The cliff notes version is that Morton’s technique is to control the events of the roast with one variable: heat transfer. If you can hit first crack somewhere around seven and a half minutes, your system has enough power to follow this system.
So he first roasts the max charge and notes FC, SC and the temp in between. His plan is to decrease the flame twice during the roast. The first decrease delays first crack to 9 minutes, the second decrease stretches the development time.
I am unable to do this because I can’t get first crack before 9 minutes without using unreasonable settings like drum speed 6, fan 1, 310 preheat at full power
Roasting 900g is critical as it amounts to two batches of coffee for me to sell. I could roast two 450g batches but that would take twice the time and defeats the purpose of buying the roaster.
I sell 12oz bags, so I might be able to get by with 800g charges but that’d be cutting it really close, especially with dark roasts
Update: I took the roaster outside and plugged it directly into a new isolated 20 amp circuit. No extension cord, no hood. Upon overlay, roast was basically identical to the indoor setup.
I get a shutdown error every half dozen or so roasts where the induction coil is too hot.
Any reason not to try D5 … just guessing based on that screen show you’re showing where you hit FC at 8:19 with P9/F1/D6 with PH 310 and see if it brings it down closer to your 7:30 target?
Yes with these settings you’re def going to get the shutdown error.
Also I do think his use of a v220 vs our v110 does make a difference. I’m not an EE but I do remember a travel hairdryer (that can be used with v220 or v110) ran hotter with v220. Maybe someone with EE background can explain.
I did another roast with PH 310, P9, F1, D4 and got a FC at 9:13.
Why can’t I get a 900g charge to first crack in 8 minutes with what I assume to be an overly aggressive heating profile but you can get an 8 minute first crack with 1000g while decreasing your heat as shown here? Your first crack temperature is only 2C different than mine.
I’m theorizing this but have no proof… possibly the bean mass and the type of bean (and possibly the age). If you sort for only my 1kg roasts you’ll see that those Ethiopians seems to roast a bit “faster” than the others and my profile for 1kg roasts is pretty consistent - see below screen shot. As for your D4 I wonder if that is not agitating the beans enough for the mass to absorb the heat. So this begs the question if whether it is reasonable to replicate Morton’s experience exactly when we’re on v110. Maybe that at v110 it is reasonable to be hitting FC at ~8:30. There’s probably an inflection point where the change in D speed won’t work.
Another little tidbit that I am -completely- ignoring is where he spends a significant time explaining why it really doesn’t matter, within reason, how long it takes to get to first crack. Like almost 14 minutes to first crack doesn’t matter.
I’d buy that.
I’m probably going to run one more low drum speed test and shelve the whole thing until I hear back from Aillio support.
I conducted a wattage test at the request of Aillio support.
I measured the wattage in ascending order from P1 to P9
P9 had a lower starting wattage than P8 and dropped steadily down to P6 power level.
I cooled the roaster down and did the same test but started with P9. Started at 1534w and steadily dropped down to P8 wattage. Power level was still declining when I ended the test.
I don’t think it’s supposed to? P8 and P7 were more powerful than P9. The wattage continued to drop until I ended the test.
I redid the same test but started at P9. Initially it was 1534w which is where I would expect P9 to live but just as before continued a steady decrease down to 1290w before I ended the experiment.
Would be good if someone else with a wattmeter can run the same test as you for comparison. I would have expected the low end of P9 to be higher than the high end of P8 based on all your other data points. Let us know what support says too…
Saw your post on the other thread in the meantime about augmenting the cooling to the power board as well…
Can you describe the test procedure a little more so I can give it a try and get some data back to you? I think I’m reading this but just wanted to make sure:
Plug in the roaster with the power meter inline, cycle the roaster directly from standby>preheat>roast.
Drop power to P1
Record the range of the power meter readings over a period of at least 2 minutes (by which time the power consumption should reach steady state).
Increment the power and repeat step 3.
To repeat the experiment more faithfully, what fan/drum setting did you use for this?
So for craps and giggles, I did another test run. This time with RT and a desk fan blowing under the roaster. I was kinda hoping maybe there was a component overheating and causing the drop in power.
No preheat, No beans, P9, F2, D9
Wattage held steady above 1500w for 3:30, then continued it’s steady decline throughout the roast. FC marks the point where wattage had dropped into the 1100w territory.
You can see where the graph changes from a linear-ish temperature increase to a less aggressive rise that correlates with the decrease in wattage.
Assuming this isn’t a safety feature or intentionally coded PID to decrease power over time, no wonder I’m having trouble hitting first crack in the same time as others if my power output drops steadily after 3:30 minutes.
Just spinning my wheels until support gets back to.
