Vas Banoz's Starbucks Sirena Espresso Machine Hides a High-Tech Gaggiuino-Powered Upgrade
Building atop the Gaggiuino project, this upgrade keeps the BMW styling of the original machine while unlocking some major upgrades.
Maker and coffee enthusiast Vas Banoz is working to turn the BMW-designed Starbucks Sirena espresso machine into something more powerful, courtesy of some open-source upgrades and a few part swaps.
"[The] Starbucks Sirena is an obscure espresso machine with a design from BMW," Banoz explains of the eye-catching device chosen as the host for an impressive overall. "Now it's getting a new life with Gaggiuino."
As Banoz says, the project builds on Gaggiuino — an open-source effort to turn Gaggia espresso machines into professional-grade devices, unlocking fine-tuned temperature and flow controls as well as a whole new and more detailed user interface. As the name implies, however, the Gaggiuino project concentrates on Gaggia hardware — which is where Banoz's modifications come into play.
Taking the Sirena as a base, Banoz transplanted a Gaggia Classic boiler in place of the Sirena's stock model. A second-generation open-hardware Gaggiuino host controller is added, along with a replacement front panel display with 3D-printed adapter and a custom PCB based on the Nordic Semi nRF52840 module.
Once everything is put back together, Gaggiuino effectively sees the Sirena as a compatible Gaggio machine — unlocking all the advanced control features for a better, or at least more customizable, brew.
Banoz has written up his conversion on Hackaday.io, with design files for the display mount and adapter board available on GitHub under the permissive Creative Commons Zero license.