April 8, 2026
Description
EZDante (or „easy Dante“) is a portable motorization for the coffee grinder Comandante C40 MK4.
The general idea incl. the selection of electronic parts was taken from the Kaffee-Netz forum. So a big „thank you“ goes to everyone who shared their insights there. I „just“ designed the 3D printable housing.
Please be aware that working with electronic parts and high voltage/current is dangerous. And I am far from being an expert at that topic. Follow these instructions only if you know what you are doing. Moreover keep in mind that the Comandante is designed as a hand grinder and not for being used with motors.
I take no responsibility for any damage to anyone or anything that occurs because of building or using the EZDante.
3 screws of type M3x10 (two for the lid, one for the clamp)
1 screw of type M3x25 for the control module
1 M3 nut for the clamp
3 heat inserts M3 for lid and control module
Delock Connector DC 5.5 x 2.5 mm female bulkhead soldering version - round 20 V / 9 A (90171)
A 12V DC power supply that fits into the DC 5.5 x 2.5mm connector above.
During grinding I measured a max of around 40 Watts. So I recommend a power supply providing a bit more. I use a Mean Well GST90A12-P1M which might be a bit overkill.
Diode 1N 5400
Some cables, I used 0,75mm²
Optionally some cable clamping lugs if you want a reversible connection
Insulating tape
Adapter: PROXXON 23713, 1/4“ square socket to 5.5mm hexagon socket.
Others might work as well depending on size. Please post your experience in the comments.
Adapter 1/4“ male square to 1/4“ male hexagon, e.g. this one
First, print the parts. You can find the print settings I used down below.
While the parts are being printed you can do the annoying and most difficult part:
You need to turn the '1/4“ male square to 1/4“ male hexagon' adapter into a '1/4“ male square to 6mm round shaft' adapter. I used a metal file for that.
Once done, you need to shorten that thing to around 19mm. I used a metal saw for that and again the metal file to flatten the sharp edges.
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Solder the diode and some cables to the motor. Be aware that there must be some space close to the edges for the lid.
Pay attention to the correct polarity of the diode. You don‘t wanna cause a short circuit!
Solder cables to the switch and power connector and mount both parts to the control module.
Now is also a good time to add the cable lugs if you want to have a reversible connection.
Use your soldering iron to melt the threaded heat inserts into the outer housing (2 pieces at the top) and inner housing (1 at the side).
Remove the 3 screws from the bottom of the motor that are used to attach the gear unit to the motor. Then slide the gear unit and the motor into the printed inner housing. Use the 3 screws to assemble inner housing, gear unit and motor.
Mount the coupling on the motor shaft. On the other side of the coupling mount your custom metal piece from step 2. Once done, click the Proxxon Adapter on top.
Slide the inner housing (incl. motor, coupling etc.) into the outer housing.
Connect the cables from the motor to the cables from the control module.
Use insulating tape or similar where cables are connected to avoid short circuits.
Mount the control module to the outer housing using the 25mm M3 screw.
Mount the lid on top using two 10mm M3 screws.
Slide the clamp over the Comandante. Then put the EZDante on top of the Comandante. Align EZDante and Clamp. Fix the position of the clamp using the M3 nut and remaining 10mm screw.
Filament: ASA.
Other filaments might work as well. Note that the clamp needs a little bit of flex. Please post in comments what filament worked for you.
0.2mm layer height
Wall printing order: Inner/Outer/Inner
Outer housing and clamp:
Bridge Flow Ratio: 1.5
Wall loops: 6
Bottom shell layers: 6
20% Gyroid infill
Enable supports for Outer model (on build plate only)
Lid:
Only one wall on first layer
Wall loops: 5
Top/Bottom shell layers: 7
Inner housing:
Bridge Flow Ratio: 1.5
Wall loops: 5
Top/Bottom shell layers: 6
15% Gyroid infill
Enable supports for Outer model (on build plate only)
My first version of the EZDante used that approach. But since the triangle-cross is not fixed to the rest of the Comandante it can move under pressure. Especially when beans get stuck for some milliseconds, grinding can become juddery and the inner triangle-cross will turn millimeter by millimeter. Since I saw an image of a broken triangle-cross online, see here (not caused by EZDante), I felt better using a clamp. As a bonus, grinding became less juddery.
In the beginning I tried a 3D printed coupling that could mount to the motor shaft on one side and to the Comandante axis on the other side. The clear advantage was that the EZDante was much shorter. Unfortunately the edges of the axis got stuck in the flat sides of the printed female hexagon part of the coupling. The only way to get the axis out was melting the 3D printed coupling using a soldering iron.
I know there are some models for Comandante drill bits like this and that. Maybe they work, because you can limit the torque of your drill. But using the motor, limiting the torque is not possible. Or maybe my filament was a bad choice for this (ASA). I don't know.
But that's why I use the all-metal way, which unfortunately leads to a larger EZDante.
Maybe a different filament could have solved the problem. But I leave that as an exercise for others :-)
License:
Creative Commons — Attribution — Noncommercial — Share Alike
da-mkay
