Wow, that's a pretty clever solution MonJava!

Sorry I couldn't reply sooner, I went out of town as the update was in review. Speaking of - there's now a preference setting for graphing control curves in the analyzer. You can choose a custom height to keep them locked to the bottom, and out of the way of temp curves. Also, you'll be able to enter crack times for a short period of time after the roast stops. To anyone using this - if you find you need more time, just let me know and I'll increase the value.

I find the trick proposed by MonJava really interesting. Especially, since I've talked to several folks about the concept of a warm-up and cool-down phase lately, and have given some thought as to how it would look in the app. This isn't something that I, personally, would be interested in tracking when I roast, so I'm at a bit of a disadvantage idea-wise compared to the folks who would. I did definitely recognize the need to be a able to more easily compare and contrast temps - both before and during a roast - so there's a lot of new stuff in the Analyzer that helps out in that area (labels, targeting mode, etc.), but I'd be interested in exploring the concept of a warm-up/cool-down phase as well.

Any ideas, please let me know.

Hi

Roastmaster lets you run reports for Bean Usage of Roasts, Blends and Cuppings (Bean inventory will be added as well in the coming update). Roasts, of course, would be the most important. If you create and sell signature blends, though, there's some good information in the Blends report as well. If you are faithful and record the "Cost per" field in your green bean library, these reports will provide a cost analysis of your activity in the app for any date range. You can then export that data as a normalized file for Excel or Numbers. I built the reporting feature with extensibility in mind, so adding different report types is trivial work on my end. Please feel free to offer any suggestions of report types you're interested in seeing.

By invoicing, do you mean a way to track invoicing per lots you receive? If so, then - yes, I do, and I'm excited about it. That is actually what will make iCloud a possibility in Roastmaster. Keeping reliable inventory was always the sticking point with iCloud - it didn't provide robust support for conflict resolution, so some situations involving inventory changes would have to be guessed if these changes happened too closely together on different devices.

So to circumvent - the idea is this: break inventory into "Lots" or "Skids". Whenever you receive inventory, Roastmaster tracks it as a Lot, with its own price, and a date stamp. Then, when you roast, if you have more than one Lot, you can choose which one you're roasting from. From my thinking, this would provide a way to track the age of the beans, as well as varying costs, and - I'm pretty sure - a way around the iCloud ambiguity. Please let me know your thoughts here, I haven't fleshed it out entirely in my mind, so the details are bound to change when I begin to implement it, but any input is welcome.

Kind regards
Danny

I spoke to Supermechanical. The rep is excited to pair it with Roastmaster and informed that they are currently working on a public SDK. He's going to let me know when it's ready to distribute.

Thanks again for the tip!

Hi Ben

I've actually already addressed that in the coming update - that's long been an annoyance of mine as well.

In the full screen analyzer, I reworked curve selection to be a lot smarter. I think with anyone used to computers, it's intuitive to touch on the "unique" section of an object (a part that does not overlap anything else). So, curves will now be selected by tapping directly on them. If more than one curve encompasses the tap point, the smallest curve wins, and successive taps near the same point within 2 seconds will cycle through only those curves that contain the tap point.

It actually sounds more complicated than it is - IMO it's very intuitive, but please let me know what you think once it hits the app store - especially on iPhone, where real estate is limited. I like your screenshot, and am still probably going to do something else supplemental that would work for the main console as well - something like you suggest, or even something as simple as a small row of colored circles for each curve - the selected curve having a small white ring around it. Taps to it would present a popup where you could tap big buttons. Not sure yet - am trying to remove as much clutter as possible from the roasting console, so I'm going to defer that until at least next update.

I finished up coding the new features for the update last week, but am kind of stuck in limbo prepping it for iOS 7, and waiting for a test device. It's almost ready though.

Thanks for the feedback!

Danny

No problem - I liked the idea, and knew based on how things function it would only take a few minutes to implement.

Yes, it works on iPhone - just in a modal view that popops up instead of the iPad popover. I wanted it to work the same way on iPhone - and be easy to use in landscape or portrait mode since the analyzer is often in landscape mode when its invoked.

I use the data logging option with probes when I roast, so I don't get to use the keypad often, but I've had a great deal of fun testing it.

Thanks again for the feedback.

Thanks for the link. I knew early in the week I'd be dropping in the iCelsius SDK at some point and trying to get it working, so I wanted to hold off on responding until I had some good news.

As I'm typing, I'm watching the dev version of Roastmaster capture temps from an iCelsius BBQ. It's performing great so far - just got the functionality up and running this afternoon. The Data Logging engine in Roastmaster is pretty complex - so a big "Whew!" is in order that it went so easily and quickly. I coded everything in a modular way - anticipating other probes. Now that they're finally more than vaporware, it's exciting being able to finish support for them.

Also - my Bluetherm Duo should arrive any day. Looking forward to testing that out as well. It's more expensive than the iCelsius, but gives you the option to connect any standard K-style thermocouple - so it's a bit more flexible.

Yikes - sorry your laptop broke. I have nightmares about that!

Phidgets claim that only one device can be connected to them at any one time - i.e. when a device connects, it "locks" the Phidgets and prevents connections from any other source. That has not been MY personal experience (probably because I'm usually running in a development environment), but many users have told me their installation only allows 1 connection at a time, as you discovered -  and that the offending connection is usually the Phidgets preference pane itself, and that closing the software on the laptop does the trick.

Let me know if you have any other issues.

Cheers
Danny

You should not have to tilt the probes - they should be inserted straight into the drum. You just need to make sure that there is 1/8 clearance so that the sides of the drum tines/vanes do not hit the probe as it spins.

The dowels would just be for finding the right probe depth. You can rotate the drum by hand, though, and forgo the dowels. With the roaster off, just insert the probe and gently rotate the tines to where you barely get contact with the probe, then withdraw the probe 1/8" away from the tines for a safe distance. Rotate the drum through 1 complete revolution and make sure the other tines are a safe distance from the probe as well. Make a "safe mark" on the probe sheath, even with the outside edge of the roaster at this position with a fine tip magic marker. That mark shows you the maximum distance the probe can be inserted without being hit by the tines as the drum spins.

On my installation, with the simple cap screws, I wrapped hi-temp foil tape around the probe, with the edge of the tape exactly on the "safe mark". Just wrap enough revolutions with the tape so that it prevents the probe from inserting any further than the "safe mark". Not sure if this method would work with the fancier compression fitting. If not, then the method of making the "safe mark" with nail polish would seem to suffice, since the probes are held solid by the compression fitting. The safe mark is just a visual check to make sure nothing has slipped since the last use.

Danny