I followed the same path as GC7. I started with a Behmor in 2010, and learned how to roast coffee. I had some great coffees, but was frustrated because I often could not reproduce my better roast results. When people started modding the old Hottops by adding BT / ET thermocouples, I was intrigued.

I bought a Hottop in 2012 and modded it a year later. I added an arduino board so I could log my roasts with the artisan software. I was very pleased with the ability to reproduce my prior roasts. I live in Atlanta, and found that my roasts slowed down in the summertime - low voltage due to everyone's air conditioners running at the same time. Then I added a heavy duty (non-Chinese) variac, which I still use today.