The "P" was not designed with in-roast user control in mind; at least that was my impression when they first sent me one, and that impression has not changed significantly. It is best suited for someone who wants fresh coffee but doesn't want to have to think once a profile is chosen and the "START" button is pressed. It doesn't mean that you can't get good coffee from it. Me? I am a hands-on sort of guy (a much prefer a manual tranny to an auto tranny). The best thing with the "P" is to develop profiles that best suit your desires. As you know from reading the manual, any saved profile can be modified and then saved again, so you can experiment with small changes to that profile,

The problem with the "P" am:
1 - the heater control is binary. You can have it 100% on, or 100% off, and that's it.
2 - The three minute segments give you little time to manipulate the roast, and once a segment passes you can't recover that time.

One trick is that when you get close to a temperature you want to maintain, pull the rear filter up to allow more air flow through the roaster. This will decrease the rate of increase of the temperature, and as soon as the filter is lowered, the heating element will be able to more rapidly increase the temperature in the roast chamber.

But all of this is why, when an enthusiast asks in this forum, The "B" model is universally recommended.

Hi Evan,

Another consideration might be installing a bean temperature probe. This will give you the ability to control the roast between first and second crack using the filter raising method as suggested by RandyG.

Lifting the filter by about half and using fan setting between 2 and 3 at/after first crack, allows the period between first and second crack to increase up to 3-4 minutes....all the time montoring a rising bean temperature.This happens even though the roaster temperature appears to slow or "stall"

Much would depend on the temperature immediately surrounding the roaster.

Best wishes with your new roaster...once mastered it will give you delightful roasts.

JL

Adding bean temp the monitor through bean chute loading cover:
http://www.frcndigital.com/coffee/HowToHottopTemp.html

Take a look through this thread before you decide where you want to install the BT probe/TC as there are better options then the bean chute cover:
Installing ET and BT probes in a Hottop

I started with the P model but ended up swapping in the B control panel so I could have much better control of the roast.

Better options? Possibly. But the new sensor gives very dependable readings, and it is very consistent from batch to batch. While it may not be an accurate bean temperature, that is extremely difficult to get in a small-batch home roaster. You can put six different probes in and get six different readings. Because of the low depth of the bean mass, the proximity of the heating element to the drum, and airflow through the drum, moving a probe just a couple of millimeters will give varied readings. But the new probe sits far enough in the bean mass for the entire roast that I do not think that having another reading is going to be all that useful. For example, if first crack always starts at the same displayed temperature on the control panel (and in my experience it does within maybe +/-1F) then it doesn't matter what the displayed number is. Except for some preliminary testing I have not used a bean probe with the new model (updated thermocouple). Just one data point.

A couple months ago I ran several test roasts in a new B-2 after installing the same style Omega T/Cs I've used in my HT-B for several years. The reading from the new style HT-B-2 factory probe sensor was a good 25*F lower then the calibrated BT T/C I installed. The readings (1C,ect.) I got from the Omega t/cs in the new roaster were right in line with the readings I see in mine & what I see posted from others using accurate t/cs. I found the HT probe readings to be pretty much useless for accurate tracking of BT or ET & it was slow to respond.

My suggestion to Italyhound is to pay close attention to John Borella's thermocouple installations. I used the probe in the chute door method in my first Hottop but used John's system in the second one. Huge benefit to have instant Evironmental and Bean temperature readings. The ability to control environmental temperature will eliminate your concern in stalling.

Mine is the "B" model.