For many of us, computers and coffee are the perfect combination. Whether we work with computers or enjoy video games, having a good coffee next to the keyboard and mouse is almost mandatory. And how lazy we become when we’re in the middle of something and ask for coffee. We have to go to the kitchen and prepare… and we forget what we’re doing.

This is something that would not happen if our computer was used to prepare coffee. And the folks at Nerdforge have hit the ground running with the perfect hybrid between a gaming PC and a coffee maker with a grinder that will make the coffee even fresher. Aim? At the push of a button, the system grinds and extracts the finest coffee without having to do anything else. Let’s see step by step how they achieve this, but first, here’s the video:

Corsair 1000D. Martina and Hansi are two Norwegian creators who have a channel called Nerdforge and they make some stuff on it. Some of their most interesting videos are where they show how they modify computers to create original works of art. They also modified a Nintendo Switch to turn it into an item that could be in the Hyrule universe. So: although they create elements from scratch, they also modify others for their projects, and in the case of this coffee maker gaming PC, the basis of everything is the box.

A huge tower, the Corsair Obsidian 1000D, worth almost 600 euros, with a capacity of up to 18 fans, the possibility of mounting an E-ATX and Mini-ITX card at the same time. Do you want to use two computers together? You can do that with this board. The reason they chose the 1000D is that there is a lot of free space at the front if you choose not to put the front fans, and it also has a wide base to separate the power supply from the entire coffee machine system.

Imagine the box is large enough to fit both the grinder system and the entire coffee machine.

Modified Moccamaster. Speaking of the second main character, we have the coffee machine. It is the Moccamaster KBGT, a ‘traditional’ filter coffee machine with a 1.25 liter tank, priced at around 230 Euros. It’s a perfect system for what they want to set up as the water tank is separate from the coffee tank, so they can allow the ground coffee to fall into the basket without having to modify the water drainage system. Because yes, there is a coffee chamber on the top and a grinding system that will grind the coffee instantly.

It must be said that the Moccamaster is an excellent coffee maker, but it has a problem: a base that heats up to maintain the temperature of the coffee. If you love coffee, you already know that this isn’t ideal as it changes the final taste of the drink, and in the case of the Nerdforge PC, Martina says they don’t need another element that puts more heat into the PC. That’s why they removed that heating plate she. Otherwise, it’s a virtually unchanged Moccamaster. And that’s no small thing, considering everything else has been changed.

These tubes are PC liquid cooling tubes but have been reused for this product. There is an elbow on the grinder to prevent the steam coming out of the filter holder from rising and wetting the pipe inside.

Problems. As you can imagine, many problems arise in such a project. First you need to cut off the top area of ​​the box to fit both the water intake system into the Moccamaster and the mill bucket. It’s a simple part, but in one of the first tests, the team found that the tube connecting the ground coffee to the portafilter became wet due to steam condensation. This will leave residue in the next coffee, which is not optimal.

For this, they carry the coffee in a tube, but by adding an elbow to the end, they allow the ground coffee to fall into the filter holder, but condensation does not affect it at all. A tube made of the same material is the tube that connects the upper funnel to the coffee maker’s water tank, and in both cases it is a tube used for liquid cooling in the PC. The other problem is the number of custom parts they have to produce.

3D printing. Using a 3D printer, Martina and Hansi produced several parts that will hold each part of both the grinder and the coffee machine. This way they screwed it onto the Corsair 1000D to make everything safer, but also create a sort of elevator for the cup into which the freshly brewed coffee falls. Since the goal was to prevent splashing, they moved the glass as close to the filter holder as possible.

Once everything is assembled as it should be, it’s time to address perhaps the most difficult part, the control system, so the magic can happen with the push of a button.

They programmed a system to control coffee extraction time, an LED progress bar, and an infrared system that detects whether a cup is present. Otherwise, coffee preparation will not start even if the button is pressed.

Arduino as brain. At the heart of it all is an Arduino board with switches that turn both the grinder and the coffee maker on and off, and it’s a very clever thing: an infrared system that prevents you from pressing the button on the ‘lift’ they’ve built for the cup and getting it started. To get coffee if you don’t have a cup. In this case, if the system detects that there is no container, it will not prepare coffee.

They also programmed the time required to fill the cup with liquid so that if for some reason too much water was added to the coffee maker’s reservoir, the cup would not overflow and the computer would not clog. It’s definitely not recommended. Once all this was done, they decorated the computer with LED lights and created a front cover with wooden boards. An important thing: LEDs are not only decorative, they also have a system that takes into account time programming and turns green when all the liquid falls into the glass. This is a ‘quality’ detail.

Automatic coffee machine with ray tracing. The truth is that this is a pretty cool DIY project, and although the investment of time and money is significant, it’s not bad at all as a system that will last a long time. Since you haven’t replaced the coffee maker, if it breaks in the future you can always buy another one, and thanks to the large interior space of this huge box, if you want to upgrade the hardware at some point, you’ll have no problem fitting a larger box. graphics card. .

Martina promised to use the computer over the next few months to see the pros and cons of her creation. And the PC hardware isn’t bad either, as it has the RTX 4070 Ti and Intel Core i7-14700K. The truth is, given this hardware and its coffee-making ability, I see no reason to get up from your chair.

Pictures | Nerdforge’s video

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