This is my Raspberry Pi-powered espresso machine dashboard:

http://zentrale1.com/~an/coffee/

I use this with an iPad standing next to the machine to check that the temperature is okay before pulling a shot. The temperature controller is implemented with an Arduino board.

Nice, here is the current progress of my Silvia / PID monitoring: http://i.imgur.com/mis4L.png.

I'm using Arduino + TC4 shield for PID and interfacing w/ thermocouples, SSR, and opto-isolators (for front panel switch sensing). Serial to RasPi to web sockets for the frontend.

Their power hookup looks a bit dangerous:

http://zipwhip.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/raspiblog2.jpg

Yeah, that should be sheathed. Let's hope no-one texts for a coffee and starts a fire instead!

Agree, at least put a bit of heat-shrink tubing on that. Though, I'll admit to having done worse.

Would have been so much cooler if it supported HTCPCP: https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2324.txt

Perfectly executed. But for home use I would have just screwed an RC servo motor on the front to press the button :)

Admit it, you just needed an excuse for the company to buy a nice espresso machine for the office :)

And ~20-40 hours of hardware hacking.

It was looking pretty good until that last picture.

That mains wiring is plain unsafe and almost criminal...

Nice, but what happens if two people text the machine at the same time :P

I'd assume it would work just like a printer que.

I'd assume it works just like pressing a button while the coffemaker's brewing a cup. You'll probably have to resend the text.

<snob mode="coffee" seriousness="a little">

You call that an espresso machine? And I suppose you're filling it with Starbucks beans.

</snob>

Yeah - I feel the same. Looked at my hand-me-down Rancilio Silvia and wondered about the set up. A text to turn it on and prime the boiler would be great and very useful for my late morning weekend coffees. I love this machine, with 2x $40 services it has run for about 15 years, a minimum of 2 coffees per day.

Trying to sign up for ZipWhip, I got this: http://d.pr/i/IEr3

Feel free to send us an email @ support@zipwhip.com with the number you are trying to register and we can get it sorted out. We are publishing better error handling for the bug you encountered this afternoon. -james @ zipwhip

Does anyone know if this sort of hack also exist / is possible for a Philips Senseo machine?

I don't see why not, but you would need a machine with a built in pod dispenser to make coffee "unattended" The machine in the article grinds coffee beans.

What do I have to text to make a mug appear?

yea, good point - what if we have many people in the office and everyone is using his own cup ? :)

pic recognition + robot arm ?