I'm curious to know how other Quest M3 owners handle first crack. Depending on your batch size, processing method, and desired profile, how do you adjust the heat and fan going into first crack. Also, most importantly for me right now, how do you prevent those little upward flicks in ROR in the middle of first crack?

Here's my approach. It's changed many times and depends on coffee, and it's also designed around stretching 1c to around 1:45 with a drop at the tail end of or just after 1Ce. I go into 1C at a temperature from 475-500 MET depending on the coffee's water content. Fan is at a moderate setting. I apply heat to prevent MET from dropping with 1Cs's endothermia. If you watch MET and ride your power, you'll get a feel for when your roast has its endothermia and when it ends.

Once it's over and MET starts rising, I quickly max out the fan and start dropping power pretty quickly. From here out, I try to only decrease power settings and get BT to cruise in to my target and RoR to settle down to zero. This is really just muscle memory/practice. I used to use HUD in Artisan to dial in my 1C time, but that uses linear calculations and got me into trouble. Perhaps someone could tune the PID to make that work, but I haven't tried.

Whether or not my method is good or makes sense, I do not fully know.

At about 360F I crank the fan to full so that when I hit first crack, that is one variable out of the way. Usually, just after 1C statrs, I crank my power to 10W. I've had so many roasts stall on me, so I make a push to get momentum. From 10W, I do nothing but scale back the power for the rest of the roast. From 1C to the end of roast, I simply use my gut as far as how quickly to scale down the power based on MET and ROR. I am usually able to accomplish my goal of development time after 1C to be 20% of my total roast time, usually about 2 minutes.

I use full fan/power for my ramp stage(while trying keeping my MET under control), then i cut back the power to around 7 or 8 with the fan at 4 around 10-15f before I think I'm going to hit first crack. Then I'll crank my fan to full halfway thru first crack. I usually end between 400-415f. I hit first crack between 8:30-9:30 and usually end between 10:15ish and 13 minutes

Can I assume that the suggestions so far are for washed coffees?

How many roasts have you done on your Quest? The more roasts you get under your belt the easier it is to control this thing...I promise. Here's what I do when coming up on 1C. This is a newer thinner drum Quest BTW. No mods to the drum. I use slightly less than full power for ramp to 1C. Fan is somewhere in the middle. At 360F I dial the power back. I do around 7.5 Amps for a faster finish. If i want to go to a FC or FC+, I only dial the Amps back a little to keep the momentum going. I don't really get hung up on MET #'s anymore. I've had some high readings and have yet to tip or burn a bean.

I'm not sure about the upward flicks in ROR your experiencing. I'm not sure how to read ROR in Artisan because the numbers are constantly jumping around so I don't pay much attention to it.

My typical batch size is 188g, and I ramp to first crack at full power and fan. I lower the power to 4.5 to 7.5 around 360 - 370 BT (15F - 30F before first crack). I start tailoring off the fan as I approach 450F MET. My goal every roast is to enter first crack with the most stable and smooth MET I can achieve. I rarely making any adjustments to power after entering first crack. It's all fan adjustments from that point, to keep my desired ror. My typical fan range at this stage is 3-5.