Just installed IBT sensor kit - yay!

I hear I’m one of the first to receive the IBT sensor upgrade kits. The kit was complete, and the instructions were quite good. This is my third major Bullet upgrade (tryer, bean probe, heat sink) - I’m impressed they’ve enabled owners of earlier machines to keep up with advances - nicely done!

If anyone has questions, I’ve found that the Aillio support email is very responsive, but I’d also be happy to share my experiences here.

My first roast on the upgraded system went pretty well. Main adjustment for me is going to be figuring out the new preheat temperature, because the new sensor measures drum temp much differently than the old one, so I haven’t yet preheated as high as I’m used to and the roast took significantly longer than normal. The new sensor is also much more responsive. I’m looking forward to re-learning this new beast.

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I just received my Bullet and it has the new sensor in place. Since I haven’t done any roasting without it, I’m wondering if that will be an advantage (since I don’t have a reference for how the Bullet used to function) or not (since this is brand new technology and we’re all learning together). Either way, I’m looking forward to the process and to hearing your experiences over time. :coffee:

You won’t have any un-learning to do, but learning how to roast on any new machine is (to me, at least) an adventure, full of surprises, excitement and occasional disappointment. First and second crack sound different to me on the Bullet then they did on my Behmor, so there were times I wasn’t sure what I was hearing – even more so with natural process coffees.

I’d never had access to a tryer before the Bullet, so learning what to look for (“smell for?”) as the roast goes on is something I’m still working on. With this new probe, I’m re-learning what good preheat temperatures are as well the desired roast curve with the new probe in order to achieve different flavor notes (I’m learning this from Rob Hoos’s book “Modulating The Flavor Profile of Coffee”).

So, yes, you’ll have an advantage of not having to unlearn the old Bullet, but coffee - a new roaster, a new bean, or whatnot - is always an adventure.

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Thanks for the info. I would like to upgrade also but I need to figure out what kit to order. Question: where do I look to see if I will need to solder or already have a connector in place, i.e., does the IBT attach on the power board or behind the display board? Thanks for your help.

You need to take a look at the control PCB itself. The link above explains in detail.

In Dylan’s comments above he says: “_I hear I’m one of the first to receive the IBTS sensor upgrade kits. The kit was complete, and the instructions were quite good. _”

I received my upgrade kit today, however there were no instructions at all…where should i obtain these?
Thanks

They’re online instructions. Here’s the link.

Thank you Dylan. For those inclined to jump the gun like I did, Aillio will send buyers an email with link to instructions … my email arrived about 4 hours after kit delivery.

hi just got it today installed it, but I do not know if old bean sensor has to be unplugged.

I installed 475 and my R1 reads PH 205°C not 250 or 300 how can I change this?

You leave the old bean sensor plugged in - the RoasTime software shows you both the IBTS (still labeled Drum temperature for now) and old bean probe - at least for us old-timers, it’s really handy to have both, to give you an idea where you would have been with the old roaster. On my setup, anyway, they’re more-or-less parallel to each other after about 2 minutes or so, but the IBTS is about 30C above the old bean probe, slowly decreasing in delta over time.

thanks
have another issue new PH says 250-300°C I only can do PH max 205C and on mac 2.0.9 it does not find the bullet. Driver on Windows was hard to update after 9 times it finally works without old profiles

You need to update the bullet’s firmware after installing the IBTS in order to unlock higher preheat temperatures. The installation instructions (I think) say which firmware version to use - I think it’s the current beta firmware. They’re working on the Mac USB connectivity, 2.0.8 does work with the IBTS, though. A new 2.0.9 should arrive soon.

uninstalled 2.0.9 on mac reinstalled 2.0.8, and downgraded FW to 448, still have PH max 205C what the dell I am doing wrong to get PH300?

Not sure FW 448 supports the higher charge temps used with the IBTS sensor.

I’d recommend staying at RT 2.0.8 and upgrading the FW to 475 and trying to set the charge temp higher than 205.

yakster wrote:

I’d recommend staying at RT 2.0.8 and upgrading the FW to 475 and trying to set the charge temp higher than 205.

Indeed - the post install instructions (referred to at the end of the installation instructions) say to use FW 475, for exactly this reason, I believe.

I think you’re right. @jacob told me to use 475 to get my 1.5 Bullet to roast past 220C “drum temp.” I haven’t had a chance to try it, yet, but I bet 475 allows higher thresholds, all around.

yea but in new manual IBTS temp are much higher, I thought we have to put that value

Recommended pre-heating temperatures

Weight [g] Pre-heat setting IBT sensor (V1.5 & V2.0) Power during roast Comments
400 160°C (320°F) P4-P7 For a 10min roast
500 170°C (338°F) P4-P8
700 180°C (356°F) 250°C (482°F) P4-P9
800 190°C (374°F) P4-P9
1000 200°C (392°F) 300°C (572°F) P6-P9 (PP)

Guess then I have version 1 with new board that had already connector place unused input
205 C I can do and it works now with Mac 2.0.8 only no profiles, tomorrow or Sunday I ll roast first time with new IBTS.

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Finally it works I can PH 300°C but it wont save it after power cord is taken off.

anybody got an idea how to save for good.

You’ll have to change it each time until an update is made.

I’m grateful to the Aillio team for allowing us early buyers access to the IBTS upgrade. I learned a lot about the machine in the process of opening it up. The install guide is pretty complete. (Would love to see a video, though.)

In case someone else has this issue: after a smooth hardware install and firmware update I tried a roast. About 7-8 minutes into preheat the roaster suspended preheat (a failsafe mode?) and wouldn’t respond to either the control panel or RoasTime. After letting the unit cool down, it started up normally but repeated the same behavior. I opened up the control panel and reseated the cable connections. Both probe temps were much less noisy and the roaster went smoothly through preheat and roast.

Lessons learned:

  1. Really check those connections when doing the install
  2. If you see this behavior try reseating the cables
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