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Popcorn-Popper -> Coffee Roaster Mod
the-few writes "Tom Gramilas (Toms-roaster@columbus.rr.com) created a computer-controlled coffee roaster using an old West Bend Poppery I popcorn-popper (popular among home roasters with a modding mindset), a few thermocouples, and an old DOS computer. The code he wrote to control it is available from his site on request, and uses a flexible control algorithm to control roasting segments. Pictures and roasting profiles included."
Dear Slasdot Editors,
Please setup caches before posting stories running off of home cable modem website spaces.
The story is irrelevant/pointless in most cases, if TFA cannot be read to begin with.
Thanks,
Slashdot Reader
Sig it.
Kinda neat, kinda bizarrely geeky, however the fact is that many kitchen appliances are getting wired. Microsoft is spending tons on the automated home (i've seen one of their model homes). There is that crazy fridge now with the tv built in, and for a long time now there have been appliances with various levels of programability - microwaves that read cooking instructions from the UPC, fridges with inventory lists, etc. Just as we hack other netpliances - phones, pda's... - we will be hacking these wired wonders of the kitchen.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
However, this whole thing is a proof-of-concept as it stands. Professional grade equipment, which is what is being used here, even under Linux, would be way too expensive for the average coffee-lover.
I think he's done an excellent hack, and from how I understand TFA, I guess the next step would be refining and integrating the various units.
SIGBUS @ NO-07.308
Who wants to blow 3Kw in electricity to roast coffee? What would be cooler is if he did some robotic manipulation, ie. take the output of the roaster and dump into a grinder.
But it's cool just the same.
It never ceases to amaze me how people bag on Starbuck's coffee so much. I find that most of the competitors' coffee is over roasted and either brewed watery to compensate or just served up syruppy think like roof tar. Starbucks employs some of the most highly trained buyers and roasters in the coffee industry and consistantly brings a greater variety of quality beans to the public than was previously available without living in a major metropolitan and having a good sense of where to look. My only problem with starbucks is the number of wierd nutmeg/eggnog/carmel/fudge "latte" creations they serve means that many times the barrista serving you is not going to be accustomed to making proper espresso beverages such as a plain ol' macchiato or cappucino. But, then again they are just meeting a demand. If the American palate increasingly demands sweater richer flavours to satisfy an unhealthy desire to get fat, bloated, and lazy it's just business providing products which meet that demand.
-*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-