New Agrosta Winterwood Digital Firmness Color Size Tester Version June 2018

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1 The New Agrosta Winterwood has been designed in June 2018 in order to provide a top accurate machine for testing automatically Cherries, Blueberries and Grapes Many thanks for having acquired an Agrosta instrument Your package contains : - The machine itself - 2 turntables (According to your request, 2 identical or 2 different turntables) - A manual with certificate of conformity - A 110V / 220 V power supply - A Usb stick with the software - A Usb cable

2 The Agrosta Winterwood is entirely designed and assembled in France. The motherboards come from USA, and the shield boards are made in Hong Kong and USA. The Agrosta Winterwood is not waterproof! It is a precision instrument; please take care to avoid dropping or knocking it. The Agrosta Winterwood comes with two years guarantee - Minimum Durofel : 10% - Maximum Durofel : 100% (Shore A Scale) - Resolution: +/- 1% - Software compatible with Windows XP, 7, 8 and 10 - Color Measurement in is made via a spectrophotometer that provides the light intensity on specific wavelengths - The size is provided in mm (The user has to enter the initial size, between the sensor head, and the bottom of the cup of the turntable) Fruits like Blueberries, Blackberries, Strawberries and Raspberries are destroyed during measurement This has no effect on the measurements, as the machine records only the maximum pressure The turntables are in PLA, they will be deformed if you clean them at a temperature of more than 50 C The software is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, 7, 8 and 10

3 Improvements in 2018 (Version 5) : - Improved interchangeable tray system, improved tray stability- Improved communication with PC, using the Silicon Labs chip coming from the USA- Software including more features - Increased size of the turntable - The Spectrophotometer replaces the RGB color sensor for more intuitive and precise readings Principle :

4 - When you launch a cycle, the tray starts to turn till the first cup comes in the right position under the sensor head. - The sensor head starts to move down at the defined high speed - Once the pressure on the fruit reaches 10 grams, the head continues to move at defined low speed according to the defined stroke - During this low speed movement, the pressure is measured each 10 milliseconds. - Only the maximum pressure is recorded - When the head has finished the defined stroke, it goes back to HOME position - The HOME position is defined by a switch (endstop) that slides along axis, the user can adjust the HOME position to the size of his/her fruits- Once the pressure reaches 10 grams, the color measurement is launched - The color is measured from under the cup : the fruit is lit by a white light, and the sensor analyzes the color of the reflection

5 - Don t connect your machine - Insert USB stick in your computer 1/ Install Driver - Double click on Agrosta_Driver Follow setup procedure 2/ Connect Usb cable between instrument and your computer 3/ Wait a few seconds till it is recognized

6 4/ Install Software from USB Stick - Double click on INSTALL.EXE - Follow Setup procedure 5/ The software starts after setup - On the center/top of the window appears a list of COM ports - Select the one corresponding to your machine - Usually, the last COM port corresponds to your machine - Click 2 times on OK

7 6/ Try your machine - Connect the power plug to your machine - Don t place any turntable - Click on the button LAUNCH CYCLE - The sensor head starts to go down and up, and the turntable motor turns - After 1 to 2 movements, you can try to push on the tip hardly with your finger during a movement down - You will obtain values 7/ Check your first batch of fruits - Place the arrows like indicated on the picture hereafter Exactly in the direction of the transparent hemisphere sticked on the machine :

8 - Place your fruits on the turntable, and the turntable on the machine : - Check that the arrow is still correctly placed :

9 - Launch a cycle according - You obtain values and statistics, that can be exported to Word, Excel or XML by clicking with the right button of your mouse on the chart - If you click with the right button on the graphs, you can as well export them, or change their configuration - You will see that the size in mm does not correspond to the size of your fruits for this first cycle 8/ Adjust the size measurement - You need to enter the initial size in mm (Distance between the sensor head and the bottom of the cup of the turntable you are using - Enter this value in the field Initial size 9/ What do the parameters mean? Main parameters : - High speed is defined by the time in microseconds between 2 steps of the motor. It must be between 50 and is the fastest, and 100 the slowest. Usually, the lower is this parameter (= the fastest is the speed), the higher will be the firmness values - Low speed after contact is the speed of the head during measurement of the sample. It has to be between 150 and is the fastest and 350 the slowest speed - Stroke after contact is the number of 1/10 mm made by the sensor after it has touched the fruit. Increasing this value will result higher firmness values - Initial size is the distance in mm between the sensor head in home position, and the bottom of the cups. In order to determine the size of the fruits, the machine counts the number if steps it has to do before touching the fruit (400 steps per mm). Then this value is substracted from the initial size

10 As shown on the photo, the abutment (white or red plastic piece) shall come in full contact with the fruit. This is the indication that you have chosen the right parameters Different measurement values between handheld Agrosta 100 and Agrosta Winterwood : This difference of measurements appears only on blueberries, this is due to the fact that, when measured with handheld devices, the Blueberries are maintained between 2 finger which apply an overpressure on the fruit. When placed inside the cups of the turntable machine, the blueberries are free, that s the reason why the values are lower The difference is around 16% according to our experience, but can vary depending how users of Handheld devices maintain the fruits. The mature blueberries are smashed by the machine, which is not a problem, as the machine records only the maxi pressure during the cycle (It detects when it touches the fruit, starts to search the maximum each 50 milliseconds, and continues to move down) When the fruit breaks the pressure becomes lower, but the maximum pressure is already recorded. In this case, remove and clean the tip on a regular basis (each day) in order to avoid fruit juice blocking the system, be careful when screwing and unscrewing the plastic abutment. - Clean the glass of the colorimeter carefully - if the glass of the colorimeter is scratched, you can buy it as a spare part