Roasting your own coffee may seem like an exotic affair for those with disposable time and money to spend, however, it’s actually possible to do so with an unmodified popcorn popper. These machines provide heat and can blow beans around in a similar manner to kernels, providing the basics for such an operation. To take control of the popper’s heating profile, however, you’ll need to make some modifications, which can be facilitated by the TC4+ Coffee Roaster Shield by Artisanal Technologies.
This device plugs in the top of an Arduino Uno, and provides a 4-channel thermocouple interface to sense roasting temperatures, and two SSR channels to drive AC heating loads. There’s also a single-channel DC driver for a fan motor, which could also be adapted to work with an AC fan with the help of an appropriate PWM module.
The device can be purchased as a kit or assembled, and you can even order an Arduino display or Bluetooth module to complete your roasting experience. If you’re entirely new to the world of home popcorn popper coffee roasting, this writeup has lots more info on how it can be accomplished.
