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Gene Cafe to Skywalker?
Koffee Kid
Top  #1 Print Post
Posted on 01/05/2025 9:04 PM
Hello everyone,

Had a question for those who have/been roasting with the Skywalker coffee roaster to see if it would be considered an upgrade from a Gene Cafe? I know this forum may not have too many people making that transition, so basically trying to understand if the Skywalker is worth the (very low) investment?

As a frame of reference, I've been roasting with my Gene Cafe for about 4 years now. Its been a workhorse, but it lacks basically all metrics to create consistent and repeatable cups of coffee. I knew the day would come to upgrade to get more refined data points while roasting, but not sure which direction is best.

I was looking at getting what I believe is the Skywalker 2.0 ("clone"?) off of Aliexpress and wanted to see if anyone had thoughts/regrets/suggestions/etc. for a purchase such as that! My main driver behind this purchase is Artisan integration and an adjustable fan.

Thanks for all the thoughts in advance - trying to make a wise decision in my coffee roasting journey.
 
renatoa
Top  #2 Print Post
Posted on 01/06/2025 3:09 AM
Hi, and welcome.

Gene can be moded to become a dream machine, but nobody did it... Arduino ecosystem wasn't as popular as today, and so many electronic guys involved in specialty coffee roasting in the days of Gene infancy.
It takes a little bit of madness to go as far as I would think with all the changes to this machine.
Probably all they did in the bigger model, which was no success, as it seems discontinued.

Regarding Skywalker, DON'T... get the V2 !
It's a lot of disappointment, and has no relevant improvement over V1, whatever their PR is claiming.
My V1, after less than $50 mods is better than a V2, imo. I means mods easy to make, unlike what Gene requires.
Not sure if you're following closely, but they have decided to suspend shipments to major sellers until fixing what can be fixed from the bunch of the signaled current issues. The official suspend reason being the arrival of CNY, good for them smile
So the V2 are selling now are stock clearing of initial V2 batch, plagued by issues.
 
Koffee Kid
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Posted on 01/06/2025 7:42 AM
Hi Renatoa,

Thank you! I definitely would have fallen into the trap of the V2 claims. Would you say purchasing the V1 and making the modifications would be a worthy transition from the Gene Cafe? As you mentioned, the mods required on the Gene to make it a repeatable roaster isn't the easiest task.

I know another company has come out and started pushing one on Amazon (U.S) that isn't iTop, but looks identical to a skywalker. Any thoughts on that?
It's by a brand called NIASIA
https://a.co/d/2r...
 
renatoa
Top  #4 Print Post
Posted on 01/06/2025 8:32 AM
If Niasia is a local seller, with local (US) warranty and spare parts in stock, then I would buy from them instead a seller from Asia, with uncertain service time and return.

Itop is a seller, even if they try to play as a manufacturer.
Skywalker is manufactured by Akimita, and Itop is their major seller, but not the only. You can buy directly from Akimita, but a minimum order of five.
There are for example sellers who requested white painted roasters, to differentiate from the crowd.
Another example, the V2 of Itop has a different, stainless steel flat front plate than the original Akimita, that can be seen on their site wearing the same Darth Vader mask as V1.

Another detail... even if US, if your location has a 230V circuit, please buy a 230V model !
Will save you one of the mandatory mods for V1. Much relaxed life of electronics for the 230V model.
 
billsey
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Posted on 01/06/2025 4:03 PM
I pretty much agree with Renatoa, other than the 110V warning. The later shipped version of V1 already has the heftier heat sink, so there is much less chance of having the issue with that part overheating. The mod for either Artisan control or Artisan monitoring is simple and can be nice and compact, as can be seen by my version (https://homeroast...post_78941) of it.
 
renatoa
Top  #6 Print Post
Posted on 01/06/2025 4:10 PM
I commented on the new heftier heat sink in the Skywalker threads, with numbers to demonstrate it is still not big enough.
But what's really really wrong is the lack of airflow even for new shipments... if not a fan, at least some holes.
All the heatsink theory is built on the completely open air premise, no heatsink calculator is able to give estimation for buried in a case scenario.
 
Koffee Kid
Top  #7 Print Post
Posted on 01/06/2025 8:52 PM
This is awesome! For those with a V1 and the mods, is there an easy link to buy everything for those living in the US (specifically Texas for me)?

Hesitant to buy the AliExpress version I had originally planned for after realizing the lack there of support.
 
billsey
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Posted on 01/07/2025 4:52 PM
I bought the parts to make mine on Amazon, well under $20 in total, but I already had soldering stuff and wires around.
 
Koffee Kid
Top  #9 Print Post
Posted on 01/09/2025 6:22 PM

Quote

billsey wrote:

I bought the parts to make mine on Amazon, well under $20 in total, but I already had soldering stuff and wires around.


Well I went ahead and bought mine yesterday, its arriving tomorrow! Billsey, would you mind giving me a link to your mods or the things you purchased? I would like to get mine to work with Artisan day 1 if possible.
 
renatoa
Top  #10 Print Post
Posted on 01/10/2025 5:58 AM
Even if all you see everywhere related to V1 Artisan adapter is based on Atmel code, my advice would be to buy an ESP32 from the start.
There are multiple advantages:
- you can run a better code than the original, without any packet skipping, and resolution increased by oversampling
- if no confident enough you can even run the original code, without any changes other than pin numbers.
- you have wireless connection, as an addition to USB. You can even use two different apps/displays to watch the roast, one for the roaster, and a second big display for audience, if you want to make a demo show
- if adding a $10 LCD screen you can have a compact roasting solution that would make you quickly forget roasting by graphs.
Will post details soon in a separate thread.
 
Koffee Kid
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Posted on 01/10/2025 8:01 AM
Do you think the ESP32 has a superior advantage for this over a 8266? I have a few 8266s laying around I could repurpose if so.

Also, could you GirHub link or send the code base you’re talking about?
Edited by Koffee Kid on 01/10/2025 8:17 AM
 
renatoa
Top  #12 Print Post
Posted on 01/10/2025 9:09 AM
ESP32 means BT, the main reason to choose over 8266.
wifi is out of discussion, will disturb acquisition of skywalker data, timing is too tight to be done while wifi active.
If not interested in wireless connectivity, sure, 8266 could work, have to check if it compiles the actual code.

Just posted a thread about the roast assistant, check there how it goes.
Code will not be public, for many reasons.
Will post binaries only, ready to upload, for any configuration I am requested.
 
Koffee Kid
Top  #13 Print Post
Posted on 01/10/2025 9:48 AM

Quote

renatoa wrote:

ESP32 means BT, the main reason to choose over 8266.
wifi is out of discussion, will disturb acquisition of skywalker data, timing is too tight to be done while wifi active.
If not interested in wireless connectivity, sure, 8266 could work, have to check if it compiles the actual code.

Just posted a thread about the roast assistant, check there how it goes.
Code will not be public, for many reasons.
Will post binaries only, ready to upload, for any configuration I am requested.


Funny enough, just found a ESP32S in one of my drawers, so should be good to move forward with that! This will be my first time using Artisan, and still haven't familiarized myself with it much. Do you think you would be able to provide the binaries with the best configuration you would suggest for someone new to all this? Happy to repost this on your other thread if you'd like more consistency with the topic.
 
renatoa
Top  #14 Print Post
Posted on 01/10/2025 11:24 AM
Ok, give me time to start a github page, as a home for the schematic, binaries, instructions and issues collecting place.
 
Koffee Kid
Top  #15 Print Post
Posted on 01/10/2025 1:33 PM
Thanks Renatoa!
 
billsey
Top  #16 Print Post
Posted on 01/12/2025 10:48 AM

Quote

renatoa wrote:

Ok, give me time to start a github page, as a home for the schematic, binaries, instructions and issues collecting place.

Will you do a spy version as well there?
 
renatoa
Top  #17 Print Post
Posted on 01/12/2025 11:54 AM
If you mean Roast Assist, it is spy only atm, control exclusive from original control panel.
Even auto modes can be used, with a precaution.
 
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