Typica Tips

Sometimes people have an easier time learning how to use a program if they can see someone else using it. Because of this, I've created a number of videos that show different aspects of setting up and using Typica effectively. Sometimes this comes bundled with a coffee roasting tutorial, but in those videos the use of Typica is incidental to some broader concept or set of concepts that can be applied even if you're not using Typica or something similar. Since the release of Typica 1.7, I've put together several videos that focus more directly on Typica and how to use its features effectively. This series is called Typica Tips.

Today a new episode of Typica Tips was released covering the setup and use of all of the different types of annotation controls including the new threshold annotations that are currently only available in a pre-release build or for people who compile Typica from the development branch on GitHub. Listed below are all of the current episodes of Typica Tips.

Using New Features in Typica 1.7. Typica 1.7 introduced a new batch log, roast specification features, new ways to search for records of interest, and several other new features that might be overlooked.

Upgrading PostgreSQL for Typica 1.7. PostgreSQL is the database software that Typica uses to store and retrieve data. Both Typica and PostgreSQL are still being actively developed and sometimes I'll want to add a feature to Typica that's best implemented in terms of features that have been added to PostgreSQL since earlier releases of Typica. This means that people who have been using Typica for a long time might sometimes need to upgrade to a newer version of PostgreSQL to use newer versions of Typica. Since most coffee roasters are not database administrators, a tutorial on performing that upgrade seemed like a good idea.

Installing PostgreSQL. If you're new to Typica, you probably need to install PostgreSQL. This is very easy to do, but some people trick themselves into thinking that it's much harder than it needs to be. I made this one mainly because I kept seeing people who were doing some really crazy things that didn't work when all they really needed to do was run an installer, click Next a few times, and remember which password they chose.

Choosing Hardware to Collect Roasting Data. Typica can be used with several different types of hardware. While the section on Modbus RTU devices is slightly out of date with current pre-release builds, this is still a good overview of why you might want to use different types of data acquisition hardware and is recommended viewing if you're planning on buying hardware for use with Typica.

Annotation Controls. One of the unique features of Typica is the broad range of different annotation controls available. Understanding what the options are and why you might want to use each of them will help you decide on a set of controls that works best for recording the events that you're interested in.