Probat is opening up to 3rd-party roasting software. The Artisan team is proud to be picked as one of their first collaborations. Thus, in the last weeks we worked together with Probat engineers to establish the connection between Artisan and their Probat Probatone roasting machines.
As result, Artisan v1.1 allows to gather data from any sensor featured on the Probatone. This connection also allows to take control over the machines burners and motors in a safe way.
The excellent mechanics, electronics and especially its precisely modulating burner, in combination with the live analytic tools and the (partial-) automation features of Artisan, turn this duo into a superior roasting setup for speciality coffee roasting geeks.
Also under Artisan control, the excellent SPS electronic of the Probat Probatone keeps the machine strictly in a safe operating state. This holds for manually operation via Artisan buttons and sliders, partially automated operation via alarms and replay, or fully automated operation via the Artisan build-in PID controller.
Supported Machines
All Probat Probatone 2 shop roasters (5-25Kg) that work with the Probat Pilot Roast Shop software like the one with the original control panel, the one with the small touch panel as well as the latest version featuring a large touch panel that also shows the roast graph.
 |
| Probatone 2 (original) |
 |
| Probatone 2 (small touch) |
 |
| Probatone 2 (large touch) |
One-Click Configuration
- Probatone
the standard configuration supporting the bean temperature sensor and the burner control
- Probatone 7"
an extended configuration supporting all the options of the latest Probatone 2 models
After selection one of this options, you are asked for the network address of the Probatone. Enter either its IP address number of the form xxx.xxx.xxx or its IP name.
While both available configurations are detailed separately below, the following notes apply to both.
General Notes
- Selecting any of the machine configurations adjusts only a minimal set of application settings needed to realise the communication
- If Artisan was previously used and reconfigured, consider starting from a clean application setting state by running a factory reset (menu Help >> Factory Reset) before applying one of the machine configurations.
- Depending on your preference, you might want to switch to the temperature mode of your choice (Celsius vs Fahrenheit) by selecting the corresponding menu item under menu Roast >> Temperature
- The Probat Probatone allows only one software application to take control (besides the hardware control panel that is always active). Artisan will take control over the machine as soon as turned ON. Thus a second software application connected in parallel, like the Probat Shop Pilot, will only be able to log, but not control the machine until Artisan is turned off.
- In all cases, control events (e.g. changing the burner level) are logged and can be replayed automatically from a loaded background profile.
Probatone
Requirements
- Artisan v1.1 or higher
- Probatone 2 (5-25Kg) with
- PLC and
- software option
- Network, with the Probatone and the computer running Artisan connected
This is the basic setup that works for all machines fulfilling the above requirements. It allows to read the bean temperature (BT) as well as to read and control the burner level (0-100%) using the corresponding slider on the left or the event buttons below the graph.
Note that the burner level can be changed as well using a keyboard shortcut, by pressing the key r followed by two number keys to indicate the new burner value (eg. r-5-4 to set the burner level to 54%).
Probatone 7"
Requirements
- Artisan v1.1 or higher
- Probatone 2 (5-25Kg) with
- PLC
- software option
- latest firmware supporting Artisan v1.1 (soon available from Probat for the latest machines with the large 7" graphing touch control panel)
- Network, with the Probatone and the computer running Artisan connected
This advanced setup works only for the latest Probatone 2, but supports all of its configuration options like the second temperature sensor and the variable drum speed control.
Again the sliders an be moved quickly using keyboard shortcuts: r-<n>-<n> for the burner, and w-<n>-<n> for the drum speed (with <n> denoting any of the 10 number keys).
Useful Artisan Features
By default a number of Artisan features are already activated and available, such as
- RoR LCDs (menu Tools >> Extras, DeltaET/BT Curves and LCDs flags)
- projection lines (menu Tools >> Extras, Projection flag)
- phases LCDs
- roasting reports
Other useful features worth to be explored are
- batch counter
- autosave function (menu Config >> Autosave)
- event replay (menu Roast >> Background, Playback Events flag)
- alarms
- PID
- Area Under the Curve (AUC)
