FB80 and GB5 bug

January 20th, 2009

IMPORTANT: We don’t yet know if this is a one off glitch or common to all machines.

This is probably of interest to anyone who has competed or watched competitions since 2005.

In some competitions the La Marzoccos used were GB5 and FB80 AV machines – meaning they have a line of buttons linked to volumetric controls.  More recently a lot of machines just had one big on/off button.

Anyway – I remember back in 2005 in Seattle and in other barista competitions that during a competitors set the machines just seemed to switch off.  Everyone was very confused how a barista could have done this as you have to push and hold an on/off button for at least 3 (or maybe 5) seconds.

A few months ago Matt Buckley at Milk Bar showed me this weird little thing (he didn’t want to be in the video).  Here is an explanation:


FB80 & GB5 software bug from James Hoffmann on Vimeo.

If anyone else can verify this bug I’d be interested/grateful and also I’d like to know if it affects 2 groups too.  Comment away!

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  • Ron

    wow i am going to try that out tomorrow will post the results

  • Kirk

    In the event that a machine did this during a competition what was the protocol? Did the competitor just have to lump it and carry on, or were they allowed to restart?

    • http://www.dancinggoats.com Will Frith

      competitors are allowed to call a “technical,” which will pause their clock until the issue is resolved. kind of a “time-out.”

      the rules should be somewhere online, probably at any of the SCA sites.

  • http://www.colinharmon.wordpress.com Colin Harmon

    I wouldn’t be so sure that its a bug. Its probably just a back-up in case something happens to the real on/off switch that prevents you from switching the machine on/off. And if it isn’t, La M will say it is ;)

    • http://www.jimseven.com James Hoffmann

      There is a normal button push on/off as well as a main switched on off already. It seems weird to be able to completel switch off a machine by just mispushing two buttons for a split second.

      • http://www.colinharmon.wordpress.com Colin Harmon

        I’d agree that she fact that its only a split second that you need to hold it for suggests that it wasn’t planned. Have LaM anything to say about it?

  • arthur wynne

    hey james,
    that has happened a few times at wicked 1 by accident,i hit the brew button with my thumb but accidentally caught the free flow button as well with the tip of my thumb which turned the machine off,kinda throws you off when your in a middle of a rush

  • Andrew

    I Have had this happen to me at work a few times but I could not work out what I had done. Great to know what was going on!

  • http://3bns.jazzmatique.com/ ant

    It seems this is a known bug in Australia. i tried it on a 2 group gb5 and a 4 group and both machines were responsive to the bug. When I asked the boss, he mentioned that EES had already notified him of it.

  • sL

    I’ll verify this as well… surely odd.

  • http://www.godshot.de Kai-Uwe

    We have the same problem with our GB/5 (2 Groups AV). The Revision of the Software is 1.17. best regards from Berlin

  • http://www.lamarzocco.com Enrico Wurm

    Dear James,

    thank you very much for your comments.

    We are currently developing a bug free version of the software.

    take care

    Enrico Wurm

    LA MARZOCCO SRL

    • http://www.squaremilecoffee.com James

      Hi Enrico – thanks for your comment, it is always great when manufacturers are listening and engaged with their community!

  • Marcy

    Confirming the same thing for the grouphead with the ON/OFF button on a 4grp FB80. I switch it off in this manner at least once a month… and of course only when the queue is at least 10-deep.