Artisan, TC4C, and OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)

Discuss roast levels and profiles for espresso, equipment for roasting coffee.
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cuppajoe
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#1: Post by cuppajoe »

I picked up a Quest last December that included erics' thermocouples and a TC4C with Roastlogger installed. It has worked well up until this last Tuesday. The first roast had screwy readouts and as I was checking out the board I noticed a loose TC pigtail. Sorted that and went to do a 2nd roast. I was getting no temp readouts at all and the only indicator on the board was for power. Spent a day mucking with it and did get it working briefly before it quit again. In an email from Tom of Roastlogger indicated the problem was with the 'FTDI' driver and 10.11. Seems Apple broke something with the last update.

My question now is, might I have the same situation with Artisan? Not sure it the FTDI problem is between the board and computer, or the computer and the way RL works. When checking System Profiler on the MBA, the TC4 shows up as connected to the USB port.

Macbook Air i7 running OS 10.11.4, regular maintenance performed. RL was latest download. Tried another USB cable to no effect and other USB devices work fine.
David - LMWDP 448

My coffee wasn't strong enough to defend itself - Tom Waits

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MaKoMo
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#2: Post by MaKoMo replying to cuppajoe »

The FTDI driver communicates between the board and the computer. OS X 10.11 (maybe even 10.9 already) comes with its own Apple FTDI driver. If you install additionally an "official" FTDI driver on top, those two might compete and generate problems (but not with all devices). I deinstalled that "official" FTDI driver and since then things work as expected. Not sure if your problem is a driver one thus. Anyhow, RL and Artisan use about the same method to talk to the TC4. You can test the connection using the serial console of the Arduino IDE and send some commands like "CHAN;1100\n" followed by "READ\n". Maybe the firmware got corrupted. In that case try to upload a new one using that IDE. You might also suffer from a hardware defect. Ask Jim for support on this.

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cuppajoe (original poster)
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#3: Post by cuppajoe (original poster) »

Thanks Marko.

Pretty much confirms my fears. Unfortunately I am not hip to using Terminal or Command Line inputting. Despite having used Apples since the mid '90s, I know just enough about Macs to be dangerous... And know even less about Windows.

I went to ftdichip.com to download a driver and could not make out even what driver I should use, the terminology used was way over my head. To be honest, I was looking for a driver to run on an old IBM/XP laptop that I had laying around to use with legacy software for work. Figured using it as a dedicated machine for roasting was better than tossing it.

Please excuse my ignorance, but which Jim might that be?

Regards
David - LMWDP 448

My coffee wasn't strong enough to defend itself - Tom Waits

SJM
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#4: Post by SJM »

cuppajoe wrote:which Jim might that be?
almost certainly Jim Gallt, the developer of the TC4

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cuppajoe (original poster)
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#5: Post by cuppajoe (original poster) »

Thanks.

Just took another crack at getting the XP machine set up following future technologies instructions, with no joy. Will see what Mr. Galit has to say.
David - LMWDP 448

My coffee wasn't strong enough to defend itself - Tom Waits

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cuppajoe (original poster)
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#6: Post by cuppajoe (original poster) »

Next question, where may I find contact info for him?

Thanks
David - LMWDP 448

My coffee wasn't strong enough to defend itself - Tom Waits

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galumay
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#7: Post by galumay »

I just bought a TC4C from Jim, jim@pidkits.com
LMWDP #322 i started with nothing.........i still have most of it.

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cuppajoe (original poster)
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#8: Post by cuppajoe (original poster) »

Thanks. After several more fruitless hours, bagged the XP idea.

The ftdichips site keeps talking about a 'D2XX' thing, both in the instructions for derailing apple's driver and installing theirs. No idea what they are talking about.
David - LMWDP 448

My coffee wasn't strong enough to defend itself - Tom Waits

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galumay
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#9: Post by galumay »

Mmmm...got my TC4C from Jim this week and as this thread reports, it simply doesnt work with RoastLogger on OSX 10.11

If anyone works out how to fix this I would appreciate it!
LMWDP #322 i started with nothing.........i still have most of it.

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galumay
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#10: Post by galumay »

Sorted it,

* Reboot your mac in safe mode (Command + R while booting).
* Open terminal and disable System Integrity Protection:
with "csrutil disable". And reboot.
* On startup check your SIP: Enter this in Terminal,
"csrutil status", if it show Disabled you are ok otherwise back top
* Now this (I don't really know if it's strictly required):
sudo ln -s /dev/tty.wch\ ch341\ USB\=\>RS232\ 1410 /dev/tty.wch
LMWDP #322 i started with nothing.........i still have most of it.

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