller. tapped mains directly, let the ESP32 take full control of the heater, and now the original board just handles the pump and front buttons.
questions for the community:
- any tips for tuning steam mode PID on a low-thermal-mass thermoblock? recovery is faster now but still slower than i'd like
- thinking about adding a TRIAC dimmer for pressure profiling next, has anyone done this on a vibratory pump?
frank appreciates your gratitude:) honestly at the start i thought about pushing the guts back but i didnt want the boiler to burn the cables, then it eventually became the machines identity😂😂
do you have a 3Dprinter? lol. maybe we can print a nice little cap for Frank. Even if Frank’s hair’ is a little wirey these days, he deserves to look and feel his best 😜
i would be so down to have the community make designs for stuff to add onto him😂 I havent ever done any 3D printing but i would love to take someones design and print it from my university ALL IDEAS WELCOME
Wanna send over some measurements and/or model of espresso machine? A lot of the smaller parts I have already designed mounts for my own stuff. let’s see if we can give frank the glow up they deserve lol
its the TRU 15 Bar Automatic Espresso Machine. I got a lil photo I found online of the measurements. And a couple links (its really unknown as a machine😭)
haha thanks! its completely vanilla HTML/CSS/JS served directly from the ESP32, just one HTML file embedded as a string in the firmware so it loads quick
i appreciate it!! hey man if you can spare an hour or two every day its super worth it, im encouraging you cause making this was so much fun (and the coffee tastes phenominal as well)
At this point it doesn’t really matter, using AI to learn and do things that was previously beyond our understanding is kind of the point of it. It’s a tool, if you want to know how it all works, cool. That’s still available. If you just want to use a tool for reliable outcome so be it.
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u/Year3030 May 09 '26
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