A machinist in Yilan County has built an automated pour-over coffee machine that can be operated wirelessly by a cellphone through Bluetooth.
Yu Teh-yuan (游德源), 62, said he was motivated by his love for coffee to build the machine and that he left it at the Suao Township (蘇澳) community office for local residents to use.
“How does this thing work?” Yu quoted one local resident as asking him, adding that many people gathered around the machine to see it when he first brought it to the office.
Photo: Chang Yi-chen, Taipei Times
Yu graduated from the National Taipei Institute of Technology (now the National Taipei University of Technology) and served as township warden for several years, during which he developed a taste for pour-over coffee.
He once donated the proceeds he made from selling coffee to a Penghu County community center, where he volunteered with friends, Yu said.
He was happy to help the center, which takes care of children with disabilities, but realized that making several cups of pour-over coffee by hand was a very tiring process, he said, adding that he got the idea to make an automatic pour-over coffee machine after he returned to Yilan.
“I am always coming up with ideas for machines, but actually setting to work and building a machine is a difficult process,” he said.
The machine took him about one year to design and build, and he made several revisions along the way, Yu said, adding that he often reordered the same component several times before finding the right size and specification for his machine.
“If you count all the failed cups of coffee, I would say I have tested at least a few thousand cups,” he said.
Using his phone, Yu can set the quantity of coffee he wishes to make, after which the beans are freshly ground and the water is poured. The whole process takes about five minutes, he said.
After a coffee machine at the township office broke down, Yu replaced it with his newly built automated machine, which has been well-received by township residents, he said.
While the machine is still a work in progress, he hopes to eventually work out the kinks and then donate it to the community center in Penghu where he volunteered a few years ago, Yu said.
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