Too Much Coffee

I have had this roaster now for a shameful 6 months, having removed the fan and drum in this time I knew there were going to be some scary stuff. When I got it there was a thick layer of black oil on the back and the motor was caked in matter. I ignored it for as long as possible.

For your viewing pleasure

While the roaster was in bits, it seemed a good time to convert it to full manual control, element power and fan speed are adjustable, motors on switches and best of all no beeping.

Really showing promise. I think this was a worthwhile mod for me, it is a lot more hassle and potentially a lot more dangerous, but the control is awesome, you can do your changes in power and fan when the beans dictate. Obviously this is not news to anyone with a newer roaster or a quest, but given what I had it was too much £ for a new hottop brain. This cost so little I got my self a new thermocouple.

I really have to take my hat off to you as I would lack the courage to do anything similar to my HT.
Great stuff and well done.

Thanks George.
The coffee is really much better but I have discovered a whole new arena of stupid things to do while roasting.................

A new blend!

The origins of the Nescafe green coffee have been revealed...

Is that a post or a pre blend?

The fan drawing smoke through the motor is a shameful bit of design, as is the control system.

So how did your new blend taste?!?!?!?

I went a different route to Nescafe and used 35% Roasted 65% green. I do have to give them the credit for the invention.
It's the first post and pre roasted blend, I find it best to show the green to the roaster, helps get rid the jute fibre.

It it a wonderful melange of bag, grass and old sock flavours with just a lingering coffee aftertaste, surprisingly it really cuts through milk.

Really chuffed though, according to Nescafe I have eliminated so many free radicals that I've started smoking again instead of exercise.

lsjms wrote: Really chuffed though, according to Nescafe I have eliminated so many free radicals that I've started smoking again instead of exercise.

Finally, someone bringing a bit of sense back into this health-crazed world!

Congratulations on your restoration of the old Hottop, I like the simplicity of the manual controls.

We seem to have had parallel projects with both of us dissatisfied with the standard controls of a Hottop. Whilst you have gone for fully manual control, I have gone for full computer control. I expect that either approach can produce excellent coffee without the hassle built into the standard hottop control.

The main difference I can see between the two approaches is that, when I get a result such as yours, I can blame the computer.

Cheers.
I have only seen one pro roaster in action and I like the hands on nature of turn this, baffle that. Coupled with my dire lack of electronic know how this was the only way for me. While you may have some tech to blame for mistakes I assume you will also be able to replicate the successes at the touch of a button? Roasting for me is an outdoor activity and with huge variety in ambient temps and windspeed through the year I do not think preset profiles would ever work for me.

You have a B and a P model right? I thought the newer ones gave you profile control, what are the limitations?

I have been looking at a way of speeding up the drum as I think the agitation is now the weakest link. This is now abandoned as I was slapped in the face with the easier idea on HB of redesigning the drum vanes.

Will the day come when we can download the Greenbean usb connect Hottop software to go with the logger, and I'll rue the day I binned my main board!

lsjms wrote:Cheers.
I have only seen one pro roaster in action and I like the hands on nature of turn this, baffle that. Coupled with my dire lack of electronic know how this was the only way for me. While you may have some tech to blame for mistakes I assume you will also be able to replicate the successes at the touch of a button? Roasting for me is an outdoor activity and with huge variety in ambient temps and windspeed through the year I do not think preset profiles would ever work for me.

I agree with you, I wanted to try PID control but I do not like it and have settled on having the computer control the roaster in exactly the way I used to control it manually. Whilst it is doing this it is displaying the bean and environment temperature compared to a template roast. I can intervene at any time to change my set points or to manually control the roast. This works well and I am very happy with it. I now have the Hottop I always wanted with a USB connection built in to allow monitoring/control from my computer.

lsjms wrote:You have a B and a P model right? I thought the newer ones gave you profile control, what are the limitations?

Yes I have both but have recently converted the P to a B. I think it is essential to be able to adjust the heater power and fan on the fly at any point in a roast. This is not possible with the P. The P also switches the heater power off when a segment temperature is reached. The bean temperature can drop several degrees before the next segment starts which is not at all good. The B is much better allowing this on the fly control and is all that is really necessary. I have added the Arduino to monitor/control the roast for fun and not because it is really necessary.

lsjms wrote:I have been looking at a way of speeding up the drum as I think the agitation is now the weakest link. This is now abandoned as I was slapped in the face with the easier idea on HB of redesigning the drum vanes.

I do not see anything wrong with the agitation on my Hottops, the roasts are very even.

lsjms wrote:Will the day come when we can download the Greenbean usb connect Hottop software to go with the logger, and I'll rue the day I binned my main board!

The version of the Roast Logger available in the downloads section can already connect via USB (and suitable multimeter) to a Hottop for temperature monitoring/recording.

The version I am using with computer control requires knowledge of electronics to connect the Arduino and thermocouples (which are built into the Hottop) and requires breaking into the control signals in the Hottop. I do not expect many people would want to do this. If anyone does they are welcome to a copy of the software.