I've just had delivery of my upgrade kit to make my old (not even the D model) to the B spec
Silly price for a couple of boards and a display really, but much cheaper than a new one and I cannot find another roaster that will do as good a job for that money.
I found that my Hottop always rushed the end of the roast with rarely more than 30 seconds between the end of 1st crack and the beginning of 2nd (somethimes no gap) so this wasn't really getting the best out of the beans. I'm sure the massive ammount of crud in the back by he motor won't have helped either!
For ages I said I would do some form of control myself, but without the triac control for the heater (which I could have done but making a PCB would be expensive) it was not going to be easy. In the end I decided that now my espresso machine was working properly again and the flavours had come back it was worth getting back to the roast profile control I used to have with the modded I-roast (or popcorn machine). The fixed Hottop one was OK, but not ideal.
I'll post more and maybe some pics when it is done.