I was roasting some coffee a couple days ago. Everything was going without issue but my bean mass temps seemed low. My roast was outputting a huge amount of smoke, and first crack sounded like second. Now I have roasted a few hundred pounds of coffee over the past years and I know what the transition stage between first and second looks/smells/sounds like. My Fluke said I was just into first but there was no way this was first crack so I dropped the roast. It was most certainly the first pops of second.

Then I got to looking at my meter. Last time I used it was with my ScaceII, I forgot to change the thermocouple input type. Just goes to show that you should trust your senses and instinct more than technology at times, and dont forget to check the thermocouple input setting on your meter before you start.

A bit of the tried and true. Reminds me of the advice about not always trusting yourself completely to map apps. My wife and I recently took a trip south in Indiana to Culver military academy. We did not have an active gps device, but got directions in advance from mapquest. I reminded her to bring an Atlas anyway, but she didn't. We got lost. Turns out we both were skipping a line in the directions. We ended up stopping at a gas station and asking for directions. I know a gps would have helped but we're cheap and I don't like to pay for a data plan of my ipad unless we're really traveling. Sometimes the old ways actually work.