The Bullet is a very clever machine, full of tech. So, why should a supposedly critical error only be announced with a cryptic “ErC 0001,” forcing me to lunge for my manual and frantically search for that table?
I mean, this freakin’ machine can talk! Why not have it announce the error in clear speech? And, most of the time, there’s a computer attached, doing all manner of fancy processing and logging of data. Why not have a plain language error message popped up in RoasTime? You could even suggest a corrective course of action in the pop-up.
Error recovery could use a bit of thought, too. Imagine I’ve got a kg of coffee in the machine, partially roasted. Now “ErC 0001” starts flashing. How do I fix (and silence) that error and continue that roast?
The manual says “finish your roast and let the Bullet cool down.” I can’t finish the roast if the power is forced to P0 and the panel is unresponsive. I can dump the beans, but that doesn’t “finish the roast,” it just wastes ~$12 worth of coffee.
Agreed - in the old days of four digit LED panels, hex cryptic messages were the only game in town…I think we should be able to move on. Not sure I would want it speaking - look what happened with the Hal9000 - “I’m afraid I can’t roast that Dave…”
So from what I see in the manual, that is the error that shuts down the heater because Bean temp has reached 473F. I agree that there should be an audible and visual alarm to the User when Bean temp is nearing that 470F mark so that an intervention can be done (by the User) to lower heat. Tom (from Sweet Marias) wrote an article that said 497F should be considered “imminent fire”.
Reminds me to set a “bean temp alarm” in my other Roasting software (that allows it). That is such a basic safety need (avoiding a roaster fire) that it certainly warrants an alert well before the unit shuts down power and ruins the roast.
The 310C drum temp quickly becomes a 310C bean temp.
Roaster goes “ ErC 0001”
I’ve had a few variations on that same basic scenario.
When it happened last night, I got flustered and poured the beans in, anyway. The alarm stopped. “Cool,” I thought. “Problem solved.” WRONG. I hadn’t noticed that it had gone to P0. The roast curves started out fine. Everything looked good. A couple minutes later, the graphs started sagging pathetically. Roast ruined; $12 of excellent Rwandan coffee down the drain.
Ahhh, yes that switch-over from Drum temp to suddenly saying 310C is the Bean temp is an issue. Thanks for that additional info. That is part of the problem with using the same sensor to report drum-temp as is used to measure bean-temp. You should be able to run the ET temp to 310C for those max batches without that same sensor all of a sudden thinking the actual bean-temp is 310C. Hmmmm…
Agree, we should make it easier to understand the errors. We had this on the list of things to do for a while, but have been working on other things.
If the Bullets goes to roast mode by itself and you have preheated to 310 then you might get an over temp error as there are no beans. In that case go back to preheat and charge and start over.
If the bean probe is 245 deg hot your beans would be pretty charcoal and you should be able to finish your french roast without additional power. If they are not dark at this stage then the bean probe might be faulty.
Ah! Are you saying that the 245° limit is on the bean temp probe, not the IBTS? That’s not what I expected.
It would be nice to know which incarnation of bean temp is being used for each feature. It’s really hard to know what’s happening with all the confusion over having two different bean temps.
I get an error message, I believe it is ErC 001 about every 3rd roast. The exhaust fan stops working. I fix it by cleaning the sensor which should only have to be done after 10 roasts.
Once this Error message comes up I cannot continue the roast.
How can I prevent this from occurring other than removing the front and cleaning after every 2 roasts?
ErC 1 would mean that the Bean temp is too high. Are you sure it it not the A-01?
Please post a screen shot of your error log in RT2, then it is so much easier to help - and your serial number.
Thank you for your reply. This problem manifested itself right away, but I did not know who to contact.
I could not find the serial number. I bought it directly from Aillio, ordering it in August or September 2018 and receiving it in October, I believe.
It is a great roaster, but its temperatures seem high compared to my previous ones, including a Behmor. And Hottop. I am still adjusting and I am assuming your machine is more accurate.
The Error code is A-01 and I removed the chaff tray and there was nothing blocking the fan. I ended up removing the front and cleaning it including the sensor with rubbing alcohol and that fixed the problem temporarily. The sensor is never very dirty at all.
Any information you could provide would be appreciated.
If you do needs the serial number please tell me where it is located.
I’m not Jacob, but I think I can help with this one.
A-01 is the dead-man alert. It’s sole purpose is to verify that you are still alive and paying attention. To silence it, press any button on the faceplate of the roaster. Although pressing a button during an A-01 alert it shouldn’t affect roaster operation in any way, I always try to use the arrow buttons, for fear that something like PRS, if acted on, would likely ruin the roast. Note that messing with RoasTime won’t help; you must press a button on the faceplate.
After you silence the alert, everything should continue, as usual.
So you know, the alert will sound every 3 minutes (I think), if the temp is over 220C and no buttons are pressed. There’s no way to avoid or disable your new Euro-nanny. She’s quite annoying and fairly useless, in my opinion.
The “Dead man” alarm is A-02 and not A-01. A-01 means there is an issue with the exhaust fan. Pull the chaff collector and check the fan to make sure it is spinning freely.
And that kind of sums up the potential confusion between the “dead mans alert” and something wrong with the fan. I mean it’s just a difference of one number…
Could the enigmatic benign A-02 be replaced with something like “hello?” or a voice prompt to press any key ?
Thank you, but this one is different the dead man alert. I am familiar with that and it stops with the pressing of any button. With the dead-man no error message appears.
However, this one beeps every few seconds, the fan stops turning and does not stop under any circumstances.
So the A-01 is a warning about the exhaust fan in the back not spinning. If this warning goes away after a few seconds you can ignore it. You can look through the exhaust to check that is it spinning.
You can also try to do a fan calibration by following this guide> https://community.roast.world/t/new-beta-firmware-507-released/1720?u=bab
About the high temperatures we will need more info such as a screen shot of RoasTime.
Yes, the exhaust fan stops spinning and a beeping every few seconds occurs. Nothing I do starts it again. Speed is fine before it stops abruptly. The only thing that seems to work is to wait until thed machine cools and the sensor.
The high temperature was a misstatement based on my mis remembering the error message. It is not an issue.
Okay, so I’ve tried this on several occasions, now. It “works,” but not in a very convenient way. The main issue with this strategy (beside the fact that it’s a bit of a cop out) is that it cancels everything that you’ve already set up for your roast.
For instance, you have to reapply any overlay that you’re using. That’s certainly annoying, but not too bad. Far worse is that it appears to cancel any recipe that you have running - and without saying much about it. I went through a whole roast (my first recipe attempt), with “Recipe Mode” displayed in RoasTime, waiting for the automated changes. Nothing ever happened. In retrospect, it’s clear that the recipe function was not running. I’m not certain what procedure should be used to restart a recipe in this situation. Probably just the obvious: go back and select the recipe then hit “run.”
My point is that this situation should have been avoided, in the first place. What conditions or changes are used to detect the start of roast? Can that be tweaked to avoid the false alarms? Seems like a downturn in IBTS drum/bean temp of, say 20C (or, maybe, 10%?) within a second, might work. Maybe that’s too short a time. I don’t have access the proper data to make a solid suggestion.
I asked in a previous post, but you didn’t say whether you use the bean probe or IBTS to compare to your 245C threshold. Seems like the probe makes sense for an empty drum, but that IBTS is far better, during roasting. And, given that the IBTS is usually higher than the probe, you may want to bump that threshold up a bit for the IBTS.
We use the bean probe to compare to 245 deg C - error 0001.
The IBTS has a limit of 330 deg C no matter the drum is empty or full of beans and this will give error 0002 in the display.
Regarding the auto start this is based on bean temp ROR dropping to -25 OR the IBTS dropping 80 deg C. So if you see very big fluctuations on the ROR this might be what is triggering it. With a closed bean chute lid in an environment without too much wind and a exhaust that can’t easily suck in air or pull air through the bullet this should not happen, but I don’t know what your setup is like.
Opening the door or removing the chaff collector could also trigger an auto start.
