Hi Eduardo
Thanks for the kind words - that's great to hear!
1. Node capturing interval…I assume you mean specifically for the sake of having finer resolution when comparing past roasts?
Just to be clear, Roastmaster always displays real-time temperatures of live probes. It updates the displayed readings of probes every half second. It also caches this temperature data internally, and uses it for the analyzer deltas of live probes, as well as the differential projection feature. The result is that displayed temps, analyzer deltas, analyzer crosshairs and temperature projections are always accurate to the half second for live probes.
Node sampling, though, and saving curves to the database is a different story. The 10 second limit was one of those decisions I didn’t like making. Ultimately, though, I knew I had to keep Roastmaster’s focus in-line with its mission, and acknowledge the limitations of the platform it runs on. In other words, Roastmaster’s focus is not the same as strict data logging apps. Roastmaster lets you view and compare unlimited sets of data, on a platform that has only a portion of the resources of a full-blown PC. It’s also concerned with making sure this data is available to you years down the road, without overloading the database. i.e. It’s more concerned with the bigger picture, than sub-second precision.
Now… I’m certainly not saying it's impossible to allow smaller increments, just that I’m not yet convinced the pros outweigh the cons. For example, in the roast console and analyzer, internal memory is dedicated not only to the current roast, but also to every past roast you view. For a common roast with 2 curves, targeting a similar roast in the analyzer, it's possible that would be 4,000 nodes if data was captured every second. If you swiped through 20 past roasts, that could be 40,000 nodes cached and affecting memory as you roasted, even if only 1 set is being drawn.
That being said, I do realize there are some drawbacks in the current plotting scheme for past roasts (straight lines instead of curves). In the near future, I plan to incorporate some thermodynamic equations when drawing curves, so that they are not dot-to-dot style straight lines, but extremely close representations of the actual temperatures between each data point. I also plan to echo these equations to the delta reporting. Do you see that as being helpful to you?
Feel free to elaborate on this. That 10 second limit is something I planned on reducing as memory and processing power improved, but I don’t ever plan to venture into the realm of sub-second precision. I’m naturally interested in users’ perspective here. Though I can’t promise anything, I’m certainly interested in shaping data logging to be as accurate as possible.
2. Alas... my eyes are not what they once were, either. I'm sympathetic to that plea. I overhauled about 90% of the text in the app for iOS 7, to take advantage of the preferred text size set in iOS Settings. That allows you to increase or decrease, and find a good balance between readability and content.
You’re asking specifically about features, though, in two areas that I did not include support for dynamic text in, and unfortunately are very hard to fidget with for space reasons… the roast console and roast analyzer.
I DO plan to include dynamic text support for a few key areas of the roast console and analyzer. Curve labels being the main one. I realize those are small on iPhone.
In the mean time, a few things that may help...
- Do you roast in the console or the analyzer? I always advise roasting entirely in the analyzer for curve users - especially data logging users. Most of the text is bigger, and the view can be scaled up by pinch-dragging to get a better view of critical points in the roast.
- Alarms are easier to see and set in the analyzer. Instead of dragging the alarm marker, you can also just tap it and enter a specific time. The time is bigger in that screen.
- If you’re finding the text of curve labels in the analyzer hard to read, the temp reading at the top left will display the calculated temp of the currently-selected curve at the current point in the roast. Its text is much bigger than that of labels. You might find it easier to select a curve and watch that, instead of relying on the labels.
3. You can export any of Roastmaster's reports to a tab delimited text file for Excel. You can access reports in Utilities -> Reports. Run the report, then tap Export at the bottom left. You can email, send to Dropbox, or save it in Roastmaster's documents folder.
Kind regards
Danny
