[HN Gopher] Show HN: A Digital Twin of my coffee roaster that ru...
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       Show HN: A Digital Twin of my coffee roaster that runs in the
       browser
        
       I built this website to host a data-driven model of my coffee
       sample roaster.  I realized after 20 or so batches on the machine
       that while the controls are intuitive (heat, fan, and drum speeds),
       the physics can be unintuitive. I wanted to use my historical roast
       data to create and tune a model that I could use to do roast
       planning, control, and to help me build my own intuition for
       roasting. This website lets you interact with my roaster in a
       virtual, risk-free setting!  The models are custom Machine Learning
       modules that honor roaster physics and bean physics (this is not
       GPT/transformer-based). Buncha math.  The models are trained on
       about a dozen real roasts. The default bean model is an Ethiopian
       Guji bean.  My next steps are to add other roasters and the ability
       to practice control/reference tracking.
        
       Author : jvkoch
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2025-10-06 16:31 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (autoroaster.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (autoroaster.com)
        
       | nxobject wrote:
       | This is extremely fun to play with - congrats!
       | 
       | If you ever did a writeup on how your ML modelling worked and
       | what real-life data you needed, I'd learn so much point of view
       | of someone who's applied a little bit of control theory to
       | robotics and aquarium controllers, but with traditional models.
       | (Hell, I'd even pay $CUP_OF_COFFEE_PRICE for it, since I'd get
       | that much learning time out of it.)
       | 
       | Also: you advertise custom models for _roasters_. But can you
       | make a digital twin of my _toaster_?
        
         | skylurk wrote:
         | I too am curious about the modelling methodology.
        
       | rshanreddy wrote:
       | super cool
        
       | simlevesque wrote:
       | I'd like to see you tackle the problem of figuring the opposite,
       | let the user draw the curves and generate the inputs. Then I
       | could replay with Artisan.
       | 
       | Cool website !
        
         | jvkoch wrote:
         | Working on it! In fact, this was my original goal; Model
         | Predictive Control for my roasters. I've been able to get this
         | working on a fluid bed roaster but I've yet to try it for my
         | drum roaster. Stay tuned! I'm hoping to have a control demo
         | posted on the site soon.
        
       | captainregex wrote:
       | this is nuts! beans? whatever, it's super cool!
        
       | lukeinator42 wrote:
       | very cool. If you're looking for machines to add, it would be
       | awesome to model a cheap roaster based on a popcorn popper since
       | it is probably less reliable than commercial sample roasters (and
       | might benefit from less trial-and-error). During my undergrad I
       | made an arduino-controlled popcorn popper that connected to the
       | open source artisan software:
       | https://github.com/lukeinator42/coffee-roaster.
        
         | jvkoch wrote:
         | 100% agree - each roaster is slightly different, with different
         | measurement schemes and other device peculiarities. This makes
         | sharing coffee roasting profiles basically impossible!
         | 
         | I'm also working on letting people upload their roast profiles
         | for training and serving their own models (including a
         | "library" of bean models!).
        
       | lawlessone wrote:
       | Did i win?
       | 
       | >Drum 745degC
        
         | jvkoch wrote:
         | Keep going! Getting close to the melting point of Stainless 316
         | (1400C? I forget.)
        
       | LTL_FTC wrote:
       | Gotta admit, when I read "digital twin" I though it was the kind
       | that Nvidia likes to show off. Would be really awesome future
       | work if you were able to pull that off. I mean, this already
       | super cool! but you know, gaussian splatting...
        
       | jablongo wrote:
       | I'm curious -- did you make the interface with Claude? I have a
       | hunch you did, can you confirm/deny?
        
       | sambo546 wrote:
       | If I understand this correctly, calling it a "digital model"
       | would be more appropriate. Digital twins require sensor input
       | from a real system as well as the ability to alter the real
       | system, not just prediction.
        
         | glitchcrab wrote:
         | This is correct.
        
       | madamelic wrote:
       | I overclocked the roaster and now the kitchen is gone:
       | https://i.imgur.com/qRcGm64.png
       | 
       | (Nice work! This is really nifty. I wish I knew more about coffee
       | so I could better understand the dynamics of the controls and how
       | to achieve a perfect roast.)
        
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       (page generated 2025-10-10 23:00 UTC)