Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

[rcarlyle]

I used a 2K ohm resistor and was very happy with the result. One thing that may save others some grief: I turned on my iRoast and used one of my saved presets. The roaster ran for exactly 30 seconds and then reset to 0. I tried restarting and it kept running for exactly 30 seconds and reset to 0. I tried running on every other preset, same result. The cool down cycle went for the four minutes. The problem was that the resister I put in had come a little loose, I pushed it in good and tight and it worked perfectly.

[simiansgrunt]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

I took the plunge and I am really happy I did. I can now experiment with longer roasting times, and try different profiles.

I installed a 2.7K resistor and am going to try the 1.8K next, but that is only for tweaking purposes, as it stands at the moment it is a lot better.

[simiansgrunt]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

Wow, I have much to learn.
I was given an I Roast 2 for Christmas, and thought it would be a good hobby, but I must admit I have become obsessed with my hobby, at what stage does a hobby become an obsession?

Any way back to the point... I am also having no joy with being able to experiment with profiles, and while I can do good roasts I would like to experiment more, to learn about what is actually going on.

It is posts like this one that really make my day. Thank you CS and keep up the good work

[hazbean]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

Mal: sorry I didnt have time to finish my "gimping", I left it a state where I
could see the bean texture and had some idea of bean texture, I usually
confine myself to levels and brightness adjustments but this time I fiddled
with hue a swell and regretted it as soon as I saw the result on my
calibrated monitor at work

Yes, the iR goes it own way for the first few minutes; this behaviour is
described on their web site. Nothing will persuade it any differently. IIRC
its something to do with starting with cold beans and needing to get
them warmed up; I think the Korean (?) designers have a view of the
stereotypical home roaster as resident in rural Idaho, keeps the beans
stored outside, and only roasts in February

IME the "modified" profile, while by no means ideal by accepted standards,
produces a huge improvement. My Harrar roasts for example were just
flat before the mod, but brought out expected subtleties and nuances
afterwards. Also, in the only direct comparison I did with the Gene,
a 13 minute Sigri roast on the iR2, the cupping was quite close, more
so than I expected. The iR2 does roast very evenly when in good shape.

Greg, yes if you have something white (or a photographic grey card)
in the pic, then someone viewing it can calibrate to that. Lets know how
the experiments go.

Larry, sorry don;t have a pic of a profile 2 roast. In fact, I avoided profile
2 because it has a dip from 235C to 205C at 6 minutes, and I think
that will stall the roast. I settled on a continuously rising profile, as in post 1.
AFAIK you can get a card through the "buy green" link at the top of the page.
I agree that higher voltage has something to do with it, but no predictable
relationship as far as I can tell.

[justintime]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

Good Idea, how can I obtain a Coffeesnobs card.
Everything I have read tells me that the Iroast2 was set for 115V in America. I have 123V I believe that its the higher Voltage in the countries where they are sold is the problem. Looking at this forum shows that people with higher line voltage in both Au and GB have had to modify them.

[chips60]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

Thanks for the feedback and the image editing.

I will have to start placing my Coffeesnobs card on top of my beans and some white or at least set the white balance first, for future photos to give a better colour indication.

Made an espresso with the sigri and all I can say is wow. Very smooth. easy to drink. Roasted some more yesterday with a custom profile a bit darker and looking forward to tasting it.

Will have to look into slowing the start down. I believe they designed the IRoast to go flatout initially (read it on a forum somewhere), however with the resistor swapped the fan speed varies early in the roast which it didnt before. Didnt have the TC setup before changing the resistor so it is hard to judge what it was like in the early stages before, however it must of been worse as 6 to 8 minutes the roast was coming out much darker. 11 minutes it was charcoal.

Will see what can be done.

Cheers
Greg.P

[justintime]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

finished profile 2, with 3k res.
Definitely darker than the last time with a 3.6K I did notice that the fan was pretty steady throughout the roast. It started of varying but then settled down to high and stayed their until the last stage 1:30 then varied for a few seconds and stayed full.
I noted the temp reading was 433 when programed to 455. If this is too dark I will go to a 3.3k
opinions? anyone with a picture of a profile 2 roast?

[justintime]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

Here is another roast with a 3k resistor and profile 2. this picture is at 6min

[justintime]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

I did another roast with the 2nd profile expecting it to be a dark roast. After seeing hazbeans My 2nd roast is on the left. In other words it looks almost exactly like the 1st profile. Since my resistor is 3.6k I will lower it for the next test maybe 3.3k and see if it gets darker I already tried 2.6k which was too hot.  It appears that once you get over the hump (too high K) with the resistor it doesnt matter the value any more. I think what were trying to find is the exact center of the hump, where the increased value doesnt make a difference anymore.
I think starting with a high value and creeping down until the roast on profile 2 is the right color is the correct value. I will do another roast later today.
Here are pictures, roast on right is profile 1 and on left is 2. If anything 2 looks a tad lighter than 1

PS: it seems to help the color balance of the picture if you have something white in the picture for the cameras color balance to cue on..

[sdg]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

PS. My that roast looks good now the gimp has had its evil way with it. Who needs a thermocouple 8-)

[sdg]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

Naturally, the only real test is going to come when a brew or three is made from them a few days down the track. Looking at your roast chart "chips60", the I-Roast certainly gets going in a hurry... kind of like a demented popper . Is there any way to slow that ramp down a bit more by any chance, just looks a bit too steep to me and getting to First Crack territory in about 4 minutes is very fast.

I know absolutely nothing about using the I-Roast so dont know what is possible but Im sure you will notice an improvement in the cup if you can slow down that initial ramp somewhat. All the best mate,

Mal.

A "demented popper" -- love it 8-)

The iR2 seems specifically "designed" to go berzerk for the 1st few minutes -- ignoring all instructions and entreaties to the contrary. If Hearthware ever heard of the "slow ramp to FC" approach to roasting then they sure arent letting on. Leaving the chaff-collector off helps a bit, but not enough, and isnt very "adjustable" besides (its either on or off); and trying to slow down the so-called warmup phase (ha ha) with a beefier cal resistor I suspect would kill the rest of the roast (hazbean would know much more about this than I)

The only mod that really sounded plausible for this purpose (to me) is a pot with a nice dial across where the cal resistor is supposed to be -- then you get to sit there twiddling the dial to control the roast -- just like with an adjustable heat gun now I think about it.

At this point you (the demented iroast owner that is) may as well strip out all the crap that supposedly makes the thing programmable and post it back to Heathware with a nasty note, coz you no longer have a programmable roaster >

Unless you wanted to build your own controller, and do it properly...

[Dimal]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

That ones a bit hard for me to see properly too "hb".... I know photos on uncalibrated monitors results in a very subjective appraisal of the finished roast but I can see the beans better with my "Gimp" enhancement : and like you say, generally it(the roast) looks pretty good.

Naturally, the only real test is going to come when a brew or three is made from them a few days down the track. Looking at your roast chart "chips60", the I-Roast certainly gets going in a hurry... kind of like a demented popper . Is there any way to slow that ramp down a bit more by any chance, just looks a bit too steep to me and getting to First Crack territory in about 4 minutes is very fast.

I know absolutely nothing about using the I-Roast so dont know what is possible but Im sure you will notice an improvement in the cup if you can slow down that initial ramp somewhat. All the best mate,

Mal.

[hazbean]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

A reasonable looking profile, I think. Nice to have the plotting
software going.

I found it hard to tell bean colour from the exposure, so I took
the liberty of tweaking your pic a bit (see below, hope its close).
I think they look good. No tipping I can see, a few blotches but
that I believe is not a problem. Will be interesting to find out
how it cups, may possibly even be a touch light. That would
be consistent with what I got for preset1 in the second post
of this thread. Will be interesting to see what happens with
other profiles.

Personally I think an iRoast delivering a proflle like this is a
pretty good roaster, just a pity its so fiddly to get it.

[chips60]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

I saw your post about mounting the TC last week and found it dead easy to do. The DSE TC you suggested fits easily, the Jaycar one would of been a tight fit.

Roasted 150gm of PNG Sigri AA and here is the roast monitor data graphed. This was on Preset 2 and it ran for the complete 11 minute cycle.



Here is the post roast photo. Dont ask for the 1st - 2nd crack data as with my hearing and the roar from the IRoast I cant hear it.



Looking forward to drinking this one.

Time to start with some custom profiles me thinks.

Will have to get to a cupping session one saturday. I usually go to Marks shop during the week as I work at Regency Park. Live down south and dont get north much on weekends.

Cheers
Greg.P

[justintime]

Re: Civilizing the i-Roast2 (Part 1)

Yes 2nd post somehow I glassed over that sentence. I guess I will try a TC this weekend.
thanks