Londinium - IoT enabled espresso machine

INDUSTRY: FOOD AND BEVERAGE EQUIPMENT

IoT-enabled espresso machine

LONDINIUM espresso is a producer of premium lever espresso machines selling its products in 64 countries.

Fracino, UK's award-winning manufacturer of cappuccino and espresso machines operating since 1962, is Londinium's manufacturing partner.

Problem

Londinium and Fracino were looking to create a lever espresso machine that could master ultra-light nordic style espresso roasts, yet still deliver on a traditional Italian espresso roast and everything in between. They wanted to give customers granular control over machine settings via a beautiful and easy-to-use mobile app while minimizing development costs and time to market.
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One of the challenges of great product experience was the ability to schedule the autonomous start of the machine to reach the optimal condition when customers are ready for their first cup of espresso.

Solution

Fracino team used Blynk IoT platform to build a beautiful, user-friendly app that connects espresso machines to the Internet and allows users to change various machine settings in order to experiment with taste.

All software components, like connecting a machine to a home wi-fi network, registering users, scheduling were available out-of-the-box, the company was able to quickly create end-customer-ready application and focus more on what they do best: build the best espresso machines.

A seamless WiFi device provisioning flow was implemented with Blynk.Edgent. It's a packaged solution, that allows configuring advanced features like OTA firmware updates and WiFi device activation without the need for extensive coding.

For scheduling the remote machine start, Fracino used the built-in Automations module provided by Blynk. It allows cloud-based or stored-on-machine scheduling to operate even when the Internet is not available. This scheduling can even be tied to a sunrise time at a customer's location.

Additionally, Londinium gets extensive data insights on the usage of their machines, which was previously impossible. This will enable product enhancements in the future. Thankfully, firmware over-the-air updates are also provided by Blynk and any improvements can be deployed to devices and apps in no time.

Blynk supported Londinum and Fracino all the way from prototyping to product launch, and beyond

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1. Prototyping‍

The iterative prototyping process allowed them to go through multiple iterations and get early feedback from potential customers

Quick prototyping is essential when testing various equipment configurations to achieve optimal product performance

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2. Branding

Blynk.Studio (Blynk's development service team) helped to achieve the authentic minimalistic and luxury look and feel of the mobile apps for iOS and Android
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3. Launch

Londinium apps for iOS and Android were published to App Store and Google Play ready to be downloaded by their new users.

All Londinium devices are connected to a private secure and reliable Londinium Cloud Server powered by Blynk

Components and services used

Blynk Mobile UI constructor
Drag-n-drop mobile application builder was used to create initial prototype, transform it into final user-experience, and become the final product‍

Blynk Edge Agent
Blynk hardware API for ESP32 was used for WiFi communication between devices, Blynk.Cloud, and mobile apps

Blynk.Cloud for Businesses
A private Londinium Business Cloud Server was launched to keep "all the dots" connected, store data, and provide user management.‍‍

Blynk.My
A special Londinium-branded theme was applied to the apps together with app icon, company logo, fonts, and brand colors
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App Publishing
Londinium iOS and Android apps were published to App Store and Google Play and transferred under Londinium ownership

Blynk.Inject
Blynk.Inject allows new customers to easily connect Londinium espresso machines to their home or office WiFi network

Blynk.Faces
Blynk.Faces are designed for on-the-fly updates of apps UI without re-publishing.

Blynk.R
Blynk.R module is used to register new Londinium users, their password management, transactional emails and user profiling
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Blynk.Air
Firmware over-the-air updates are used to update units after they have been delivered to customers

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