I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience retrofitting roasters (or other mechanical devices) with the ability to electronically control gas / damper and record in a roast logger such as Artisan. I'm not interested in the PID aspect of things, although this might be fun to play with, but more the ability to precisely control , and more importantly record settings on the roaster. Not sure how feasible this would be, but the ideal would be having electronic controls but also having analog-style knobs to change settings (like on a car stereo).

This isn't something I'm interested in doing because I think it would improve my roasting chops, but rather a fun project that would have the added benefit of tracking settings during a roast. Can someone point me in the right direction? For gas control, for example, I found something called a Mass Flow Controller (MFC) that seems to be used in commercial / industrial applications, but I'm not sure if this would be overkill for roasting.

I do have some programming experience and have played a little with arduino, but interfacing with Artisan seems like it might be challenging.

thanks!

frank

First thing that comes to mind is the work done on the Hottop, as there is an interface via Artisan -> TC4C / Arduino -> Hottop to control power and fan. For Gas control, you can use a modulating valve with a driver board. I use mine with a PID, but you can easily do it with a knob/current controller. You can find several build examples at homeroasters.org

Thanks Wai'l, I'll look into the TC4C. I use the Phidgets 1048 as a datalogger but I don't think it can actually control anything.

tamarian wrote:First thing that comes to mind is the work done on the Hottop, as there is an interface via Artisan -> TC4C / Arduino -> Hottop to control power and fan. For Gas control, you can use a modulating valve with a driver board. I use mine with a PID, but you can easily do it with a knob/current controller. You can find several build examples at homeroasters.org

Tamarian, there are several gas proportional valves with companion voltage/current controller boards being discussed on homeroasters.org. Which ones are you partial to in terms of cost/reliability/effectiveness?

The one I'm using is Clippard's EVP valve: http://www.clippard.com/cms/wiki/clippa ... nal-valves with the driver board: http://www.clippard.com/part/EVPD-2

This set up has worked well for me with a Fuji PXG4 with 1-10 voltage output.

The valve has several option to match required flow and pressure. This will be dependant on your roaster's requirement, but they have good online documentation to help with the options.