Increasing the Heat

Up to Artisan v0.9.7 custom event buttons could only set absolute event values. The version 0.9.8 adds the possibility to define buttons that increase or decrease an event value relative to the last one registered.

Natural Roasts

People typically talk about the art of coffee roasting. We're interested in the science. Therefore, we keep adding features to Artisan that allow to analyze and compare roasts. Here we want to introduce our latest observation and the tools now available in Artisan v0.9.8 to play with the underlying idea.

Signals, Symbolic Assignments and the Plotter

Symbolic assignments are mostly used to adjust readings coming from connected devices or to define so called virtual devices. In this post, Rafael Cobo will get you familiar with the extended symbolic assignments he just implemented for the plotter in Artisan v0.9.8.

Batch Counter

Starting from v0.9.5, Artisan maintains a batch counter. That counter is increased on registering a DROP event and assigned as batch number to the current roast profile. Additionally, a batch prefix is prepended to the batch number. The batch prefix and number together make up the batch identifier of a profile.

Speaking Alarms for OS X

Speaking Alarms for Windows have been found useful. In Version 0.9.5 of Artisan, the "Call Program" alarm action has been updated to achieve a similar effect on OS X.

Hottop KN-8828B-2K+

Beginning with Artisan version 0.9.3, support for the Hottop KN-8828B-2K+ home roaster is available. Besides other improvements over previous models, that machine features a USB port that can be used to connect this roaster to a computer running Artisan without requiring any additional hardware or software (see Controlling a Hottop). Artisan allows logging the temperatures from both factory-installed thermocouples of the KN-8828B-2K+ allowing Artisan to read the Environmental Temperature (ET) and Bean Temperature (BT). Artisan also can read the fan speed data (0-10 in increments of 10) and the heater level data (0-100 in increments of 1) from the machine. Finally, by defining some extra buttons and sliders on the Artisan side, it is also possible to fully take control over the machine, setting the heater, fan and even controlling the main motor, cooling tray and drop door. Using Artisan's alarm features it is then possible to run complex roast programs using time and temperature settings in a fully automatic mode if desired.

Proaster and Artisan

COFFEE OLLE, a coffee roaster in Hong Kong, posted instructions on how they connect Artisan directly via USB to their 5Kg THCR-03 Proaster shop roaster.