Coffee Data Science
Qualifying Syncfo 4in1 for Coffee: Fill the Chamber
Testing to understand equipment
As I embark on studying coffee roasting, I want to make sure I understand all of the tools I’m currently using. One of these tools is the Syncfo 4in1 which measures weight, coffee color, density, and moisture in one go. To do this, one has to fill the chamber, but how does the fill of the chamber impact the readings?
To study this question, I slowly added beans until the chamber was full.
Green Coffee Measurements
For moisture measurement, the chamber is expected to be full.
For density, the device must assume a full chamber, which is a known volume. Then the weight is a measured, and density is calculated. Otherwise, there would not be such a correlation between weight and density.
Roast color is affected by the distance from the camera and the illumination used by the device. The same is true for the DiFluid Omni.
Roasted Coffee Measurements
I also looked at the roasted coffee measurements, and these seemed to behave similarly to green coffee measurements.
Density was this same equation, and it has the same slope and only a slightly different offset.
Roast color performed as expected.
None of these tests were meant to pass judgement. I wanted to fully understand how to use the equipment and the potential errors that could be introduced.
One solid conclusion is that the density measurement is assuming the volume is filled with beans or grounds. This means that as long as you collect density data using a constant volume, you could make this measurement for much cheaper.
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Further readings of mine:
My Second Book: Advanced Espresso
My First Book: Engineering Better Espresso
