HeatSnob - Grounding errors with non-supplied probes

[oliverm]

Probably cause the victor is running on batteries and your laptop is on 240v. Use a multimeter to check the resistance between the probe sheath and the positive and negative terminals. There should be no continuity.

I used a multimeter to check but it seemed fine, so went back to the victor until I could investigate further.
I have now used some silicone to insulate the probe from the metal visegrips that hold the probe in place and all works well now.
I used a small silicone baking mould that is food safe and temperature rated.

[scotchparty1]

I managed to get this puppy running on linux with the assistance of VirtualBox.

[readeral]

My issue was not wanting a 5th computer in the house... ridiculous enough to have 5! So I found a Mac solution which unfortunately excludes me from benefiting from the very nifty HeatSnob package, but I'm happy enough.

[chokkidog]

Being a dedicated Mac user I didn't have any trouble using a Windows laptop for the roaster.

The wife spilled a glass of red on her work one so I hooked it up to a 20" monitor, bought a wireless keyboard

(the wine killed the keyboard on the laptop)and mouse (hate trackpads).... and don't have to worry about navigating around Windows....

it's just plug, play and roast. WiFi'd into my home network for upgrades etc.

I just shut the roastery door at the end of the day and no-one is none the wiser that there's an odd computer on the property. ;-D

[Dimal]

Yep, agree...

Notebooks can be had for extraordinarily small amounts of money these days, and with quite reasonable levels of performance. Perfect as a dedicated roast monitor and record keeper...

Mal.

[TC]

The old multimeter ran well under virtual machine. My experience with parallels was less enjoyable. It ran- sometimes...

To the best of my understanding, heatsnob was built for windows.

Shouldn't be too tough to find a cheap or free hand me down. I picked a brand spankers small notebook for ~$200 and it's perfect.

[soprecise]

Is it possible to run the heat snob using other software (other than Roast Monitor)? Im running a Mac, and would really like to avoid having to get a PC.

[gobears]

Is it possible to interface to the heatsnob driver directly through an API, and if so, how to go about it?

[Andy]

Just received the Heatsnob....
Is there a way to have the Heatsnob default to the 2nd Probe and not the 1st Probe every time ?

Windows USB is a weird beast, it scans the USB ports in use and then assigns an internal address for each. Roast Monitor then "asks" Windows which ports have a thermocouple attached and assigns them in order.

If you swap over the USB connections on your PC the same port should be the primary (first seen) in Roast Monitor.

[DesigningByCoffee]

Hey Sando - welcome back! Glad to see you're still roasting

[sando]

Just received the Heatsnob....
It installed 1st time.

A question on the two probe system..

Is there a way to have the Heatsnob default to the 2nd Probe and not the 1st Probe every time ?

Plan to use it on the exhaust side where there is a plastic pipe (and the short probe works perfectly there).

Main Probe (long 1) is still the Victor Data Logger with Optic connection.

Hope its possible...

Cheers and thanks

[Javaphile]

The Victor uses an optical connection to the USB cable via an all plastic connector. Hence there can be no continuity between the thermocouple and the computer when using it. Hence, no grounding issue.


Java "Well grounded" phile

[MrFreddofrog]

BTW, the grounding issue doesn't seem to occur with the victor.
Thanks for the pointers.
John

Probably cause the victor is running on batteries and your laptop is on 240v. Use a multimeter to check the resistance between the probe sheath and the positive and negative terminals. There should be no continuity.

[oliverm]

I'm away for a week or so but can check when I get home if you're still having troubles.

I spoke too soon. I've started running into grounding errors with my heatsnob too. It started after I took the long probe out of the corretto and used it with the victor multimeter for testing meat temperature.
Anyway, after reading prloring's post I've resolved it. The probe was held in place through the open top of the bread pan by metal visegrips. It never used to short to ground but now does and the body of the visegrips touch the metal casing of the bread machine. Weird. I can't insert the probe from the side or bottom as the pan needs to twist to lock into place.
Anyway, I can come up with another option to hold it or insulate it so easy to resolve.
BTW, the grounding issue doesn't seem to occur with the victor.
Thanks for the pointers.
John

[prloring]

Scratch that, it was a grounding issue. The braided cable was held by a paper clip, to top it getting in the way...which was attached to the roaster.
You can see the noise in the RoR kick in at the 3min mark and the spike in RoR is where I took the paper clip off. The grounding issue also appears to be robbing me of a few degrees too.
Problem solved, user error.