Completed and ready to ship:


I ordered this puppy July 21 from Dan Joliff, Mr. USRC himself. Dan said he expected the roaster to be ready in 8 to 9 weeks. USRC prefers checks to credit cards (forgot to ask about PayPal), and I had the check in the mail on the 22d.

A BT probe / datalogger was included "gratis." upgraded to a two probe, ET/BT setup, which meant a $350 price increase. In early September it occurred to me to ask if datalogging was "real time." It was not. There was a certain amount of discussion with Dan, Roger (I'm not sure what his job title is) and with USRC's electronics guy, "Paul" about how to make real-time, two-probe datalogging happen. Eventually we decided to keep the analog thermometer as well as placing an ET probe in the exhaust stream, and to go with the Omega 806AU datalogger.

I chose the Omega over the very similar, but less expensive Amprobe TMD 56 for non-technical reasons. Either datalogger will work as well with Artisan, the software I'll most likely use. If I were watching my nickles, I would have gone with an Amprobe; and if squeezing pennies, I would have stuck with the Amprobe I already have. Wotthehell, wotthehell.

It was less expensive to have USRC order the datalogger for me, because to avoid California sales tax and Omega shipping costs. Real time datalogging cost me a little extra over the "standard" two probe option. I could have gone with the "free" BT probe, supplied my own ET probe, used another Amprobe, supplied done it myself pretty easily and saved a few bucks; but for aesthetic and "manufacturer's support" reasons I chose to go with USRC doing the work. Again, wotthehell, wotthehell; it's only money, right?

Unfortunately, the changes in the order meant a little extra time for the build. The picture above is from yesterday's bench test. I was hoping it would be here this week, but it looks like it will ship first thing next week. At any rate, shipping is (almost) within Dan's window; and I'm mature enough to accept the extra couple of days to get what I wanted without much stress. (Fooling anyone? Thought not.)

Anyway, now we have an idea of what it looks like. More later, when it gets here. God knows, I'm fired-up to fire it up.

Rich

After talking to USRC about them installing something which would report MODBUS RTU via USB (with the thought of using Typica), the thought of USRC trying to figure how to integrate a TC-4/shield into a Sample Roaster gives me waking nightmares.

Externally mounting a TC-4 isn't out of my competence; and If I'd wanted to DIY, I might have gone TC-4, but since there's nothing a TC-4 does that I want which a TMD56 or 806AU does not -- both of which are a little more convenient in use and storage than a TC-4 in a project box would be -- it's not worth the effort of installing it along with a display into a project box.

I gather USRC doesn't offer a pre-mounted datalogger for real-time reading via USB on their smaller roasters because they don't get any requests. Dan told me that 99% of the orders are "cookie cutter."

BDL

Congratulations Rich. That is fantastic roaster. I wish I had space for one, I had to sell my HR-1 couple of months ago due to moving...

I bet it roasts at least 2 minutes faster with that British Green racing color! If you add two stripes I bet you could speed it up to 3 minutes!!!

Congratulations and be sure to post how you get on with it.

Looks sweet... happy roasting...

I see Baldor electric motors sitting on the shop floor. This is a testament to the quality of product USRC must be putting out. I sell them during the day (when I'm not playin' around with coffee and honey-do stuff) along with other industrial items. They are not the cheapest but they have a well respected, quality product. If USRC uses them then I would suppose they are conscious of the components they use to build their product.

What is meant by "realtime dattalogging"? Does it allow you to download profiles to the roaster to control the roaster settings? Im interested in these machines.
Thanks,
Barry.

Congrats! This dark green does give it an an old school/vintage look. Can't wait for the initial reports, and it is getting quite exciting seeing all the new owner reports on these ~1Kg commercial roasters for home roasters.

bgn wrote:What is meant by "realtime dattalogging"? Does it allow you to download profiles to the roaster to control the roaster settings? Im interested in these machines.

By realtime datalogging, I'm referring to sending the thermocouples' signals (in this case via an outboard datalogger) to a PC where the information can be displayed in realtime as well as recorded for later analysis. Using language very carefully it may be more accurate to refer to what I'll be doing (and is very, very commonly done) as a hybrid between data acquisition and datalogging. Maybe not, though.

More to the point, control of my roaster is entirely manual.

You're talking about automation (most often PLC) based on stored profiles, which is a different, more complicated, and more expensive process. For my purposes, for most home-roasters' purposes, and for the vast majority of professional sample roasting, that kind of set it and forget it capability is unnecessary.

There's an in-between level of automation which allows an operator to control the roaster in realtime from an electronic display and may avail itself of computer control over things like ramping -- but also very expensive, and -- at least in terms of what I want -- redundant in a sample roaster.

Other people feel differently. You find various degrees of electronic control and automation standard or as a common option in ultra high-zoot roasters like the Diedrich IR-1, and the Giesen 1.

If you really want it, but don't want to spend into five figures for a home roaster, programmed electronic control is very affordable in non-batch, roasters like the Behmor 1600 and HotTop P. I used an HT-P for a couple of years and got very good results; but swapping out the P board for a B (manual control), made for even better roasting.

tamarian wrote:This dark green does give it an an old school/vintage look. Can't wait for the initial reports, and it is getting quite exciting seeing all the new owner reports on these ~1Kg commercial roasters for home roasters.

Yes to everything. The green -- at least in the picture USRC sent me which I posted here -- looks even better than I'd hoped. And I'm far more excited about the prospect of writing a bunch of "new owner reports" than you are of reading them.

But for accuracy's sake let me add that the USRC Sample Roaster is nominally rated at a 1lb capacity; the users I've talked with say they can get 550g; and one of the strengths of this roaster is its ability to do very small, i.e., sample-sized charges.

BDL

Rich, when I spoke with Dan, he was saying USRC sample roaster can do up 1.2 lbs, which is about 550 grams. So, basically, you end up with a pound of roasted beans.

Rich,

Congrats with your roaster!!

Between your racing green USRC and my red one, I think we are going to dominate the race track!

I am finishing up building a roasting room downstairs. As of this writing, gas line and venting are done and basement is 2 -3 weeks from being done.

boar_d_laze wrote:Completed and ready to ship:
<image>

I ordered this puppy July 21 from Dan Joliff, Mr. USRC himself. Dan said he expected the roaster to be ready in 8 to 9 weeks. USRC prefers checks to credit cards (forgot to ask about PayPal), and I had the check in the mail on the 22d.

Rich