Project Overview
First crack is a key milestone in coffee roasting, marked by an audible popping sound that signals a chemical transition in the beans.
However, it's not always easy to hear, leading to inconsistencies in roast quality. Experienced roasters can detect first crack within 10–15 seconds; novices often take longer. With a development window of just 1.5–3.5 minutes, every second matters.
Our goal was to develop a sensing system that reliably detects first crack to improve roast consistency.
Demo Video + Final Project Info
Prototypes
The project started with soldering surface-mounted components to assemble the 25+ microcontrollers that would be required to run the project. This meant that if any microcontroller was damaged or failed, the other 24 would still function.
