Device Selection

There are a number of devices to monitor or control your roaster that are supported by Artisan. Which one to choose? Let's look at the key features of the available choices.

More Modbus

The support of Modbus RTU was just added to Artisan (see this previous post), but it is already time to extend its scope based on your requests. This extension of the Modbus support allows Artisan to talk to more device including some build into commercial roasters.

Modbus RTU

Artisan v0.6 adds a new device call MODBUS. Selecting that one allows you to have Artisan talk to your Modbus RTU device. Modbus is a de facto standard serial communication protocol connecting industrial electronic devices. Artisan supports the RTU (Remote Terminal Unit) variant and plays the role of the supervisory computer, while the connected devices have to be the slaves. Interesting devices for us are variable-frequency drive controllers that allow to control the speed of your drum and fans as well as PID controllers. But there are also temperature meters that provide a Modbus link.

Controlling a Hottop

Thanks to the genius work of Jim it is now possible to control the heater and fan of a Hottop roaster from your PC. Jim designed the HT Roaster Interface, an electronic device. It is available as Arduino-compatible shield that may be piggybacked on a TC4C board and can take over the control of the connected Hottop. It takes serial commands send from a computer to the Arduino micro-controller and sets the heater power and fan speed accordingly. If it receives the string "OT1,75" it sets the heater to 75% and if it receives the string "IO3,21" it sets the fan speed to 21%.

Artisan 0.6 beta

Last November we released Artisan v0.5.6 that only added a minor fix for the Voltcraft K201 meter over Artisan v0.5.5, which is available already since September 2011. The development of Artisan seems to have stopped. Not true!