Roasting with Cropster's Control & Replay Assist features

This article explains how to roast using Cropster's Control and Replay Assist features.

• The Control measurements
• The Control sliders
• Roasting with Cropster's Control features
  • Replaying a roast
• Best Practices 

The Control measurements

Currently, our control and replay features are compatible with the following measurements:

• Gas
• Airflow/Drum pressure*
• Drum speed (beta)

The Control sliders

The Control sliders can be found in the bottom-right corner next to the machine's measurements.

You can easily access and also hide all Control sliders by clicking the "Show control sliders" button located in the bottom right corner of the screen.

By clicking on the Detach sidebar icon, the Control sliders can be moved into its window:

By clicking on the Attach sidebar  button, the Control sliders can be moved back into the extended state:

Roasting with Cropster's Control features

Start your roast as you usually would in the RI.

Rather than making manual adjustments to the gas, airflow, or drum speed on the roast machine's control board, you can conveniently utilize the Control sliders located on the right-hand side of the Roasting Intelligence (RI).

• For small adjustments, use the - and + buttons.
• For big adjustments, use the Control bar by dragging and dropping the slider.
• For instant adjustments, click the percentage values shown on the Control bar to instantly adjust the value accordingly.
• Input values directly and receive immediate feedback as you adjust the Control sliders:
   If you enter an invalid value, a warning message will appear, similar to the one shown in the screenshot below:
  
  
  

Replaying a roast

As soon as you have recorded one roast with the gas, airflow, and/or drum speed control bar, set this roast as the reference to switch into Replay Assist. 

1. Prepare your roast by entering the Profile, Green Inventory, and Start weight.
   💡 RI is only able to replay roasts if the Reference Roast has been conducted using Cropster's Control sliders.
   📚 Learn how to set a reference.
2. A green Replay button appears at the bottom, next to the Start button.
3. Click the Replay button to start the roast using Replay Assist.
   In replay mode, the gas, airflow, and drum speed changes will be applied automatically during the roast based on the reference roast's bean temperature.
   💡 Switching the profile after having started a roast will not update the gas, airflow, or drum speed changes from the previous profile's reference roast. As the gas changes are being calculated at the beginning of the roast, the gas curve is not adapted.
4. Upcoming auto adjustments will be shown in the comments box on the right-hand side of the RI, marked with the Replay icon.
5. You can manually override the upcoming adjustments when using Replay assist via:
   • The control sliders in Roasting Intelligence (RI) (Recommended)
   • The roast machine's control board
     💡When using Replay Assist, do not use other temperature-controlling software (e.g. Probat Pilot Roaster Shop software) in parallel. Any changes from a concurrent client will disable Replay Assist for the remainder of the roast.
6. If you want to turn off Replay Assist, use the toggle button next to the Start/Stop button.
7. By default, five seconds after the roast has been finished, gas, airflow, and drum speed will be automatically adjusted according to the reference's initial settings to prepare the roaster for the next batch.

Best Practices 

1. Never leave the roast machine unattended while replaying a roast. Cropster replays the roast and captures the details, but you are always responsible for monitoring the roast machine to ensure it is operating safely.
2. When using the Replay Assist at the beginning of a roasting day, or after a cool-down period, special attention should be given to monitoring the automated changes during the first 1 - 3 batches, as the roast machine may not have fully heated up, and may therefore, roast inconsistently.
   💡 Additional adjustments may be required during these roasts.
3. When using Replay Assist, do not use any other temperature-controlling software in parallel. Any gas/airflow/drum speed changes from a concurrent client disable Replay Assist for the remainder of the roast. 

Related content

• Cropster - Connecting your roast machine 
• Revising the Replay Assist Preferences 
• Setting a Reference Curve
• The set temperature and Gas control (Giesen machines only)

Congratulations! You are now ready to use the Cropster's Control features.

Your opinion matters. If you have further questions, feedback, or concerns, please feel free to reach out by submitting a support ticket directly from support.cropster.com.