roaster control widget

[Tex]

I hacked into my Behmor a few years ago... I need to dig out my notes and then build an interface board or adapt the hottop board to the Behmor.  Not difficult to do.

Then the Sono?

[rgrosz78]

Chris, I have the "control board" with thermocouples for my Behmor. It does is show me the temperature inside the Behmor - but not the bean temperature. I think most Behmor users would like a way to control the fan and the heat during the roast - this is why I got the Hottop.

I am a dunce when it comes to stuff like handling the interface between a control board and a coffee roaster. Doubtful I could use the milowidget for either the Hottop or the Behmor.

[rasqual]

The milowidget clearly needs to be generalized.     

[farmroast]

I hacked into my Behmor a few years ago... I need to dig out my notes and then build an interface board or adapt the hottop board to the Behmor.  Not difficult to do.

I was playing with that a few years ago, just after it was released, but a certain someone was definitely not happy with my modding of the be-more. Even had a pretty good way to read BT. I quit before things got any more nasty.

[mp]

I hacked into my Behmor a few years ago... I need to dig out my notes and then build an interface board or adapt the hottop board to the Behmor.  Not difficult to do.

I was playing with that a few years ago, just after it was released, but a certain someone was definitely not happy with my modding of the be-more. Even had a pretty good way to read BT. I quit before things got any more nasty.

You got Joe Behm mad at you?

 

[rgrosz78]

Yes, there was quite a bit of legalese and hand-wringing. I was kinda surprised I had not seen the same reaction to the numerous extensive Hottop mods.

[Tex]

Yes, there was quite a bit of legalese and hand-wringing. I was kinda surprised I had not seen the same reaction to the numerous extensive Hottop mods.

I'm pretty sure any mods would void the warranty & manufacturer's liability. As in car mods however, once you own it you can do anything you want to it, as long as you're not reverse engineering the software for profit.

You should've heard IBM, Compaq & Apple cry the blues once hackers started over clocking the CPU and modding the operating system.

[farmroast]

The be-more can be a pretty good roaster after modifying. The radiant heat application through the wire mesh has potential. Mine can hook up to my tc4 setup recording T,BT,ET,BT-RoR and voltage out the variac driving the heating elements. I prefer tweaking with the variac knob and manually dealing with each roast even when trying to repeat a profile. So haven't upgraded to the new control features. The be-more has sat in the closet for a couple years. Just got tired of being haunted and hassled.

[milowebailey]

Update on the Milowidget.

I connected the Milowidget to the hottop yesterday afternoon.  I have a 3 stage linear ramp programmed with pre-heat cycle and cooling cycle.  The Milowidget controls all functions of the Hottop (motor, fan, heater, damper and cooling motor).  Keypad and display both interface well now.  I ran a test with no green coffee to make sure everything was working.  I used a lower than normal temperature in case I had to unplug the roaster for some reason.

Preheat - 170
ramp 1 - 200 in 5 minutes
ramp 2 - hold at 205 for 5 minutes
ramp 3 - 225 in 5 minutes

I did this just to confirm the code is working and it's reading the thermocouples.  All is working, but with no green in the roaster the temperature overshoots quite a bit.  I'm hoping with coffee in it, that the temperature will be more stable.

Next phase is to see how quickly I can get 200 grams of green to 1st crack to figure out the steepest ramp I can program.

Once that's done I may roast a few batches and see how close the hottop will follow a linear ramp (no PID code).

Then I'll add the PID code and repeat.  Then add the programming of the profiles with a menu and user input.  Hopefully there is enough memory for at least 5 programmable profiles.

This version will not require a computer connection... basically a stand alone controller.

Version 2 will have a USB interface for logging and storage of additional profiles... or the Behmor interface.  I haven't decided which to work on first... probably the Behmor.

[SJM]

are you accepting bribes to do the Behmor next?

Susan

[mp]

Sounds good Larry.

Can't wait for your launch.

 

[grinderz]

I may be mistaken, but I don't recall Larry ever committing to making these for anybody else? "Here's a napkin with some notes and a zipped file with some code..."  </evil grin>

[milowebailey]

I may be mistaken, but I don't recall Larry ever committing to making these for anybody else? "Here's a napkin with some notes and a zipped file with some code..."  </evil grin>

It will be 4 years next week since I started on this...  ... I suppose other folks, and for that matter I don't remember any of that part

I haven't decided yet what I'll offer.  Could be a complete setup or what grinderz said.  There will certainly be an agreement where I have zero liability for the use of it, if someone actually hooks it up to a roaster.

[SJM]

I may be mistaken, but I don't recall Larry ever committing to making these for anybody else? "Here's a napkin with some notes and a zipped file with some code..."  </evil grin>

Larry's too smart to make promises ....
And, he's a very sharing kinda guy....

So....what are the odds that this will benefit all one way or another?
Pretty darn good I'd say....

Susan

[Tex]

I may be mistaken, but I don't recall Larry ever committing to making these for anybody else? "Here's a napkin with some notes and a zipped file with some code..."  </evil grin>

I believe he bought his my Sono as the original test bed for the widget?