pngboy wrote:very exciting! Thanks for posting Hank. Hope it turns out to be a reliable roaster. Do you think the fact that everything is digitally controlled through some kind of internal electronics and bluetooth will make this much less reliable? I guess only time will tell. Is there a USB on it?

I have the same question and plan to inquire about the innards, and the difficulty of diagnosis/repair. The body of the machine has "German" type precision; how about a 1mm gap between the machined drum and faceplate; which had a lipped interface. Martin claims it's a "chaff less" design, meaning there is no need for a catch tray or drawer under the drum's front edge. (Still has a traditional chaff collector bolted on)

Martin removed the drop door for me and observed the rotation with a torch; smooth as silk with no wobble. Perfect rotation! The front and back faceplate are 5mm steel, with an extra 3mm on the front for an 8mm total. Carbon steel 5mm drum machined all the way around.

I need to go back and explore Martin's ideas about the thick drum on an electric machine. One question I had, is the drum too thick? Feima's thick cast iron drums have no issue releasing heat during the RD phase, what about the Mercury? Or maybe the thick drum changes the dynamics of a very small roaster? I'd like to see a batch roasted using a "low and slow" profile to full city.

No USB port as the design is proprietary, can a clever owner figure out a workaround??

Thanks for the reply. Its great to have someone over there getting a 1st hand impression. Thanks allot

hankua wrote:...
Martin and Scott want to keep the machine operating with their proprietary software, so open sourced data-logging is out of the question with a stock machine. ...

Would there be a drawback of not being able to use software like e.g. artisan vs. the software of cloudbean tech?

hankua wrote:It's only available in 220v, a major inconvenience in the US home market; doable for roasteries. For Europe, UK, Australia, etc.; no problem.

That's a bad news

BartG wrote:Would there be a drawback of not being able to use software like e.g. artisan vs. the software of cloudbean tech?

Yes, a drawback for sure, at least for now; and the upgraded software may help in that regard. There's only one BT thermocouple, an ET would be nice although not enough room on the faceplate; it would have to be placed in the exhaust plenum.

Martin did a 5 or 6 minute Nordic style profile that lacked underdeveloped notes, by pre-loading he heavy steel drum with heat. I found that rather interesting and will discuss it some more with him. I think you have to balance the drawbacks against whatever positive attributes there are.

Bunkmil wrote:That's a bad news

Definitely!
They were considering a gas version which would solve the problem, but eliminate the Bluetooth control feature. Seems like a marketing/manufacturing decision. It makes sense for a tiny start up company to focus on one product version first.

hankua wrote:Yes, a drawback for sure, at least for now; and the upgraded software may help in that regard. There's only one BT thermocouple, an ET would be nice although not enough room on the faceplate; it would have to be placed in the exhaust plenum.

Martin did a 5 or 6 minute Nordic style profile that lacked underdeveloped notes, by pre-loading he heavy steel drum with heat. I found that rather interesting and will discuss it some more with him. I think you have to balance the drawbacks against whatever positive attributes there are.

So what are the positives for you Hank?
For now I list:

- thick steel drum
- high manufacturing quality

Vs:

- only one temp probe
- only controlled by proprietary software, which may fall short compared to artisan or other software


Personally I like this roaster because of its price point and its capacity ( 400g max). I'm doubting heavily between buying the mercury and the kaldi fortis. The main drawback for the fortis for me is its capacity (just personal of course) = 600g. The optimum roast size will then be like around 400g, which will be too much if I want to gather experience and roast a couple of times in a week...

I am afraid the sensible thing to do for both roasters is to wait till more user reports trickle in ... aargh

I too am looking at both those roasters and millcity. the Mercury would be a pretty solid win for me if I could also manually control it... In the case that the bluetooth went out or something happened to the onboard computer. I also don't want to be locked into using just their app unless it was equally as good as roastlogger or Artisan..

I'm sure with the Fortis you could charge 300g no problem.

So if the Mercury had:
-manual control
-the use of Artisan,roast logger...

I would happily take a gamble and buy it right now

BartG wrote:So what are the positives for you Hank?
For now I list:

- thick steel drum
- high manufacturing quality

Vs:

- only one temp probe
- only controlled by proprietary software, which may fall short compared to artisan or other software


Personally I like this roaster because of its price point and its capacity ( 400g max). I'm doubting heavily between buying the mercury and the kaldi fortis. The main drawback for the fortis for me is its capacity (just personal of course) = 600g. The optimum roast size will then be like around 400g, which will be too much if I want to gather experience and roast a couple of times in a week...

I am afraid the sensible thing to do for both roasters is to wait till more user reports trickle in ... aargh

Thats would be wise, if combined with plenty of patience.

pngboy wrote:I too am looking at both those roasters and millcity. the Mercury would be a pretty solid win for me if I could also manually control it... In the case that the bluetooth went out or something happened to the onboard computer. I also don't want to be locked into using just their app unless it was equally as good as roastlogger or Artisan..

I'm sure with the Fortis you could charge 300g no problem.

So if the Mercury had:
-manual control
-the use of Artisan,roast logger...

I would happily take a gamble and buy it right now

Haven't seen the Fortis, looks to be sheet metal stainless compared to heavy duty plate steel parts. One's basic and easily repairable, the other precisely made and in comparison complicated. I have a relative working in coffee in Korea; will ask if he can find out more info on Kaldi.

The app is probably going to be simplistic compared to Artisan, which in essence is professional level. I'll discuss this subject again to get a better understanding why no open source capabilities. Does the Bullet R1 run on proprietary software and also bridge to Artisan?

Is there a way to have back up manual controls for the Mercury? Good question, I'll ask!

I think they're sold out right now, waiting on the second production run.