CCR-1kg Coffee Roaster

askthecoffeeguy · May 2013

I think BF has left the building and is no longer an active contributor to the forum other than the chat function so you may want to catch him there P

saoye · May 2013

No worries. Thanks P. What about the other few who have purchased one? Any issues?

Kevohere · June 2013

Hi Saoye, It seems all has gone relatively quiet on the 1kg CCR front here. I have only roasted 10 batches to date with mine, so still consider I am well within the learning/breaking in stages. I seem to be having "issues" with the length of roast times for some reason. In that; all is going to schedule/profile/plan until around the 9 or 10 minute mark where I start to lose the temperature increase rate needed to hit 1C and then 2C. Taking up to 18 to 25 minutes to dropping for cooling. I'm thinking it's to do with the air flow regulation that I still need to work on. I am sure that will come. The beans have been very drinkable and as Chris said earlier, seem to take longer to reach peak taste than the other smaller batch roasters do. I haven't the time to go further into my roasts detail just now, (have to go out) but I will geyt back later. Cheers, Kevin

saoye · June 2013

on 1370250737:

Hi Saoye, It seems all has gone relatively quiet on the 1kg CCR front here. I have only roasted 10 batches to date with mine, so still consider I am well within the learning/breaking in stages. I seem to be having "issues" with the length of roast times for some reason. In that; all is going to schedule/profile/plan until around the 9 or 10 minute mark where I start to lose the temperature increase rate needed to hit 1C and then 2C. Taking up to 18 to 25 minutes to dropping for cooling. I'm thinking it's to do with the air flow regulation that I still need to work on. I am sure that will come. The beans have been very drinkable and as Chris said earlier, seem to take longer to reach peak taste than the other smaller batch roasters do. I haven't the time to go further into my roasts detail just now, (have to go out) but I will geyt back later. Cheers, Kevin

Thanks for replying Kevin! Did you follow the settings as per cosmic couple's instructions above or did you improvise with your own? What drop temperatures are you starting out with and what power settings/fan settings? No one has really mentioned about the PID temperature settings as yet (lcd other than the timer)...do you use it or just the power and air dials? Let's learn together. I've gone ahead and placed an order so waiting patiently now.

Kevohere · June 2013

on 1370264373:

Did you follow the settings as per cosmic couple's instructions above or did you improvise with your own? What drop temperatures are you starting out with and what power settings/fan settings? No one has really mentioned about the PID temperature settings as yet (lcd other than the timer)...do you use it or just the power and air dials? Let's learn together. I've gone ahead and placed an order so waiting patiently now.

Congratulations on your purchase! It's seems with equipment and processes new, that you have to approach it as a 'newbie' and be prepared to learn "roasting" again. The Behmor was and is, a totally different experience. I have been following CC's guidelines (and BF"s earlier postings, but seem to be having power issues mid roast and am battling with the temp increase rate (1 or 2 degrees per min). I have been dropping at about 190 - 200 degrees, with a best roast result with 600g of Monsoon Malabar done on the 25th. Dropped at 202 with 1C at 188 and 6:40 min. 2C at 199 and 12:30 min, pulling them out at 13:50 min. Just use CC's guide yourself at first with the power settings. I haven't installed a BT probe as yet. There area lot of variables to play with. Drum speed, fan and the PID drum temp. The air control is the key factor I believe. I played with different start weights at first, but now staying with 600 gms to "get the feel". Let me know when it arrives. Kevin

saoye · June 2013

Hi Kevin, I suspect this roaster's controls are closer to a much more hands on roaster like the Corretto where you need to monitor closely the temperature and airflow compared to a profile setting machine like the Behmor. I am currently using the corretto and am comfortable with the idea of this roaster but also understands it will be very different to a corretto. I have a feeling (in theory) that air control in this machine largely is used to purge smoke at critical roasting events such as 1st and 2nd crack and on the main is meant to stay at a constant and again only changed during the specific roasting events. It will also help with the temperature but as in espresso making, need to fix all variables and play with one at a time to understand the effects and come up with the best combo. The good thing is most of it is already done by BF and CC. Air flow is a control that I am looking forward to since a smokey tasting roast is something I do not like. Your time to 2nd crack seems within the 15 minutes mark so I don't think heat/power is an issue at all. I think if you get a data logger you will see get a clearer understanding of what is happening in the roast. I intend to piggyback off the existing probe and have bought a themalcouple extension lead for that purpose and use it on my datalogger with the CS software.

sholayer · June 2013

HI Saoye I don

UNM · June 2013

Interesting comments about the CS thermocouple sholayer. I shall have to do some research. My meter is a Victor 86 rather than the CS one (didn't feel like paying twice the price just for local warranty), but is basically the same unit so may have the same issue.

Intense Coffee · June 2013

I Piggyback the CS Monitor off the back of my Proaster Thermocouple. However I have to adjust the CS Preferences to true up the CS monitor: # Meter calibration factors. meterAdjustMults=1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 meterAdjustAdds=17.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 For me this makes it accurate enough to follow a profile. I can also track the Proaster temps with the native software, but its not designed specifically for Coffee Roasting, so use it for tracking only. Note: the CS Meter is not for local warranty only, I understand there are some customisations as well to interface with the CS software. Graham

saoye · June 2013

Hi Graham. Thanks for the calibration settings! The only difference I see is the meterAdjustAdds=17 What does that actually do?

on 1371517195:

I Piggyback the CS Monitor off the back of my Proaster Thermocouple. However I have to adjust the CS Preferences to true up the CS monitor: # Meter calibration factors. meterAdjustMults=1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 meterAdjustAdds=17.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 For me this makes it accurate enough to follow a profile. I can also track the Proaster temps with the native software, but its not designed specifically for Coffee Roasting, so use it for tracking only. Note: the CS Meter is not for local warranty only, I understand there are some customisations as well to interface with the CS software. Graham

Beanz · June 2013

on 1371184523:

Interesting comments about the CS thermocouple sholayer. I shall have to do some research.

I was also puzzled by this. I have used K Type in the Victor and at room temp and 100C they read the same. I could not calibrate at higher temp easily. I checked with a manufacturer of thermocouples and he suggested they may use E type which is similar to K, they would then calibrated the meter to suit.

Intense Coffee · June 2013

on 1371546607:

The only difference I see is the meterAdjustAdds=17 What does that actually do?

When I piggyback the CS provided Meter off the back of the native Proaster thermocouple, the CS meter temp is not accurate. (The Proaster shows the correct temp so I can see the differences). The amount that it is out, (and always lower), varies to some degree (no pun intended), but when it reaches the temps suitable for roasting it stabilises. The meterAdjustAdds=17 calibrates the CS Monitor Software so that it shows the (virtually) correct temperature during the roast cycle, so can be used to profile and track. The following is the description of the Meter calibration factors for the CS Monitor software: Meter calibration factors: You can modify the displayed values of the 9 meters by setting values in preferences.txt. This can be used either to precisely calibrate a meter or to allow a reading other than temperature (e.g. airflow) to be scaled to suit the graphs. Each meter has a multiplier (meter1AdjustMult, meter2AdjustMult. .......etc ) and an offset (meter1AdjustAdd, meter2AdjustAdd, .........etc). For example, if meter 2 is measuring airflow that registers 4 mA at 0% and 20 mA at 100%, you could set: meterAdjustMults=1.0 6.25 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 meterAdjustAdds=0.0 25.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 so that it would display as values between 0 and 100. In other words, for the 2nd meter the multiplier (6.25) extends the initial range of 16 to a new range of 100 (25 - 125); while the offset (-25.0) adjusts the zero position. Hope that is helpful Graham

saoye · June 2013

Thanks Graham on the calibration of the meter. Now just patiently waiting for the ship to arrive with my roaster.

saoye · July 2013

Just an update for this thread. I received my roaster and here is the unboxing videos I did.

[embed=425,349]

Brett H · July 2013

Wonderful videos. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these! If I hadn't already had several "mid-life crises" this year your vids would have tipped me over the edge.

UNM · July 2013

several short vids rather than one monster :thumb:

sholayer · July 2013

Congratulations Saoye It looks very nice, I know you will have a great deal of fun with this, I stepped up from a coretto to Quest M3 then this and love the thermostability, the nice smooth curves you can get and nicely repeatable profiles. Are you running both the CS meter and the temp controller off the built in tc in the last video? Chris

Jonty · July 2013

+1 Saoye, I enjoyed each individual video. I will be interested over the coming period your impressions and the overall experience in the purchase of the unit. Jonty

saoye · July 2013

on 1373762284:

Congratulations Saoye It looks very nice, I know you will have a great deal of fun with this, I stepped up from a coretto to Quest M3 then this and love the thermostability, the nice smooth curves you can get and nicely repeatable profiles. Are you running both the CS meter and the temp controller off the built in tc in the last video? Chris

Thanks Chris, yes I am running a Thermocouple extension lead off the built in tc of the roaster and back into my multimeter which is bought from the CSs site into my laptop running the CS software. I have had to make quite a large calibration as per Graham's instructions on the CS software to make it more or less aligned. There is certainly some form of electronic interference of sort that disrupts the reading when the power is turned on, I noticed a significant dip in my reading when the 180deg Celcius alarm went off on the roaster and after the alarm the reading stayed approximately 5 degrees below the roaster reading. I will turn off the alarm and see how the curve looks like on my next roast.

Kevohere · July 2013

Great vids saoye and congrats on the unveiling process. It is almost identical with mine, purchased from John via the evilbay. The only obvious differences I can see are that yours has no drum speed control knob and no sliding lock bar to hold the bean drop door open. I am still roasting without any data logging as I continue to attune myself to the process, but still want to go with DL roasts. I sold my CS Temp DL when I sold the Behmor and will probably go back down that path and buy another unless you and/or others here can suggest a better/easier plan. Piggy backing the CS of the roaster's thermocouple as I currently understand it, helps with the roasting profile logging, without monitoring actual BT. I was intending to go down the road of installing a BT just above the viewing glass as suggested here earlier, but now wonder if that is really necessary if results are good through just the piggyback method. I am by no means an electronic techie, so would appreciate any advice. I am enjoying the resulting roasts to date, but like others here, know there is always room for and the passion to get the best from this rewarding hobby investment. :coffee2: Cheers, Kevin

saoye · July 2013

on 1373795111:

Great vids saoye and congrats on the unveiling process. It is almost identical with mine, purchased from John via the evilbay. The only obvious differences I can see are that yours has no drum speed control knob and no sliding lock bar to hold the bean drop door open. I am still roasting without any data logging as I continue to attune myself to the process, but still want to go with DL roasts. I sold my CS Temp DL when I sold the Behmor and will probably go back down that path and buy another unless you and/or others here can suggest a better/easier plan. Piggy backing the CS of the roaster's thermocouple as I currently understand it, helps with the roasting profile logging, without monitoring actual BT. I was intending to go down the road of installing a BT just above the viewing glass as suggested here earlier, but now wonder if that is really necessary if results are good through just the piggyback method. I am by no means an electronic techie, so would appreciate any advice. I am enjoying the resulting roasts to date, but like others here, know there is always room for and the passion to get the best from this rewarding hobby investment. :coffee2: Cheers, Kevin

Hi Kevin. I am too used to using a data logger not to have one and piggybacking is better than nothing. The tc in the roaster is just below the tryer so it is at least touching beans but yes not in the main bean mass where the viewer is. I am thinking using the hole of one of the bolt holding the viewer in place for bean temp. For now I'm ok with the piggy back method. I got mine from north coffee direct. Mine does have the sliding bolt bar. I think the latest version has the tryer and door hand and bolt on the same side. I will do a full YouTube review next week.

UNM · July 2013

on 1373795111:

I sold my CS Temp DL when I sold the Behmor and will probably go back down that path and buy another unless you and/or others here can suggest a better/easier plan.

My Datalogging meter looks like the same thing as the CS one, but was half the price. Thing is, there are unconfirmed rumours that the CS one has some changes, but it is unclear what those may be. It is possible to use the generic Victor 86 meter with roastlogger software which is open source and community supported. I have heard of it used with CS roastmonitor software, but not done so myself. I use an Arduino microcontroller to log data of my roasts, rather than a meter and just got the victor 86 because I needed a meter. I find using non proprietary software a better solution for me and there is a heap of support for Arduino roast monitor/control software out there on the web. I like the flexibility and it sits well with me ethically to go the open source route. Cost is roughly comparable to a generic Victor 86 and roastlogger, but it is a much more powerful tool - it can run in standalone mode with programmed profiles for example. No need for a laptop or external computer when set up (although you do need one to store roast logs and initially set up). It DOES require a bit of effort at first to get it working correctly for you, so is not the easier path - roastlogger is probably easiest. If you have decided on the CS software and don't plan to change in future, the extra cost of buying the meter from CS may be worth it for you to avoid potential problems down the path. You also get local warranty on the meter, FWIW.

saoye · July 2013

I have done my 5th roast to date and it was my best roast by far. dropped 820g at charge temp of 225 degs and pulled at the end of rolling 1st crack and waited 10 seconds at the verge of 2nd crack. for a total time of just under 13 minutes (including the 2 minutes it takes to cool down). Very even roast and sweeter than the previous roast at 16 minutes. I have found the PID keeps the increase at 10 deg C. Kevin, what have you got the SV temperature set at? I have put mine at 300 degrees to keep the rate of increase up there, and I was wondering if yours is lower. I think default was set at 210 degrees C. As it gets closer to the SV temperature the rate will slow and then maintain. This is the PID working. I have been trying to get into the Menu to set the "Proportional" value to try to increase the rate but have not been successful in finding it in the Fotek M21 (this is the PID that comes with the machine) menu. With the PID rate rise set at 10 degrees, charge temp becomes critical since there is no way to increase this rate on the elements alone. You will need to use strategic air flow changes to give the temperature a jump during stages if you are aiming for a specific end roast time.

Kevohere · July 2013

Great to see you are getting nice results at just 5 roasts in, saoye. I tried to reply to your post earlier today with a fairly detailed post and then attempted to attach 2 Fotek pdf files that John sent me, to help you "get into the menu", left the computer to make a coffee and returned to find a message saying it was too big a file to post on the forum. Needless to say the body of my message was GONE! :'( So, a couple of clients later and some tiling duties, I'm trying again. ::) The PID and the Fuzzy Temperature controller PDF is 2570KB and the Digital counter file 2227KB, so we may have to email it direct if you want it. Suffice to say; I think you are on the mark with the SV temp setting role. I think my roaster was set at 300 deg when I got it and thinking that to be too high, I reduced it to 230 deg. Yeah, maybe I think too much. :pan I will reset it to 300 when I next take the cover of to roast again to see what difference it makes. On Tuesday I dropped in 1135g of Nepal Plantec Estate (finished the bag) at 190 deg, achieved 1C@ 13:10 at 168 deg. Couldn't detect 2C and pulled them at 17:50 at 194 deg with end weight at 928g. Not tried yet but looks good. Immediately after, I dropped 1Kg of Nicaragua Mombacho SHG @192 deg. 1C @ 11:00min at 174 deg. 2C 15:40 at 191 deg. Pulled @ 16:00 at 193 deg with an end weight of 812g. Note; these temps are read from the PID and are not actual BT. Cheers, Kevin If you send me an email to kejari at big pond dot com I can send the files to you. I appreciate your input and experience

saoye · July 2013

Hi All, This is a repeat of what I wrote on another forum. I am sharing my experience on both because I find I am getting good tips and ideas from both and both forums are giving me different valuable insite to this roaster. As well this thread is the one that has given me the most in terms of real practical roasting guidelines so I want to keep contributing here. TJ067 review Part 1 First installment of my review (video)...they are a little longer than the unboxing videos but I have a bit more to say. It is still a review made by a non-commercial roaster who has only 2 years of roast experience using popper and heatgun/breadmaker combination so I do not pretend to be an expert in any way or form. Just what I understand as the basics of coffee roasting and my experience so far with this roaster. Here is the basic summary in a big nutshell: 1. From order to delivery to your door approximately 6-7 weeks 2. Additional costs will be incurred past the Port of arrival (not from North Coffee) allow approximately 20 to 30% on top of your purchased price. 3. This thing is seriously heavy! you will need at least 2 strong guys or 4 computer nerds to lift this thing plus make sure the truck that delivers to your house will have some way to offload and bring it to your driveway. 4. The seller Tim is more than 1 person. He/she/they will respond to your emails within minutes almost 24 hours a day and the written English and mannerisms changes throughout the day (I guess shift to shift). There is one "Tim" who loves his/her "!!!" and "CAPITAL LETTERS"

5. Your money does get somewhere, it is a real business and you will get your roaster (I guess this is important as you are dealing with quite a lot of money and you want to know it's legit) 6. They have limited understanding of coffee roasting and even the actual functions of the roaster...you are mostly dealing with a sales person 7. electrical/electronic components used can be sourced outside with known brand names (or they will provide you with spare parts pricing) 8. You can roast 1kg coffee within 15 to 18 minutes (but the charge temperature is very important as well as the control of the air flow at strategic stages of the roast) Ok, that's pretty much it. Check out the videos and hopefully somebody else can help on the PID questions. It could possibly be that this model (FOTEK MT21) does not have settable "P" and "I"? [embed=425,349]

saoye · July 2013

TJ067 review Part 2 [embed=425,349]

saoye · July 2013

TJ067 review Part 3 - Summary [embed=425,349]

askthecoffeeguy · July 2013

hey saoye thanks for youre comprehensive summary and your video logs - its a great insight for someone like me who is considering purchasing a roaster like this cheers, Pat

saoye · July 2013

on 1374504459:

hey saoye thanks for youre comprehensive summary and your video logs - its a great insight for someone like me who is considering purchasing a roaster like this cheers, Pat

No worries Pat and I hope it was helpful.

askthecoffeeguy · July 2013

on 1374559026:

No worries Pat and I hope it was helpful.

Im pretty keen on a 3kg version for my next incarnation now the question becomes electric or gas? I hear that compliance is much less of an issue with electric? P

frame

Howdy, Stranger!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

CCR-1kg Coffee Roaster

Comments

foot

Policies

Social

frame

Howdy, Stranger!

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories

In this Discussion

CCR-1kg Coffee Roaster

Comments

foot

Policies

Social