Professional Roast/Particle Analyzer

I bought the machine directly from the Manufacturer - that’s why this doesn’t show up as a verified purchase. I promise I own one though.What is this?This thing does 2 things: 1) It analyzes the color of coffee (ground or whole bean). 2) It analyzes the particle distribution in a sample of ground coffee.Who needs this?Coffee color analysis is mostly for (home) roasters to determine roast level (often expressed in Agtron) and the delta between ground and whole bean roast level to determine uniformity of the roast (that’s why I bought it). There might be other use cases for non-roasters if you are really deep in the coffee nerd rabbit hole. One might be: Compare roast level of the same bean from different roasters - but at that point you should just use taste.Grind particle analysis: My use case is trying to understand how distribution changes affect taste and why my different grinders taste different. Particle size will only tell half (or less) of the truth though as particle shape, heat during grinden and probably 5 other things affect taste tood. It can also be helpful to dial in coffee, but can also be misleading here.Does it work?I’d recommend reading Robert McKeon Aloe’s medium posts on this. My non data scientist conclusion is the following:Coffee color analysis: I don’t have a good way to determine absolute correctness but the relative differences I saw between samples made sense. So I’m inclined to believe that it works.Particle analysis: Kinda. The big problem is to separate fines from other particles, that’s why the sample tray is vibrating. This only somewhat works and I definitely had a few samples where clumps were mistaken for boulders. I recommend small sample sizes, definitely RDT before grinding and do whatever else you can do to reduce static.What’s the competition?The closest is the Lighttells CM200 which is almost 3x ($2500). I’ve not used it and don’t know if it works worse or better. There are a few cheaper color analysis tools out there (roast vision used to be popular but is no longer made), but for particle analysis to my knowledge there’s nothing else.An actual Agtron for color analysis is about $10k+ and laser particle counters: I don’t know but probably a lot.Other thoughtsThe machine is small and seems reasonably well build (it’s plastic after all though). It’s easy to use and comes in a little water/shock proof case which is super nice.What could be done better?- The sample tray for ground could be 58mm so you can tamp the sample. I tried 3D printing my own but it gives false readings. Likely because the plastic reflects the near IR light differently. It would also be nice to have a funnel.- The organization inside the case isn’t ideal and I ripped the foam on day 1- Tighter bands in particle analysis- The CSV exports are pretty useless because you don’t get any more detailed data than you see on the display. Having some sort of raw-ish data and/or tighter bands would be helpful- Improved way to separate particles (I have no idea if that’s even possible though)ConclusionI think the color analysis works better than the particle analysis and that’s my main use case. I’m torn how critical this is for me as a home roaster and if it’s worth 899. I see the particle size analysis more as an add on at this point.