Some of the great new features in this update:

• Data Logging Add-On
• Roast Analyzer
• Curve Templates in Profiles and Programs
• Better Handling of Numbers in International Locales
• Auto Behmor Curves
• Clone Roast
• Hide Beans with Zero Inventory
• Decimal Numbers in Cupping Scores
• Show Automated Bean Tally for Roasts
• iPad Retina
• iPhone 5 Retina
• Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
• Internal Speed Improvements

Data Logging add-on

Far and away, the most requested feature over the past year has been data logging – a means to automatically record roast temperatures during a roast, instead of having to enter each and every node manually. I was more than happy to oblige, because data logging has long been something I wanted to tackle as well. In fact, some of the code hooks for data logging have been there since I wrote the first lines of code dealing with curves themselves.

The first question you may be asking right now is “What probes are supported?” Well, unfortunately, there is no prebuilt commercial thermocouple I’m aware of that is compatible with iOS (at least for the temperature range required for roasting coffee). The majority of probes on the market are USB, which – as far as iOS is concerned, is utterly useless, as there is no formal USB support on iOS devices. Apple does offer a USB camera adapter, but that is not the same thing as a programatic USB stack built to handle communication with devices using the standard USB protocol. In fact – devices attached over this adapter have to emulate a keyboard in order for information to be passed to iOS apps – something no probe is built to do. Any attempts to bypass this would get an app rejected in an instant.

So, the solution? Phidgets! Phidgets are amazing little pieces of hardware, designed primarily for prototyping, or environmental sensing or control projects. Where they really shine for us coffee roasters, is that they can be accessed over a standard ethernet network, like is used in common WiFi network environments – something Apple does not regulate. Roastmaster now has the ability to, with the Data Loggin option, link to Phidgets Temperature Sensors via a network host and report, and automatically log, temperatures throughout a roast from one or more K type thermocouples.

Check back often for more information on Data Logging in Roastmaster. There are also detailed help files in the app that can be accessed from the Data Logging store in the Probe section of Utilities. For now, though, see the Data Logging Guide for an introduction to how Phidgets can be implemented in your workflow, as well as a parts list for the hardware you’d need to get started.

Roast Analyzer

Roastmaster has always let you record lots of details about your roasts. Though it’s easy to manually browse through that data, there’s not been an easy way to graphically see details about all of the roasts of specific beans and blends, and the associated cupping data. Also lacking was a way to graphically browse roasts that relate to a current roast – a way to not only see more details of a range of past curve data, but also the cupping data tied to those past roasts. Having this data at your fingertips, in an format that is easily browsable during a roast, is indispensable for putting that data to good use in shaping the current roast.

Well, I’ve given the full screen graph a big and much-needed facelift – turning it into the Roast Analyzer. The Analyzer can be accessed from several areas of the app: the home screen, bean and blend details screens, and of course, the roasting console. When accessed via the roasting console, the analyzer will be populated with the same past roasts that are being displayed in the graph, as well, of course, as the current roast. When accessed from a bean or blend details screen, it will contain all of the roasts of that particular item.

You can flip through the roasts displayed in the analyzer with the arrow buttons on the left and right side of the graph, or swipe along the bottom horizontal axis to pan through them quickly. Cupping data for the roast currently being viewed will be displayed on the left side of the graph as an average of all the cuppings of that roast.

There are lots of UI improvements as well: clear markers with icons for durations, crack times and alarm time (both current and the focus past roast), sharper text, better rendering at higher zoom resolution, basic roast controls, the ability to set a roast alarm as well as a host of other small improvements.

Curve templates in Profiles and Programs

This one should be a big time-saver for a lot of folks. Profiles and Programs have always allowed you to store curves. These curves are designed to be instructional curves (in the case of “Control Curves”), or target curves (in the case of “Reading Curves”)–basically recipes for a roast. Version 4.0 introduces the concept of “Curve Templates”. Designed to speed workflow, Curve Templates function as placeholder curves, allowing you to set the name, color, curve type, probe binding for Data Logging users–all of the important curve details, and have new, identical curves automatically generated in a roast whenever you use that profile or program.

Better handling of numbers in international locales

Before this update, Roastmaster did not address the numbering formats of users in locales that do not use the “.” (period) decimal separator. Users in France and Germany, for instance, use “,” (comma) as the decimal separator. These users were forced to enter and read numbers and dates in the US format, rather than their native formate. To make matters worse, one of the main areas of data entry would not honor decimals in any regard for users whose locale was not set to US. These issues have been resolved – international users should notice that number entry now occurs correctly, based on their native locale. My sincere apologies to these users – and thanks for your patience.

Auto Behmor Curves

Lots of folks have been asking for a way to make Behmor curves automatically populate a roast, instead of having to manually define one for every roast. I drug my heels a bit on that one, because, as popular as the Behmor is, only a percentage of Roastmaster users are roasting with a Behmor – lots are shop roasters with Probat or Diedrich machines, or home roasters with one of the other home appliances on the market. To avoid cluttering the interface, I have, and will continue, to avoid anything roaster-specific in the UI design of the app. That, coupled with the international language barrier, made it a bit troublesome as to how to give Roastmaster the “smarts” it needs to be able to tell what profile, program and weight setting to use, in a database model that I designed to be flexible with organization, data use and naming schemes.

I finally settled on a solution that was non-intrusive for folks who do not use the Behmor, and effective for those that do – simple string matching. Following is a list of conditions. If the “Auto Behmor Curves” preference is enabled, and the following conditions are met in a roast, Roastmaster will oblige by automatically creating a Behmor curve for you in that roast. Note: for any of the string patterns listed, the name must either match that string, or begin with that string followed by a space – e.g. a Profile titled either P1″ or “P1 Behmor Profile” would both be considered a positive match.

1. Your are roasting with a roaster whose manufacturer field is “Behmor”, and whose model field is “1600″
2. You are roasting with a profile named “P1″, “P2″, “P3″, “P4″ or “P5″
3. You are roasting with a program named “A”, “B”, “C”, or “D”
4. You are roasting with a Custom Weight Setting named “.25″ (or “1/4″), “.5″ (or “1/2″) or “1″ AND that Weight Setting belongs to a Weight Setting Type named “Weight”

Naturally, those Profiles, Programs and Weight settings should represent the corresponding settings on the Behmor machine itself. Following these rules, you’ll find that roasting with a Behmor is a lot faster and more intuitive. I use auto Behmor curves every time I roast with my Behmor – hopefully you’ll love it like I do.

Duplicate roast

If you often roast the same bean, especially back-to-back in batches, you’ll appreciate this one. In the main roast list, tap and hold on any roast to duplicate it as a new roast, with the roasted items and roaster already filled in–ready to roast.

Hide beans with zero inventory

This was probably the third most requested feature. In any of the bean list views or bean choosers, you can pinch zoom to hide and show beans that have 0 inventory. Pinch-swipe apart to hide out of stock beans, pinch-swipe together to show all.

Decimal numbers in cupping scores

Prior to this update, cupping scores were limited to integers. You’ll now be able to enter cupping scores as decimals for each category, as well as the cupping correction.

Show automated tally of roast ingredients

If you like to roast blends, this one will come in handy. You’ll notice a blue button with a scale in the “Roasted Items” section of a roast. Once you’ve tagged the item(s) you’re about to roast, tap this button to show a list of the green beans you need. Roastmaster will tally up every bean, recursing through blends, and present a list with weights.

iPad Retina support

iPhone 5 Retina support

Bug fixes

Finally squashed the elusive “Inconsistency” error that would occur if you closed a database, and tried to navigate the app without opening another database first. Hopefully, only a few folks encountered this, but it’s been bothering me for some time.

I really hope you enjoy the new update, and find the new features helpful. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Thanks to everyone for their enduring patience while awaiting the long-coming update. I, as well, had to call on my own patience reserves over the late-summer and fall in dealing with the less-than-smooth introduction of iOS 5 and Xcode 4, and the bumps they brought with them in developing for Core Data. But, I’ve been told that “All’s well that ends well”, and… in the end, I’m very happy with the update. So, onward and upward!

I’d like to formally introduce the new forum. One of the things that many users ask for is a way within Roastmaster to import and export data like Profiles, Programs, Curves, Roasters etc. Version 3.0 brings this capability, but without a venue geared toward the app, and way to exchange this data, this feature is limited in its usefulness.

There are a number of coffee-roasting forums, run by some great people who devote a lot of personal time to moderating them. First and foremost, I have no desire to recreate the wheel. My time is better spent developing Roastmaster, and giving help to users with questions. Even so, I believe the forum will be the perfect venue for a number of things.

Naturally, forums are geared toward communal discussion and file exchange, so they’ll be a good fit for sharing your own personal data, and searching and downloading others’ data to experiment with yourself. That’s the main goal.

In addition, though, I want to take a more active role in sharing some of the more common questions I get about Roastmaster, as well as provide some much-needed resources for new users, and those seeking information on some of the more advanced workflows possible in Roastmaster.

The internal app help files do a good job of explaining the basics of the app, but I’ve dedicated too much time to coding, and not enough to supplying help that gives folks the bigger picture of how the app works, and how to best tailor it to their unique needs.

So, keep an eye on the site in the coming months. I’m beginning work on a few tutorial videos that will hopefully be a great resource for those with questions, and expanding the support page to offer more help to users coming to the site with questions. In addition, I’m always here to answer in questions you have via email.

As far as Roastmaster itself goes, my main focus in the coming months will be working on automated readings. Things are finally coming around in the probe market, and I want the app to be ready for products that will most assuredly materialize in the (hopefully soon) future.

As always – happy roasting!

Danny

I hope you were able to enjoy your holidays as I did – spending lots of time with family and friends. I love this time of year, and the way in which it draws everyone together. I hope you had a wonderful season of festivities, and drank (as I did) more than your fair share of coffee!

1/15/12 – This post was originally a request for a number of sample user databases to test with. A million thanks to everyone who reached out and sent me databases! I keep a running archive of all of my personal and development databases, but it gave me a great peace of mind to have other folks’ real-world data to test with. All of my testing went well, and the update was submitted to Apple yesterday afternoon.

So, what’s coming?

Here’s a fairly complete, even if curt, laundry list of the new features and improvements:

New Features:

• Label Printing and/or PDF generation for Roasts, Blends, Cuppings and Beans
• Data exchange (import and export) for Roasters, Profiles, Programs, Curves, Databases and Label Definition Files
• Dropbox and Email Support for data exchange
• All internal weight and volume calculations use the extremely precise decimal number format instead of float numbers
• Database stores all weight and volumes as precise decimal numbers instead of the sometimes rounded float numbers
• Behmor Curves
• Custom roaster settings
• Enhanced Profile and Program snapshots
• Profile and Program snapshots navigation screens
• Reusability of Profile and Program snapshots
• Blend Snapshots
• Blend by weight
• Increased max curve temps from 999 to 10,000
• Price per unit for beans
• First and Second crack end times
• iOS 5 compatibility and bug fixes
• Customizable label definitions
• More detailed reporting of curve deltas in the full screen graph
• Facebook bug fix

Roasting console interface enhancements

• Dedicated curve button
• Dock-able graph selector for a larger graph view
• Graph rescale buttons
• Kg option in weight choosers
• Wiper alarm marker in roasting graph
• More intuitive measurement input in inventory and item choosers
• Swipe to select curves

I am very excited about this update, and anxious to get it into your hands. Once it’s live, I want to shift gears and create a little forum section on the site where I can post downloadable files for beginners, and where users can share and exchange their own data. There are a number of great coffee forums on the web. I don’t want to recreate the wheel – just give everyone a place to exchange and discuss their Roastmaster profile and program data.

Also, I’ll be starting work on some tutorial videos. Admittedly, using some of the more advanced features of Roastmaster carry with them a learning curve. I’d like to create a series of videos to explain these features, as well a couple geared towards getting started for new users.

Cheers,
Danny Hall

Here it is – what I’ve affectionately dubbed the ThermoTooth 3000 – a fully wireless, dual channel, K style thermocouple prototype. She had her first successful Bluetooth session with my Mac tonight, and even with her limited code, she’s quite a smart gal! Over a simple wireless serial connection via terminal, I am able to select which thermocouple to monitor, and trigger individual Celsius or Fahrenheit readings, or both. No special drivers – just a Bluetooth serial connection.

For the geeks like me, she’s built on an Arduino Uno prototyping controller board. Stacked on top of that is an XBee shield, providing the networking connectivity beyond the basic USB already present on the UNO. The XBee shield currently houses a Seeed Studio Bluetooth Bee, which provides the Bluetooth connection layer. The two K-style thermocouples connect to the Uno via two Max6675 chips, each providing cold-junction compensation and digital conversion of the thermocouple voltages for its independent channel. The sheer amount of electronics here is definitely overkill – I’m sure the cumulative brains of this could drive a car, but that’s how prototyping works.

First off – it’s not meant for live production. I built it in the hopes I could pair it with an iOS device, and negotiate a wireless serial connection via Bluetooth. I know the device functions well, but the external connectivity of iOS itself still holds unknowns for me. The XBee shield offers the advantage of being able to swap a regular wireless network interface for the Bluetooth module in case the Bluetooth method is unsuccessful.

Hopefully, a more permanent solution is on the way. I’ve been contacted by a manufacturer who is currently developing a Bluetooth thermocouple they plan to bring to market this fall. Naturally, this is great news for a lot of us looking for automated readings. They have not discussed the expected price, but the product itself sounds great! The manufacturer has agreed to sending me a prototype for evaluation once the release date gets closer, but in the mean time – I needed something to develop with now.

This is why I built the TT3000. The majority of the code involved to implement thermocouple support will likely be designing the Roastmaster interfaces and its internal data structures, and setting up the communications framework to be used between roasting curves and wireless devices in general. The Bluetooth serial protocol has seemed quite easy to work with while prototyping the TT3000, so I’m hoping that this venture will be successful, and that adding support for the new product (as well as any others that may crop up), will be fairly easy to add ONCE I get support for wireless thermocouples in general built into Roastmaster.

I’ll post back here with updates as development progresses. This isn’t at the absolute top of my development list – there are several feature requests/tweaks I want to finish up first, but I plan to be working on this until I find a workable solution.

As always – if you have any input – please let me know.

Cheers, Danny

The programming side of my brain, though, makes me a fair-weather friend to analog devices. For all their nostalgia, sometimes digital is just plain easier… and better. Such is the case for me with my roasting thermometer. There’s absolutely nothing charming about craning my neck upside down to read the accurate bean temp at regular intervals throughout a roast. And, though Roastmaster makes it easy to input temps with the keyboard, an automated solution would be much better.

For some time now, I’ve been wanting to make the jump to something digital. I’ve held off, hoping I could find a device that I could integrate with Roastmaster to accommodate the automated readings. There are endless USB data loggers out there, but without a USB port on any iOS device, they may as well be turkey probes. I did find a high-end Bluetooth thermocouple as well, but any price that is listed as “Call for quote” is usually just too ridiculous to display. I did, by the way… and it was.

I was hopeful when the iGrill bluetooth thermometer was introduced. It’s basic, but it’s an all-in-one package that looks great, and would do the trick, as long as the makers would release the SDK for other apps. Or, so I thought – turns out it’s not capable of reading temps high enough for coffee roasting. I’d like to talk to the manufacturer and see if this is hardcoded in the electronics, or simply a limitation of the probe supplied with the unit. For the moment, though, mine is sitting quietly and sadly, unused.

I’m aware that there are build-it-yourself open source Arduino solutions out there. I’ve researched one, and it is feasible from what I can read. I had hoped for a prepackaged solution, since we’re coffee roasters, not electronic engineers. But, being in this community for quite some time has taught me that often they do overlap. I’m thinking I may just take the plunge. Being open source – I anticipate it will work well, but probably won’t win any beauty contests. Still, though, it will give me a tool to at least construct the framework Roastmaster will need to work with these devices, and as new solutions come to market, those will be as easy to add as creating a device description for them, or so I’m hoping.

In the mean time, if anyone knows of a Bluetooth, LAN or, dare I ask for it – an iPhone dock-style thermocouple – available for a reasonable price, with a public SDK, please let me know.

Cheers and Happy Roasting,
Danny

What is happening?

Whenever your database is saved, the inventory in memory is being saved as gram integers to the database. This is effectively stripping off the decimal portions of a gram. Now, before you worry – a gram is roughly 6 beans, give or take – so it’s not serious, but it is definitely an annoyance that I plan to address in the next update.

Why is this happening?

Well, that takes a bit of explanation…

Computers are amazing things. In and of themselves, they are perfectly accurate machines – capable of crunching any number thrown at them. Unfortunately, though – storing those numbers in memory, or to a database, can be a problem.

Think back to the days of high school math, and everyone’s favorites… long division, and yes… fractions. Some are easy. For instance 1/4 = .25. Simple, right? Well, what about 1/3? .33 may come to mind, but the actual number is 0.33333333333333333… with the 3′s going on forever. That is the venerable repeating decimal – a number that can never be exactly represented in decimal notation. Now, once you’ve worked out about 4 or 5 decimal places, most of us (math teachers included) would say “close enough”. And that is exactly what computers have to do – otherwise those numbers would overflow all of the available RAM, and the extra precision wouldn’t do anyone any good.

So what does this have to do with coffee?

Well, Roastmaster users are located all over the world, and from what I know, the US is the last major holdout on the imperial measurement system. Yes… pounds and ounces – where nothing divides evenly, and conversions back and forth are impossible to do in your head, so we’ve added all of these auxiliary helper units like cups and pints. Our global friends though, using the metric system, are at an advantage here. Everything is even – everything converts – and computers have a much easier time working with it. Now – providing support for both at the same time is the dilemma that Roastmaster faces – every number ends up being a nasty looking decimal in the end when the imperial system is involved.

Unfortunately, SQLite databases in iOS are tricky when working with decimal numbers. The decimal number you save in is NOT guaranteed to be the number given back to you the next time you read the database. It will be close, but not always exact. The accuracy varies, but when dealing with larger numbers, it diminishes fairly quickly, so what starts out as accurate to the millionth place, can sometimes quickly dwindle to the point of only being accurate to the hundredth place.

I knew from the beginning of Roastmaster’s development there would always be tiny inventory drifts when roasting if the imperial system was involved, due to floating point decimal approximations. The design decision I faced in the very beginning was how to minimize this for the largest number of users. In the end, I opted to use the metric system internally for Roastmaster, and to store the inventory as gram integers. I thought this would yield the least overall drift, (and best precision) as it would eliminate the small inconsistencies that could creep in when dealing with decimals – especially for larger inventories like roasting shops would have.

I thought it was a good decision for a few reasons. One, I believe the metric system is superior to the Imperial system, and certainly easier to use. Two, I feel that even here in the states, for home coffee roasting, most people use metric as well – it offers more precision that trying to deal with quarters of an ounce. Even those that own roasters with half and quarter pound settings, usually whittle those numbers down to a lesser amount of grams until they find the sweet spot of the roaster. Three, shop roasters would have larger inventory and never notice, or care, about drifts of a fraction of a gram. Finally, and most importantly, the vast majority of the world are metric users, and would never even see an inventory drift at all, because that kind of thing just doesn’t occur in a system that converts evenly.

Now, as Roastmaster is being put through its paces, it turns out the drift for imperial users was a little more than I anticipated. In just 5 – 10 roasts, those gram fractions can add up quickly and amount to 1/10 to 3/10 of an oz, so users are left seeing, say, 15.86 oz of inventory instead of an even 16 oz.

What else does this affect in Roastmaster?

Absolutely nothing. All of Roastmaster’s internal calculations dealing with storage in the database operate on decimal numbers, and at much smaller amounts, which is safer for decimal precision. So, whatever number you put in for roasted weight, cupped weight or volume, or blended amounts, etc. is exactly the same number that is saved in the database – with all of its decimals intact. In addition, all of Roastmaster’s internal conversion algorithms operate with 6 decimal place accuracy, so this problem should only be seen in numbers that are reported directly from the transient inventory measurements.

If you’ve noticed this issue, I hope this has shed a little light on what is happening. Be on the lookout for a fix in the next update, and sorry if this has caused anyone trouble or confusion.

Cheers, Danny

Looking at my last post, I realize it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I tend to get a bit, shall we say… focused when I’m coding. I also now realize I was wrong on two counts. One, even with Roastmaster’s complexity, it was possible to make it a universal app, and second… I was nowhere near as close to completion as I thought!

When I last posted, I had a working version of Roastmaster on the iPad. It was really exciting to be using it on the ‘big screen’. But, after a few weeks and many roasts went by, and I finished up all of the artwork for the iPad screens, I realized that a straight clone of the iPhone version just wasn’t going to cut it. All of the full-screen animations transitioning to data entry screens, or related views started to feel really cumbersome – almost dizzying at that screen size.

So, I set to work on making the UI experience more aesthetically pleasing on iPad, and, more importantly–faster. iPad supports a great little addition that the iPhone doesn’t – what Apple calls the Popover Controller. These view controllers let you build the great little popup “cartoon bubble” views you will see used everywhere throughout the iPad version. These views eliminate the need for full screen transitions for normal data entry, and makes Roastmaster much snappier and more responsive. There are also other things you may not even notice – like that when adding a new item, the new view that appears only occupies a part of the screen when in landscape mode, leaving the view that spawned it partially visible in the background. It doesn’t seem all that exciting, but I’ve found it helps to eliminate screen confusion when you’re entering and exiting related detail views, as it is a visual reminder that you’ve entered a “transient” screen that is waiting to be saved and dismissed. It makes it harder to “get lost” in all of the data views.

What else is new? Well, you’ll never be locked to portrait mode again, no matter which device you use. I had always felt that landscape mode would be helpful on iPhone, but it’s an absolute necessity on iPad. Personally, I rarely use portrait on iPad, I just simply like the landscape orientation better. So, I finally bit the bullet and coded all of the views to be orientation-aware. Once I had that ironed out and finished, I realized I had some screen real estate on the home screen, and decided to do something I’ve been wanting to do for some time. I’ve been bothered by the fact that Roastmaster can collect all kinds of great data, but there’s no global way to see the ‘larger picture’ about what beans you have on hand, or what you’ve been roasting. So was born the new home screen graph. Tap and slide to see details about each chunk of data, or tap and release to go to the next mode. It will show you the breakdowns of your inventory by region, county and vendor, and what you’ve been roasting by region, country or vendor. This scratched the itch I’ve had for some time. It almost feels like a little “reward” for diligently storing all of that data – letting you see how it all fits together, and what your roasting patterns are.

Also new is the inclusion of notes in both the headers views (when the orientation provides enough room) and in iPad’s library listings of beans, blends, roasts and cuppings. We all record notes, and having to load a detail view and swipe to the bottom just to see them was way too cumbersome. This little “featurette” should be a big time-saver. Most of the remaining work was behind the scenes – for instance, alarms are now more elegantly handled when they ring outside of Roastmaster.

I want to give a really big “thanks” to all of the beta-testers! This was by far the biggest update for Roastmaster that I’ve put out, and the one that has made me the most nervous. I added a lot of new code to literally every single interface view in the app, and in very crucial ways, so it was important to make sure that it was working without problems before releasing. You guys gave me great peace of mind – thanks!

So, how do you migrate to iPad? If you’re an existing Roastmaster user who wants to transfer your iPhone or iPod Touch database to iPad, you’ll find instructions in the much improved “Crash Course”. Open the drum door on the home screen, tap “Help”, then “Crash Course”. Follow the instructions for “Manual Backups Via iTunes File Sharing”. In essence, you’ll copy your “Databases” folder to your main computer’s desktop from your iPhone or iPod Touch, then copy your database “.sqlite” file (one by one if you use multiple databases) from inside that folder from your computer to your iPad. Once it’s copied, just make sure to quit Roastmaster if it’s running in the background, then relaunch it. Your database will appear in the list of databases – just load it and you’re right where you left off on iPhone.

What’s coming? Well, I have a few things planned. The first thing I want to tackle is a minor inventory drift that some imperial system users are seeing, and pay a little attention to the way in which inventories are reported. I also want to explore the possibilities for automated temperature collection via a Bluetooth thermocouple. Code-wise, it won’t be hard to implement. The problem is finding hardware that will work without forcing everyone to go out and buy a soldering iron and build their own Arduino board. So far I’ve struck out with the iGrill thermometer. It looked promising, but after purchasing one I found that it won’t register temps high enough for coffee roasting. I’m still looking though, so I’ll keep you posted.

Hope you enjoy the update, and Happy Roasting!

Cheers, Danny

I have to say, I doubt I’ll ever go back to the iPhone for roasting. If you’re used to Roastmaster on the iPhone or iPod Touch, the best way to describe using it on the iPad is liberating. Liberating and liquid. Navigating the app is incredibly fluid. The extra screen real estate affords a less cluttered interface – and the ability to hone in on the details you are looking for much more easily than the iPhone version. And, pairing it with a bluetooth keyboard… well – it’s heaven for me!

Take a look at the screenshots. I will undoubtedly make a few tweaks – a couple of things are bugging me at the moment, but I’m comfortable enough with them at the moment to share them. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the landscape orientation. This is long overdue, and for the iPad – in my opinion, it’s a necessity. Another difference I was able to work into the iPad version is static headers. Headers are nice – they’re a functional and efficient way to present important information for browsing through records, but on the iPhone it was imperative to get them out of the way via scrolling when it came time to enter data. Not so on the iPad! I played around with a couple of designs – one with scrolling headers like the iPhone, and the version that won hands down – static headers. I’m sure you’ll agree – it’s a great way to have a succinct summary to reference – even when entering data on static screens like beans, blends and cuppings. And for roasts, to be able to have the roasting console front and center while you browse the roast data, well… again, I’m in heaven.

Thanks to all who’ve offered to beta-test. This is new territory for me – I’ve never dealt with public beta-testing for iOS. All of the initial Roastmaster testing was done with devices I had direct access to. I’ll be in touch soon to get the process started. I’ll also post if I end up needing more beta-testers in case anyone is interested. I doubt it at this point – many people have already been in touch, but things can always change.

‘Til then, know that I’ll be working very hard to get the universal version finished up as quickly as possible.

Cheers,
Danny

So what’s new? Well, most probably most importantly is an official “Reading” mode for curves. Each curve can now be set to function as a “Control” or “Reading” curve. If in reading mode, you can choose between Celsius or Fahrenheit systems. Reading curves graph as traditional point-to-point graphs (diagonal lines, connect-the-dot style). They are also excluded from past roast matching.

The second most requested feature is a larger graph. Well, hold onto your britches – this update has a full-screen graph. It responds to device orientation, displaying either landscape or portrait, and can be pinch-zoomed, scrolled, panned, etc. You can even increase or decrease the resolution of the x-axis to show more detail. It is interactive – you can tap individual nodes to select them and change their value (assuming they do not belong to a past roast, or master profile or program), or enter a new value with a curve selected to record a new time-stamped node. At the moment there are no roasting controls in the full screen graph window. I will be adding those, but for now this is a great start. Any type of control I add will be in the form of a pop-up console. I don’t want to devote any screen real estate to extraneous buttons. I want to keep it all for the graph.

I fixed a few bugs with data entry that cropped up in iOS 4.x, after Apple changed some things internally related to the slot-machine style picker views, and added support for larger inventory amounts in the database.

Oh yes, this one’s fairly cool… You can now publish a roast to your Facebook wall. That’s one of those things I’ve been wanting to get done for a while now. I you like this, please let me know and I’ll extend it to Blends and Cuppings as well.

I’ve done a little behind-the-scenes work to prepare for a port to iPad. As I’ve told some of you, I really doubt that it will be possible to create a universal app (1 app for both iPad and iPhone/iPod). Roastmaster is a very complex app, and having only one codebase that conditionally perform and allows different functions, controls and layouts for each view, would be horrendous and error-prone. I’ll have to decide once I get started, which will be the easiest path. I’ll keep you updated on the progress, and be in touch with those of you that have said you’d like to beta-test.

Well, that’s it for now. Be on the lookout for the update.

Happy roasting!

Cheers,
Danny

Turns out there are a lot more people using thermocouples than I thought. For them, the concept of roasting curves is a little lacking. Curves were designed to provide a way to record the settings you adjust throughout a roast – i.e. roaster controls. I had always planned on implementing temperature reading curves in addition to control curves, it was just a little further down on the list (along with a full screen graph – more on that in a moment). I’ve received a lot of email feedback on the subject, and happy to report that temperature curves are now my main focus.

So… thanks to everyone for the email feedback – and suggestions. The next update is close to being done. Unfortunately, Apple is closing the iTunes Connect portal that developers submit to on Thursday, and it won’t reopen until the 28th. I should be able to submit the update after that. Then we’ll just have to wait through the usual approval process – probably a week.

So, what’s new? Temperature reading curves, mainly. They can operate in either Celsius or Farehnheit, and are the same entities as the existing control curves. They can be assigned to profiles, programs or a roast. They only two main differences beyond the existing control curves are: they are exempted from past roast matching (since they are readings and not controls) and they graph as a standard line graph (connect-the-dot style as opposed to stair-stepped style). If you’ve been entering your temperature readings in curves as you roast – all you’ll have to do is tap a toggle switch on each of these curves to convert them to the new temperature reading style.

If you’re left wondering how you’ll fit all those readings on the minimal screen real estate of the graph, don’t worry. Help is on the way. This is going to have to be accomplished over the course of a couple of updates. The upcoming update will introduce a preference setting for the default graph time. This is an interim solution for those anxious to start collecting temp data. You can set the graph to display any interval from 1 to 30 – and should go a long way to eliminate node-congestion on the graph for shorter roast times.

After this update, I want to turn my attention to creating a full screen graph. A zoomable and pan-able graph that will take over the screen whenever the device is rotated to the horizontal orientation. I think this will be a fast and intuitive way to clear the screen of the details of a roast and let you concentrate on the data. This has been in the plans for Roastmaster since the beginning – it’s exciting for me to finally be to the point of making it happen.

Here are a few screenshots from the upcoming update.

As always – let me know your thoughts on Roastmaster.

Danny