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Some questions about the Hottop from a new owner.
BarryR
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Posted on 01/08/2014 9:29 PM
So, I made my first roast today (Guat Huehue from GCBC, 250 gms). I roughly followed RGs guidelines for profiling on the KN-8828B2-K from the Hottop Website (sort of) though I put the beans in at about 170.

Looks like a nice FC and smells good (I think it's much more vibrant than when I roasted the same bean in the Behmor, but it's hard to know for sure.
1C at 11:17, lasted 2:00 and ended roast about 2 mins after that.
Weight loss 15.9%.

One challenge for me was keeping track of what I did. With the Behmor, there wasn't much to keep track of other than 1C, 2C and opening of the door. I use roastmaster.

For those without a PC connected roaster, what do you do. Record temps every 30-60 secs? Record temps only at key stages (1C, 2C, etc?). In about a year (when warranty expires), I may automate my Hottop but in the meantime, I'm trying to figure out what to do.

Has anyone found Roastloggers OCR feature useful? I tried it, but a may need a better camera as I couldn't get it to log. I also didn't think I'd make it through a roast without nudging the camera.

Also, a question about stored profiles. What does it store? Does it store every change made or just the eject time, eject temp, initial fan speed and heat level?

What does the auto profile do? Is it so flexible that it should work with higher drop temps and varying charges or is it more like the Behmor, where it's sort of fixed and you need to use the right amount of beans to make a profile work?
 
MichaelRpdx
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Posted on 01/08/2014 9:52 PM
I've been recording the temps every 60 seconds and making notes about significant changes. Stuff like "yellow beans" or "grassy aroma" or "FC outlier" ...

If you're worried about warranty, the bean chute is a $10 replacement part and you can drill it out for the 6" thermocouple probe to get bean mass temperatures. That TC into the Victor 86B multimeter with thermocouple input and a USB output allows you to get bean temps recorded by Roastlogger.

Be forewarned: the Victor manual is all in Chinese so you'll need to just figure it out.
Portland, Oregon roasting with Popper to start; Behmor 2007 - 2013; Hottop 2014 - now,
What to do with TC4 parts now that I have Hottop 2k+ ??
 
Randy G
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Posted on 01/09/2014 12:56 AM
How to add probe:
http://www.frcndi...pTemp.html
Edited by JackH on 01/11/2014 7:06 PM

Life's too short to drink bad coffee.
 
Web
turtle
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Posted on 01/09/2014 6:56 PM
I've found this record sheet to be useful.

http://www.homero...%20Log.pdf

I print them out double sided.
 
BarryR
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Posted on 01/09/2014 8:33 PM
Thanks.

I figured out how to put temp, fan speed and heat into Roastmaster on the fly, so that will be my solution for the while.

It makes pretty graphs that can be followed during the roast, so that should help.
 
smico
Top  #6 Print Post
Posted on 01/09/2014 8:47 PM
Barry,
I have never used Roastmaster, and I am curious how do you add temp and fan to the Roastmaster? Is there some recognition software with camera like in Roastlogger?
Thank you,
Miroslav
Hottop B2 + HTC, Cremina 83, OE Pharos, Brewtus IIIR, Baratza Vario
 
MichaelRpdx
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Posted on 01/09/2014 10:42 PM

Quote

BarryR wrote:I figured out how to put temp, fan speed and heat into Roastmaster on the fly, so that will be my solution for the while.
What? How? I want to be able to add roast commentary to Roastmaster, heat level and fan speed would be great too.
Portland, Oregon roasting with Popper to start; Behmor 2007 - 2013; Hottop 2014 - now,
What to do with TC4 parts now that I have Hottop 2k+ ??
 
MichaelRpdx
Top  #8 Print Post
Posted on 01/09/2014 11:06 PM
OK, figured out you can type commentary into the roast log as it does the timer entries.
Portland, Oregon roasting with Popper to start; Behmor 2007 - 2013; Hottop 2014 - now,
What to do with TC4 parts now that I have Hottop 2k+ ??
 
BarryR
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Posted on 01/11/2014 3:23 PM

Quote

smico wrote:

Barry,
I have never used Roastmaster, and I am curious how do you add temp and fan to the Roastmaster? Is there some recognition software with camera like in Roastlogger?
Thank you,
Miroslav

If you want to do it automatically you need a Bluetooth or wifi linked temp probe.
You can enter it manually though.
 
smico
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Posted on 01/11/2014 7:03 PM
OK. I was curious because I thought you have already automated that.
Barry,
If you want low-budget-5-minutes-to-complete solution, you might want to try Roastlogger. All you need is web camera placed in front of HT display. Roastlogger have built in recognition program to read temperature, fan and heat setting directly from the display, and you will get nice roasting curve off the bat.
Cheers,
Miroslav
Hottop B2 + HTC, Cremina 83, OE Pharos, Brewtus IIIR, Baratza Vario
 
BarryR
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Posted on 01/11/2014 11:14 PM
I got roastlogger to work for OCR temps but I don't see that it can get heat and fan info off the display.
Are you sure about that?
 
smico
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Posted on 01/12/2014 8:59 AM
I am not sure. It might simply be something I though to be easy to do enhancement. I used Roastlogger without camera for some time, so this is very possible. Sorry about mix-up from my imaginary world.
Hottop B2 + HTC, Cremina 83, OE Pharos, Brewtus IIIR, Baratza Vario
 
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