Hello. I’m looking for help to problem solve an issue with EC 0004. I’m roasting on a R1V2 that I’ve had for about 9 months. This is popping up when trying to preheat to 310C for 1kg roasts. It has occurred 4 times when I try to PH. I normally roast at a lower PH for smaller batches.
Bean temp (from probe) seems to get to around 250C-260C and then the error hits. It seems like it has also occurred consistently around or after 25 minutes of PH.
I have cleaned the machine and recalibrated the fan, but I’m still getting the error code. If I dump in beans and start a roast I am fine getting through the roast without further error codes.
My understanding is that this error code relates to the ambient temp in the drum and could be related to possible issues with the IRBT fan. I read that past production lines had issues with fans put in backward and other installation issues with the IBTS fan. I am hesitant to open up the board to mess with that.
Any ideas on further troubleshooting options? Is this common when trying to roast at max PH? All help is appreciated. Thanks.
If you have searched the forum about this and tried the various troubleshooting in those other threads and still have this issue then I suggest you contact Aillio support or however you purchased your Bullet from.
I don’t know where you currently reside, but I’ll take a guess that it’s somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere where it’s summer now. Just to tell you that I’ve never ever roast 1kg batches during summer, but when I do I crank the AC beyond max. I’ve tried once, on a cooler day where it was around 27-28°C, but a couple of cool days do not cool the entire house down. I see the only other time you’ve preheated the roaster to 300 was in February, so that is also an indicator that the ambient temperature is really too high. Use AC, and if you’re already using it, crank it up. Otherwise, there are people who’ve had some success with a fan under the roaster to cool the electronics during hotter days.
The production issue you mentioned was resolved long ago, and if you’ve had the Bullet for around 9 months, it likely doesn’t belong to that batch.
The easiest step is to check the Chaff Filter. If the Chaff Filter appears to be black/brown/covered in dust, the mesh is clogged and will cause the ambient inside the Drum to rise.
You can soak the Chaff Filter in hot water mixed with baking soda or coffee cleaning solution, scrub with a toothbrush (poke through the mesh if necessary), rinse, dry, and re-assemble.
Another thing to check is the Ventilation Setup. If it’s sealed on both ends, the heat, moisture, and oil will drop back to the inside due to condensation and backdraft. You can refer to the User Manual to find out the best way to ventilate the Bullet.
Currently in NW France where it hasn’t been that hot. It’s been around 16C-18C on average during the day, and I was roasting in the evening when the errors occurred.
I guess I’m mostly wondering if I actually have a problem or if I’m just trying to push the machine too hard with a max PH temp.
What’s the ambient temperature in the room you’re roasting? Other than the hot climate, it could be the cleaning as da_kevin said in his post. And as he also said, if all else fails, submit a ticket.
when i get erc 0004 is it because the temp on my ibts is to high, it starts at 80c, have u cleened the “room” where the ibts is??? if not i think you should, there can be a lot of fluff
and 1 note more, your ibts fan should run 15000 rpm+ if its under 10000 u have a faulty fan and need a new
Okay, I had read that this could be an issue with the IBTS sensor. So you are saying clean out the little cavity that the sensor sits in, right? Best method for that? Also, would it be pretty obvious when I take the face plate off and look into that cavity?
Second, what would I notice first if the fan isn’t running at the right rpm? It sounds pretty loud in the cool down mode, but I have honestly forgotten if it was that loud when I first got the machine.
take off the face plate(faceplate where all the bottons are) becarefull there is a wire on it for the speaker
take out the pcb it sits with the balck scrous
take pics of how the wire is sited, and then remove the wires, but do i carefully dont yank them
take out the shell that the face plate is covering
the most important thing take your time you dont wanna ruin anything, i have done it a few times it is straight up
when u use roastime there is in the top right conor an I icon when u press it it gives you a lot of info about your roaster
try to ph with your 310 profile and see if ibts ambient or whats called goes over 80C dont know what that is in F
and there you also can see your ibts fan speed
So, I was looking at your 2 profiles and the El Llano 1 has a starting temperature of 96°C on the bean probe, and the second one is normal at around 230°C. My question is what went wrong with the first one, and how were you able to have the same timing on both roasts? Also, do you have fluctuations in the graph during PH? I mean of the extreme kind.
Braca – The first roast was wacky bc I just dumped in the beans when the overheating error occurred. I was hoping the heat sink would bring down the temp and put it into roasting mode. That did not happen, and it took me about 30-45 seconds to realize that and toggle into my roast. I think that accounts for the weird start temps to El Llano #1. It ended up working out bc the roaster was already saturated and blazing hot. I assume those temp readings are coming from the cold bean pile mass. The second Llano roast, the same error occurred, but I immediately toggled into roasting mode.
Last night I recleaned the IBTS sensor and made sure that the cavity it was in was free of debris or excessive oil buildup. I ran PH to 250C and monitored the fan RPMs and the ambient IBTS temp reading as per Kohall’s suggestion (great help and much appreciated btw).
The RPMs spun up to 17,500 (ish) throughout, so that seemed all good. I got the charge signal after 25 minutes and then put the roaster into the 310C PH. After 10-15 minutes, I got a charge signal and then shut it down. All good.
I watched the IBTS ambient temp during this test and, although it got up 78.1C (at the time of charge signal for the 310C PH), it never exceeded 80C. I’m not sure if that is why I did not get an error signal, but that would track with Kohall’s experience.
This morning I did a cold bore shot, so to speak, with a 310C PH from a cold start. I monitored all the same variables and everything went well. I got a charge signal after 26 minutes and the ambient IBTS temp was at 73.5. So the problem seems to have abated. Good news.
I don’t know if the problem was the IBTS sensor or ventilation. I run a vent tube from my exhaust port when roasting to ventilate smoke (without a fan to pull air). I haven’t had a problem in the past, but I haven’t been trying to charge at the higher temp. When my original error popped up, the vent tube was on. I took it off after the error, but the errors persisted on subsequent PH tries. So maybe I had just overheated the machine’s ambient IBTS temp before the machine could register a stable ROR?
So I think the problem is solved. If things persist I will update the thread.
Allio support sent me this. They stated that this is the standard reply for the error code. I’m going to post it here for those future roasters who may encounter this error code.
ErC 0004 indicates the temperature inside the IBTS housing is getting too hot. The triggered threshold is 80 degrees C. You can monitor the IR Ambient reading on the info panel of RoasTime. Please update to latest beta firmware first. This firmware helps to lower the temperature in the IBTS housing.
ErC 0004 would get triggered more easily when the airflow is blocked. Please make sure the Chaff Collector and Chaff Filter are cleaned especially when you are doing back-to-back roasts.
Here are other situations that can/will lead to ErC 0004:
Long big batch roasts with low F settings all the way?
Smoke from front? Restricted airflow due to clogged chaff filter or impeller fan blades
IBTS dirty thus pre heating much higher than setpoint PH
Check if IBTS module casing is mounted properly. No air gaps.
Roasting in the corner of the room with bad air circulation around the Bullet?
You can monitor the IR Ambient reading as shown below:
