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A year or so ago, shortly after the GeneCafe arrived, I was trying to
do some comparative roasting with the iR2, when part way through
temp readings just plummeted and wouldnt come up again. Clearly
the heating element was only partly working, so beans would try
to roast but come out baked.
So I put it in a box (with a few expletives) and forgot about it.
But Ive been recently prompted to have another look, partly by a
conversation about profiles, and partly by finding this story
http://coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/homeroast/413807
of a true hero who actually fixed his iRoast.
As weve recently acquired a power meter, I started by running it
on a 15 minute max temp profile (no beans) and noting watts;
consumption was an almost unvarying 905 to 915 watts for the
whole period i.e. running flat out a long way below normal power.
Then I pulled it apart, starting with the notes in the post above.
The top and the base come apart easily, revealing a unit with fan
motor on one side, and heating elements and thermistor on the
other. This has about eight screws around the perimeter, but
comes apart fairly easily. Then we find a heating element
"module" with two wire heating coils in it (fairly loosely
coiled). These are of slightly different length. In the outer
one, I found a point where two loops had fused together,
breaking the circuit, and giving about half heating capacity.
Ive put several pictures of the exercise here:
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/haazbean/IRoastDissection
and below is one showing the failure.
Just wondering if / how this could be repaired? I guess trying to
find an equivalent coil and working it in.
Or maybe snipping all the wires to to the top, installing a new
heating element, and running it an the fan to some external
controllers with a PID. A PID controlled "super popper" ????
do some comparative roasting with the iR2, when part way through
temp readings just plummeted and wouldnt come up again. Clearly
the heating element was only partly working, so beans would try
to roast but come out baked.
So I put it in a box (with a few expletives) and forgot about it.
But Ive been recently prompted to have another look, partly by a
conversation about profiles, and partly by finding this story
http://coffeegeek.com/forums/coffee/homeroast/413807
of a true hero who actually fixed his iRoast.
As weve recently acquired a power meter, I started by running it
on a 15 minute max temp profile (no beans) and noting watts;
consumption was an almost unvarying 905 to 915 watts for the
whole period i.e. running flat out a long way below normal power.
Then I pulled it apart, starting with the notes in the post above.
The top and the base come apart easily, revealing a unit with fan
motor on one side, and heating elements and thermistor on the
other. This has about eight screws around the perimeter, but
comes apart fairly easily. Then we find a heating element
"module" with two wire heating coils in it (fairly loosely
coiled). These are of slightly different length. In the outer
one, I found a point where two loops had fused together,
breaking the circuit, and giving about half heating capacity.
Ive put several pictures of the exercise here:
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/haazbean/IRoastDissection
and below is one showing the failure.
Just wondering if / how this could be repaired? I guess trying to
find an equivalent coil and working it in.
Or maybe snipping all the wires to to the top, installing a new
heating element, and running it an the fan to some external
controllers with a PID. A PID controlled "super popper" ????
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