Too Much Coffee

bruceb wrote:Well, I did a quick "dry run," ie. without beans and it works perfectly. I'll do a roast or two tomorrow and post screenshots and pictures. I'm mightily chuffed with this program. It's easy to use and self explanatory. I wish some other software I am forced to use was as user friendly as this one is. Thanks GB!

Great news Bruce. Thank you for taking the time to test this and report back. We look forward to the results of your testing and your thoughts and suggestions for imrovement.

GreenBean wrote:Bad news for the Gene Cafe I am afraid. If I remember correctly it uses the same display to show both the set temperature and the current temperature, alternating from one to the other. I don't think it can be set to show just the current temperature. This would produce strange and wonderful charts!

True... but surely in software the chart could "remove" the set temperature. Anyway, if if the charts are strange and wonderful I'd still like to try it.

JulieJayne wrote:

GreenBean wrote:Bad news for the Gene Cafe I am afraid. If I remember correctly it uses the same display to show both the set temperature and the current temperature, alternating from one to the other. I don't think it can be set to show just the current temperature. This would produce strange and wonderful charts!

True... but surely in software the chart could "remove" the set temperature. Anyway, if if the charts are strange and wonderful I'd still like to try it.

Yes you are right the set temperature could be filtered out. Perhaps in the future. At the moment Bruce and I are still working to get reliable readings from his roasters display. This is very different to the other displays that the program was developed on (digital multimeter and Hottop) and we have not cracked it yet but we seem to be getting close.

Absolutely brilliant! Can I try it? Pleeeeease?!


Ola

Olings wrote:Absolutely brilliant! Can I try it? Pleeeeease?!


Ola

PM sent Ola.

GreenBean wrote:

JulieJayne wrote:

GreenBean wrote:Bad news for the Gene Cafe I am afraid. If I remember correctly it uses the same display to show both the set temperature and the current temperature, alternating from one to the other. I don't think it can be set to show just the current temperature. This would produce strange and wonderful charts!

True... but surely in software the chart could "remove" the set temperature. Anyway, if if the charts are strange and wonderful I'd still like to try it.

Yes you are right the set temperature could be filtered out. Perhaps in the future. At the moment Bruce and I are still working to get reliable readings from his roasters display. This is very different to the other displays that the program was developed on (digital multimeter and Hottop) and we have not cracked it yet but we seem to be getting close.

OK, any recommendations for a webcam that works well?

As far as I know, the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 USB with Zeiss objective is by far the best webcam commonly available. In any case it seems to work well for the present purpose.

Edit: I just realised that I had forgotten to update this thread from this side of the channel. GreenBean is incredible! His software is superb and he has been coming up with a new version almost, but not quite, faster than I can test them. Once we get my weird, bright red display under control I'll post a log chart. I am really pleased with this. It gives a new dimension to home roasting! Thanks GB.

Actually, I have found the Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro for Mac to be best. The main difference between the Mac and the standard version is that the Mac version has hardware focussing, whereas the standard is software based (and therefore only works with Windows OSes). In my experience of using both, the Mac version is much better at focussing accurately. It's quite a bit more expensive though.

Sorry. I had no idea there was a Mac version.

It is a little confusing. A quick look on the logitech website clarifies things a bit more. Apparently the correct names are:
Quickcam Pro 9000 (Windows)
Quickcam Vision Pro (Mac)
The rrp's are the same but as per normal the windows version can be found cheaper. I use the Mac version as it functions perfectly under both Linux and Windows and the focusing seems to be quicker and more accurate, in my experience. They are both great cameras though, if a little expensive and maybe overkill for some.

Go on Bruce, admit you bought it cos of the Zeiss glass

JulieJayne wrote:OK, any recommendations for a webcam that works well?

I am concerned that we may be getting ahead of ourselves. Please do not purchase a webcam for this purpose. The program works for me on my digital multi-meter and Hottop P but we still do not have it working reliably on Bruce's display.

The program needs testing in the real world in different circumstances and the result of this testing may be that it is unsuitable for general use.

Even if it is suitable it may not work on the Gene. I wish to take it slowly for the moment, one roaster at a time.

GreenBean wrote:

JulieJayne wrote:OK, any recommendations for a webcam that works well?

I am concerned that we may be getting ahead of ourselves. Please do not purchase a webcam for this purpose. The program works for me on my digital multi-meter and Hottop P but we still do not have it working reliably on Bruce's display.

The program needs testing in the real world in different circumstances and the result of this testing may be that it is unsuitable for general use.

Even if it is suitable it may not work on the Gene. I wish to take it slowly for the moment, one roaster at a time.

No worries, my previous career/hobby combo was computers/coffee. I changed it 5 years ago to Coffee/computers. So any excuse to buy computer kit is welcome.

Thanks for the webcam suggestions, my computer knowledge is now 5 years outofdate!!

Gouezeri wrote:Go on Bruce, admit you bought it cos of the Zeiss glass

Well, I might have if I hadn't already seen the results and new that it really does do a good job. In fact, most of the webcams are optically very poor, which, in light of the ridiculously low prices is not surprising. This Logitech/Zeiss actually takes better pictures than some of the popular digital cameras. The autofocus is not always reliable and the software is a hack, but all-in-all it serves its purpose well.

A brief update on this program. Bruce has been doing a fantastic job testing the program on his Maggiolino roaster. This has resulted in a significant improvement in the reliability of the program. But we still have issues to resolve for it to work reliably (without occasional false readings) on his roaster. Hopefully we will have success soon.

The above screenshots are of the program working on my Hottop P which has an LCD display. I have now unpacked and cleaned my new Hottop B which has a very different LED display. I thought I would give the program a try on that as I ran the roaster up to temperature empty. It worked perfectly see the following screenshots:

So we can now say the program can read Hottop B and P data without problems and also reads my digital multi-meter without problems.

The Hottop B temperature display captured by the webcam.


The program capturing and processing the image.


The new seven segment optical character recognition engine I have written to improve reliability of readings.


The chart produced heating the roaster without beans.

Amazing stuff. Thanks to you and your tester for something that could revolutionise roasting for many of us