TC4C usage with Hottop

[rgrosz78]

I finally got to set this up on Tuesday, and decided to take the easy alternative. Instead of mounting the arduino / HTC / TC4C inside the roaster, I just have the cables hanging out the back (very sloppy, but it does work). In a day or two, I'll stick it inside a small cardboard box to protect it from dust / coffee chaff.

[rgrosz78]

I just started using the autosave option in artisan. Due to user error, I deleted the log file of my first roast. But I did a screen recording of the artisan software as it ran. The weird robotic voice is the reminder to "lower variac voltage" at the first power drop:

TC4C+Artisan roast 05-08-2014

[rgrosz78]

I set up a series of alarms to mimic my prior roast of this bean. The automation worked as well as I had hoped. All I had to do was
1. click the button in artisan for start of 1st crack
2. click the button in artisan for Drop
3. press the eject button on the Hottop

Note - I took this screen shot before the roast. I subsequently added some alarms for the "variac voltage" warnings.

[rgrosz78]

Here are the Excel notes from my earlier roast, which I used to set up the alarms for the TC4C.

[rgrosz78]

If anyone else is creating specific alarm files for each different coffee (as shown above), you may run into some problems. Based on emails with Marko Luther (one of the artisan developers), there are some bugs in artisan 0.7.5 related to loading and saving of .alrm files. These should be fixed in the next version.

[smico]

Rick,
I always save alarms with profile.  What is the exact problem as I haven't noticed any issue.
Is this problem related to the .alrm files only?
Thanks
Miroslav

[rgrosz78]

Rick,
I always save alarms with profile.  What is the exact problem as I haven't noticed any issue.
Is this problem related to the .alrm files only?
Thanks
Miroslav

Yes, it is. If you use Config / Alarms / Save to save the alarms as a separate .alrm file, then it clears the alarms in the current profile. To fix this, you must load the alarms from the separate .alrm file.

I found it useful to have the separate .alrm files, since I use similar settings for most of my roasts. I've included them in the attached ZIP file.

[smico]

I am then partially responsible for your troubles as I talked Marko into adding alarms into the profile file.
I am playing with Artisan development locally on this machine.  I concentrate on features that mean a lot to me, and not to many other users, like import of alarms from Roastlogger files that was my contribution to this great project.  I am probably the sole user of this feature.
Currently working to add new feature to refresh alarms from the current roast settings, but it takes too long as I don't have much time to work on it.
Thanks for the info regarding alrm files.
Miroslav

[rgrosz78]

Miroslav, No problemo! Including the alarms as part of the profile is a good idea.

[rgrosz78]

I also run a stored profile on my Hottop B that overrides most of the automatic changes that otherwise occur. Those are when it kicks the fan up to 75% after a few minutes and later when it drops the heat to 80%. The idea of saving a profile is from this post by Randy Glass on coffeegeek.

If any of you have done this, please note - you MUST recreate the dummy profile with different settings (100% fan and 100% heat) for use with Jim Gallt's TC4C controller. This is clearly noted in the documentation by both Barry and Jim.

[rgrosz78]

I noticed that nothing seemed to be working properly last weekend. I had to reboot my laptop twice before artisan on the laptop would communicate with the TC4C. Then I noticed the fan and heater settings were not at 100%. 

This is the second time in six months that my "dummy profile" stored on the Hottop somehow was erased. I have no idea how this is happening - maybe a voltage surge when I turn the variac on or off?? I will now make sure the Hottop is unplugged before I I turn the variac on or off.

[rgrosz78]

This is the second time in six months that my "dummy profile" stored on the Hottop somehow was erased. I have no idea how this is happening - maybe a voltage surge when I turn the variac on or off?? I will now make sure the Hottop is unplugged before I I turn the variac on or off.

Even after I created / stored a new dummy profile for the Hottop yesterday, it was NOT working today. I have NO idea ... 

[rgrosz78]

Even after I created / stored a new dummy profile for the Hottop yesterday, it was NOT working today. I have NO idea ... 

After three attempts, I decided to give up. It seems that my stored profile simply will NOT work correctly. I now manually adjust the fan and heat for every roast to 100%, after the Hottop gives the beeps for "load the beans".

[smico]

Don't give up yet...
Can you attach the alog file? 
I can try to run it on my setup and try to debug the problem.
I have never had this kind of issues.
Miroslav

[rgrosz78]

Miroslav, the problem is not with artisan. It is my stored profile inside the Hottop itself, with 100% fan and 100% power. Maybe the "Hottop brain" is fried?!