roaster control widget

[mp]

Think of the stir-crazy.... it has to be modified to add the Turbo Oven or the stirring mechanism eventually melts.  That's not to say that only a larger heating element wouldn't work, but the caution is you may have a Chernobyl on your hands if you aren't careful and just ad a larger heating element.

Ok ... gotch'ya.  This is probably something I should stay a fair distance from.

 

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

Although the Milowidget is quite magical, I can't add more power.   The heating element can only add x amount of heat.  Also the appliance itself needs to be designed to handle that much heat too.  The Glass, and other materials (drive motor, gears, etc.) would also need to be able to handle the heat too.

Ok ... thanks for the clarification.  So even if you were able to get a heating element that would generate more heat the glass and other materials would also need to be upgraded to handle the heat?

So that is the bottom line?

Thanks

 

Think of the stir-crazy.... it has to be modified to add the Turbo Oven or the stirring mechanism eventually melts.  That's not to say that only a larger heating element wouldn't work, but the caution is you may have a Chernobyl on your hands if you aren't careful and just ad a larger heating element.

Hm... Behmor Roasters are cheaper than kitchens.... got it 

[milowebailey]

I got the hardware interface board for the Alpenrost connected to the Arduino and Alpenrost and smoke tested the rest of the board... one bad solder joint (no pain, no loss) and one mis-wire on the high voltage Triac.... dead triac and two vaporized resistors.... $3 error.

All is good now.  Tomorrow or maybe later tonight I may run a short program to see how well it ramps....

Photos to come.

[milowebailey]

Although the Milowidget is quite magical, I can't add more power.   The heating element can only add x amount of heat.  Also the appliance itself needs to be designed to handle that much heat too.  The Glass, and other materials (drive motor, gears, etc.) would also need to be able to handle the heat too.

Ok ... thanks for the clarification.  So even if you were able to get a heating element that would generate more heat the glass and other materials would also need to be upgraded to handle the heat?

So that is the bottom line?

Thanks

 

Think of the stir-crazy.... it has to be modified to add the Turbo Oven or the stirring mechanism eventually melts.  That's not to say that only a larger heating element wouldn't work, but the caution is you may have a Chernobyl on your hands if you aren't careful and just ad a larger heating element.

Hm... Behmor Roasters are cheaper than kitchens.... got it 

Ed Zachery!!

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

Although the Milowidget is quite magical, I can't add more power.   The heating element can only add x amount of heat.  Also the appliance itself needs to be designed to handle that much heat too.  The Glass, and other materials (drive motor, gears, etc.) would also need to be able to handle the heat too.

Ok ... thanks for the clarification.  So even if you were able to get a heating element that would generate more heat the glass and other materials would also need to be upgraded to handle the heat?

So that is the bottom line?

Thanks

 

Think of the stir-crazy.... it has to be modified to add the Turbo Oven or the stirring mechanism eventually melts.  That's not to say that only a larger heating element wouldn't work, but the caution is you may have a Chernobyl on your hands if you aren't careful and just ad a larger heating element.

Hm... Behmor Roasters are cheaper than kitchens.... got it 

Ed Zachery!!

Not if I can get it past the insurance man... we need a new kitchen ....

[milowebailey]

Ok, this is the first pseudo roast.... no beans but a linear ramp profile with 3 of the 5 steps.

Ignore the spikes in the plots as that's a glitch in my com port software... or maybe, as I think about it, it may be the USB cable I'm using.... I will try a different one tomorrow.... good news is without PID the milowidget follows the profile pretty well... not too much over swing and I'm only adjusting the heater every 1 second.  I may change that to 1/2 second or less... we'll see how the PID works.

In the first plot note the overshoot on the first ramp transition... not sure how the PID will handle this... we'll see soon

[milowebailey]

This was the first real deal... bean and all.  150 grams to start..... I'll try the next one at 200 grams or so.  The heater in the alpenrost could not hit the 250 degree mark in 2 minutes, but once it caught up did a pretty good job of following the profile.  I may need to play with either the thermocouple placement or the profile temperature to hit 1st and 2nd crack where I want, because this one barely made it into 1st crack at thermocouple temperature of 450..... I'm guessing the thermocouple was 1 1/2 " above the bean mass... but the milowewidget did follow the profile pretty well.

remember this does not have PID implemented yet.  Basically the logic is: if thermocouple temperature is less than profile turn heater on... if more than profile turn it off... and I only do it once per second...

I'm pretty happy with this first stab.... More to come

1st photo is the setup
2nd photo is the thermocouple installation
3rd photo is the finished product....

2 plots are of the roast profile.

[mp]

Nice work Milo.  You certainly fit the part of the mad scientist very well.

 

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

Very encouraging.....    on your first live roast you showed two graphs... is that two roasts or am I confused on the data I am reading??  What I see that I like is the roaster doing what you told it... I just came in from roasting and my PID is pretty agreeable up over 400 but in that caramel zone I have a hard time getting consistency and slow steady climb

[milowebailey]

Very encouraging.....    on your first live roast you showed two graphs... is that two roasts or am I confused on the data I am reading??  What I see that I like is the roaster doing what you told it... I just came in from roasting and my PID is pretty agreeable up over 400 but in that caramel zone I have a hard time getting consistency and slow steady climb

JJ

The 2 graphs are the same curve captured at two different times.

The 1st one a captured at ~3 minutes into the roast to show that detail

The 2nd one is captured after the roast..  note the time on the bottom of each graph

Also note that is is on an electric heat source where I can turn on and off the heat very fast... I'm not sure how quickly I can adjust the heat on my gas roaster.  Different dynamics so time will tell.  The cool part is I can see what's going and control the roast without spending a fortune.  I think I'm into this on the alpenrost for about $60.... but I'm sure it will be more once I tally it all.

[J.Jirehs Roaster]

Very encouraging.....    on your first live roast you showed two graphs... is that two roasts or am I confused on the data I am reading??  What I see that I like is the roaster doing what you told it... I just came in from roasting and my PID is pretty agreeable up over 400 but in that caramel zone I have a hard time getting consistency and slow steady climb

JJ

The 2 graphs are the same curve captured at two different times.

The 1st one a captured at ~3 minutes into the roast to show that detail

The 2nd one is captured after the roast..  note the time on the bottom of each graph

Duh....    thanks..

[milowebailey]

I'm still going down this rabbit hole... I figured I needed to understand my new Hottop before I move the Milowidget over to it.  I've been roasting on it (bunch of samples) over the last week and think I understand most of the logic behind the control system. 

I could use some input from some of you Hottopers.  Other than removing the moisture early on in the roast and to cool down the roaster, when should the fan come on and why? 

My thinking is with an electric element and PID you can control the heat well just with the element....

[garybt3]

Milo, what's your secret?
How do you get your wife to peaceably agree to allow you to mess up her kitchen like that?
It took mine a looong time to put up with having an espresso machine & a grinder on her kitchen island 

I was somehow wishing for separate controls for my P model Hottop, like the ones on my modded WBP1.

I have been dutifully logging in Ambient temp, bean Type & weight (250 grams). With my manual 'profile' I log in time of each Segment, fan Speed, and actual temp at the end of Segment and also record max temp pre-programmed. I have noticed a pattern of 'stalling for 2 to 3 min' around 350F, that has been driving me nuts, lately.

I like the idea of programmed roasts, but I like to fully control the roast as it progresses.

If you figure out the best way to hack into a hottop, I'm all ears!

Don't get me wrong, I like the design of it, I just think that I can do a better job of controlling the roast without all the added electronics, (that are great for a novice, BTW). So far, my attempts @ tweaking are more like tricking, if you know what I mean 

[Tex]

I'm still going down this rabbit hole...

Just beware the bottle labeled, "Drink Me" It's a one-way trip to the sixties.

[milowebailey]

Thanks for the tip Tex