Hi guys,
what if you were to make a Moccamaster complete with water and coffee? Would it not take three different particle systems, one for the water container, another for the inner cylinder that leads the water to the spout and a third one for the actual coffee that drips into the pot?
How do you sequence something like that? Or do you actually make one water that runs through the percolator?
Baffled but bemused,
-h.
That would be quite funny to try and make water run through the whole machine. You would have to actually model some pump mechanism to push the water through the pipes. It’s not totally impossible but super-tricky at best. (Not sure I’m monomaniac enough for that.) 
And in the end, you’d realize that you can’t make the water change of color to become coffee that falls into the pot… So… No. Bad idea.
As for particle systems. Hmmm… To simulate a small dripping maybe but not a flow of coffee falling from the filter.
I don’t know how the water actually behaves in a Moccamaster but if it’s quiet enough, I’d go for a simple animation for the water container. You can use particles if you need to add bubbles and dynamic paint to make waves at the surface. The same but in reverse for the coffee landing in the pot. In between, it depends on how much liquid you can see but a fluid simulation will probably be needed.
The managers of this brand are real control freaks. No interesting images about Moccamaster on Google Images. The only ones you can find seem to come from a clone factory. Surreal… or creepy! 
Yeah, I figgered it out too very early on that a full scale one-water-pipe system is not really feasible. However, the movement of water in a Moccamaster is quite interesting, when you pour water into the top tank you see it enter the cylinder inside, and then the water level goes down in te tank while the cylinder is full. Then it sorta bubbles into empty when the water runs out, and the real miracle is the brown liquid at the end 
it would be nice to emulate that.
Brown liquid… Yummy!
After a quick study of the mechanisms in a Moccamaster, I’m starting to think that it may not be as complicate as we think. You need 2 fluid simulations. One for the water and one for the coffee.
Blender simulates the atmospheric pressure too. So you can pour water in the tank and it will climb in the central pipe. You may however need to block the water until you switch the power button… and push the water a bit to empty the tank. Invisible obstacles can do that. An outflow hidden in the filter and half of the work is done.
Then comes the second simulation for the coffee. This time, you hide an inflow in the filter and the coffee will simply fall into the pot.
Quite easy actually.
Now, get to work! I need my brown liquid for 13:00!
Still just itty bitty too complex for my limited skill set right now, I’ll try that once I master basic liquids. Brown liquid must be infinitely more complicated to make, not to mention the scent of fresh-breweed coffee