I stumbled upon a video of someone using a popcorn popper to roast coffee. It seemed simple and a used popper can be acquired cheaply at a thrift store. This was the start of ELF, a roaster designed to produce the world’s best cup of coffee.
My first visit to my local Goodwill produced two Poplite Poppers for the whopping total of $8. I immediately started to use one and experienced beans blowing out of the popper. An extended chimney, made from 3” ductwork from the local hardware store, resolved that issue.
The first batch roasted in under 5 minutes. To slow down the roast I began unplugging the unit for 30 second intervals during the roast. This allowed me to extend the roast to 7-8 minutes.
Tired of unplugging the popper I decided to retrofit the second popper with a thermocouple, ac relay, a raspberry pi, and some web code and the Electric Lights and Fire (ELF) roaster was born.
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