bam! i rule.

okay, after the setback of blowing up my lighted rocker switch, i wired the PID directly into the power line. the power line went into my power strip.

a switch on the PID sucks because :

- it's two things to turn on to get my shot of espresso, and when i drag my arse outta bed in the morning, it's all i can do to remember to flip one switch.

a switchless, direct power PID sucks because :

- i have to remember to plug it in to turn it on, which is even lamer than a switch

clearly, there had to be a better way. there was: wire the PID into silvia's power switch, then i'd just turn it on same as i have done every morning since she's graced my counter.

i called up my EE paly and he said he'd come visit next weekend to help me wire the PID into silvia's switch.

but i was still hopped up on caffeine and getting boreder by the minute, so i did a bit of research. pepe has the bad-assest of all PID installations, but I didn't want to perform that level of surgery on silvia. so i followed just his power wiring instructions and modified them just a tad so i wouldn't have to shorten any of rancilio's factory installed wires.

rancilio did a beautiful wiring job, which made me feel totally inadequate, although the solution that I came up with for not shortening their wires made me feel a little clever (I'm sure it's a 1st-week-on-the-job electrician's trick, but i've never been an electrician).

so, eventually, i got it all wired up. i'm pretty handy now opening her up and i have a good idea of what all the wires do.

i worked out in my head why the PID install won't mess up the steam t-stat, though to be honest, i've made 1 cappa in the last 4 months so i wouldn't be terribly upset if the steam is now hosed.

now i've got one switch to turn on silvia and the pid, and i can spend next weekend with W. sweeet.