# If I can fit an Auber PID, anyone can.



## bronterre (Mar 25, 2014)

I don't think anyone expert will gain much from this post, but people who are contemplating installing an Auber PID but don't have much confidence about it may find it helpful. It's at the cost of confessing my own very stupid mistakes, but hey.

Some people on this forum have commented that the Auber instructions are very thorough. That is true, but they're not hugely readable or clear; people who habitually read technical manuals may disagree. I followed them as closely as I could and took my time. However, when I switched the machine on I fused the kitchen ring main. The power cable in the controller had come loose and shorted; when I say it had "come loose" I mean of course that I hadn't double-checked that it was secure. The only, weak, mitigation is that the sockets where you have to fix a jumper cable as well as the main cable are very fiddly, but it was wholly my fault. There was a nasty looking scorch mark on the inside of the controller box; however I hoped that this was just the power wire touching the case or maybe another wire, and the circuits hadn't been damaged.

But before I looked inside the controller, I'd found another mistake in the wiring inside the Gaggia. At one point in the instructions, Auber tell us that the Gaggia wire colours are very inconsistent from year to year, and to beware of this and ensure we nevertheless get the right cable. But this advice is given in relation to a tricky connection slightly later in the process than the connection when I made my mistake. I'd seen that the colour I connected matched the photo in the instructions, but missed the fact that the text didn't match. Again, my mistake, but I'd really emphasise that people who do this check every connection regardless of the colour of the wires in the photos; and to check the fastness of every connection even when they've got fed up with the whole process. They may well, of course, be quite competent enough to do that without my advice.









Anyhow, when I'd put it all back together, it worked! The set value was actually 101 degrees C rather than 102 as specified in the manual. I switched it to 102 as the basic level. I'd be interested if anyone knew that this was a deliberate change or just a mistake. What about the coffee? On the first cup, very very nice. Compared to when I got the unmodified machine a year ago, the cumulative changes are like chalk and cheese.


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## Andy_C (Feb 4, 2015)

Hi there, thanks for the post, am considering Auber PID and your comments are very helpful. Thank you

Andy


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## bronterre (Mar 25, 2014)

Andy, my pleasure. One further point, trivial but may save a few minutes' time: I can't see how they've fitted the screw for the SSR with the bolt on the inside, though the pictures show different. The only way I could get a spanner to it was have the bolt on the outside, with the screw held by a screwdriver.


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