I want some coffee!

It works! When I was an engineer working at Lockheed, I learned that there are good reasons management didn't want engineers touching tools. The techs were good at their job and I wasn't. So when it comes time to modify electronics I prefer to leave that to the competent hands of those who are good at it. That was over 25 years ago. Now when something needs fixing it's usually up to me to get it done. But I sweat bullets till I know I didn't screw up the work. In this case it went well. Boot-up is a little different as already mentioned, and I now have control of drum speed. Most importantly I had no alarm sound while I was roasting which is a huge relief. Operation is outwardly the same as before but there are subtleties in control behavior that suggest I may have more responsive control of the roast. So I gave it a try. This is the first of only 2 roasts before the temps in the shop were over 90°F ( yuk! ). I tried several different things that demonstrated I need to ...

Up and running! Except for doing a trial roast or two, I just finished upgrading to the V2 power board and replacing the control module (current production design; different connections than my vintage 1/2019 Bullet). USPS managed to deliver the replacement cable 2 days early ( thank you USPS! ) and I installed it the same afternoon. The replacement cable Julio sent, specific to the current control board, fit as it should. Once the mods were installed I applied power and (after an unexpectedly long boot cycle) the Bullet was up and is running (I think!). Lots of new sounds. The exhaust fan starts out just about screaming it's spinning so fast (almost scarey!). Then after 3 or 4 seconds it settles down to what I have come to expect. That scarey start-up sound made me think to calibrate the exhaust fan before anything else. Easy-peasey: go through firmware set-up to step 6, then simultaneously press both the "+" & "-" buttons of the Fan control. That launches ...

This is the old V1 power board. Looking kind of dingy from smoke inhalation. It's the result of putting the power board in the exhaust path of the cooling tray. Most things are pretty well thought out on this roaster, but... really?! Installation of a replacement V2 power board is an upgrade which means I had to buy the new board since the mfr thinks the older design works adequately. It went pretty well. The new board went in without trouble except for removing/reattaching the legs of the roaster. A PITA trying to reach 2 of the 4 screws on each leg-pair. Those 2 screws on each pair are installed at an angle without sufficient clearance to rotate an Allen wrench. But a little patience ( hah! that'll be the day!) and I managed to get everything back together. The control panel was another story. All the installation instructions are for upgrading a V1 or V1.5 roaster. Those instructions assume a control panel assembly of that same vintage. I am replacing the control panel PCB ...

Repair and upgrade parts for my roaster have arrived. Sweet Maria's, with direction from Aillio in Taiwan, sent a new V2 power board with a tiny replacement board that is installed in the rear of the roaster. Plus a replacement control panel board assembly to hopefully deal with the comm issue that generates a recurring alarm with no error code visible. Now I need some documentation that tells me how to proceed. Control panel first then test? or power board first then test? Both at the same time? It's a question of the interdependence of the new power board and the controller+firmware combo (if there is any). It will be a relief to have this running properly again. For the last 2-3 months I've had to cross my fingers that I'd get thru each roast without power setting going to zero. PITA! And while I'm whining, some cooler weather would be nice. Yet another day in the 100's. Yuk. Julio, who is the Bullet guy at Sweet Maria's, sent me a sample roast of some...

I bought my Aillio Bullet R1 roaster in January 2019. It was designated V1.5 instead of V2 because it was delivered with the infrared temperature sensor and the same power board used on V1 Bullets. Aillio had a design replacement but it was stalled in production for whatever reason. I planned to upgrade from V1.5 to V2 by replacing the power board when it became available. Great plan but... By April 2019 they started delivering Bullets with the new power board in both 120 VAC and 240 VAC versions. But then they found production issues after a few hours of roasting use. I had been in touch with Julio at Sweet Maria's (Sweet Maria's was my source for the Bullet) and he said the 240 VAC model seemed ok, but it might be too soon to upgrade my 120 VAC Bullet since some of those boards were having a problem: "You're better off with what you have". Aillio gave user's a heads-up on their Community site back in Oct 2019 that apparently some components for the 120 VAC ...

Today it's Honduras Comayagua Nueva Alianza ( Comayagua is the place; Nueva Alianza is the co-op or farm that supplied the beans). I roasted this batch to about City+ (C+) which is a little darker roast than the minimum (and I think I could have gone a little darker). As a generalization, beans are considered 'roasted' anytime after first crack (1C). A roast which is stopped just after 1C is called City roast (C). And City roast denotes the start of the color pallet which runs from City (the lightest shade) and gets progressively darker as it moves thru C+, Full City (FC), FC+, Vienna (V) to French Roast (FR). So each roast level (C -> C+ -> FC -> FC+ -> V -> FR) is darker than the preceding level. At some point around FC+ the roasted beans start showing signs of oil on their surface. After FR the beans are pretty much history in terms of drink-ability and are likely to burst into flame inside the roaster if the roast continues. There are 2 ways to watch t...

The Berkey water filter was the catalyst of change. Since the Berkey arrived and I had an epiphany by recalling the original Melitta filter instructions I read back in 1953 or '54, I have changed how I brew using the Melitta. I now use the Melitta similar to the way others use a pour-over filter. And oh-by-the-way, the same method Melitta recommended in the early 1950s: wet the grounds and let it sit till the water passes thru (they call it a bloom), then add the remaining water in a slow steady pour but only in the center of the filter. No more spreading water around all the grounds to get everything wet again while I finish the pour. And no more stirring with a spoon. Not quite a pour-over, which (depending on the 'expert') dictates a pause every 150 mL or so, but the change in flavor was remarkable to me. So, 'in for a penny, in for a pound' . I wanted to experiment by trying a proper pour-over. I found there are dozens of detailed procedures on the 'net...

While I love roasting coffee, my primary interest has always been about drinking coffee. Brewing is just an unavoidable step between my two interests. I learned to brew coffee early-on, long before I became interested in roasting. I learned first (and briefly) using a percolator (hardware stores sold percolators; grocery stores sold groceries). Then a short while later a Melitta came to live with us (from Turner's Hardware, of course). That early training stuck and I didn't vary the method till... C and I discovered RVs in 2009. At that point we shifted to a drip coffee maker just cuz that's what other RVers were using. We bought the cheapest Mr. Coffee Walmart had on sale- it was $19.95 and looked something like this newer model. Conveniently it had a Strong setting like this newer model has. The Strong setting seemed to slow the brewing process a little so there was more time between 'burps' of water than when the Strong light was off. It was very decent coffee ...