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Timer Problems

gasalinasz

Apprentice
Joined
Jun 5, 2014
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Hello,
I am having major problems with the timer. It's all kinds of screwy. Some times when the mash/steep timer reaches its allotted time and the beeper beeps the timer then resets itself to a random time and starts to countdown again. But other times this happens and then the random time on the countdown will be more random and randomly change to an even randomer time and countdown from there. This random change does not only happen with the mash/steep timer but also happens with the boil time once the boil reaches its allotted 60 minutes, but i still need 30 minutes for whirlpooling. anyways, does anybody else have this problem? are there other threads? is there a way to fix it? should there be more function control with the timer? like being able to set what it does when it runs out, continue, or reset? or other things?
thank you
if you think you thanked the thinker than thank you

-gabriel
 
same problem here, i just use my watch. probably a problem on my end, I'm running xp and haven't been able to update any thing on windows in for ever so i'm on service pack 2, so i don't meet the minimum requirements. it worked fine before the 2.0 update. 2.0 seams to work on my old lap top updated O.S. to win 7... when the computer doesn't shut off on me... redundancy is a good thing if you want to keep everything repeatable, just get a timer and make sure that the computers up to date. good luck on the next brew day.
 
I'm unable to duplicate these errors.

There are two parts to the brew timer:
1) A cumulative count up timer. This will simply count the total elapsed time of the brewing process it's assigned to (mash or boil).
2) A count down timer that counts time until your next step. This is directly and dynamically controlled by your recipe and mash schedule.

Which of these is randomly resetting?

The cumulative timer (on the left) should just keep rolling upwards until you tell it to stop. I let the mash timer go for the whole brew day.

The step time (on the right) in the mash timer shows how long until the next step as they're defined in the recipe. The times seen are the total time for the step.

Once the timer has signaled time elapsed, the called for step will be bold blue. After a minute or two, the step goes gray in case you missed it or need a quick reference. After another few minutes, the gray instructions will fall off the list. The upcoming step will be blue but not bold.

If several steps happen within a minute or two there may be several steps in bold.

For the mash timer, you can dynamically change the instructions in the mash tab. Simply double click on the mash step and change the rise or the step (rest) time.

For instance, if you want to start the time as you are adding grain, the rise time would be how long you take to dough in water and grain; perhaps 5 minutes. The step time might be 45 minutes for conversion. The count down timer should show 50 minutes until the next step.

Your next step may be to infuse water to reach another rest temp. Let's say it takes a minute to add water, but 5 for the mash to stabilize and then you want to hold that temperature for 30 minutes. The rise time is how long it takes to add water plus the time for the temperature to stabilize, 6 minutes. With a rest of 30 minutes, the step timer would show 36 minutes.

In the boil timer, the timing you give each ingredient becomes the steps list in the timer. As with the mash, the colors will change as each step comes up. The total time is based on what you've set as boil time for the recipe. If you have an ingredient that is assigned a time longer than the boil, you'll get a red warning line in the timer box.

For whirlpool, give the hops a steep/whirlpool time. This tells the timer to continue to countdown after the boil.

Limits:
The timer doesn't separate rise and step (rest) times.
The timer doesn't account for sparge time.
The timer doesn't measure chilling time directly (though this might be part of your whirlpool procedure).
The timer doesn't allow for multiple whirlpool hop times. It assumes all hops go in as the WP starts.
 
thank you for your reply. i feel like i understand how the timer functions. and it is the countdown timer that has been malfunctioning. once it reaches its allotted time ( aka when the countdown hits zero ) for some strange reason it resets itself to a random time and then begins counting down again. it happens to both the mash and the boil timer. it didn't happen for the first few months we were using brew smith. oh wait i just realized it started happening when we switched computers and OS. it seems to occur with XP. i think i just need to upgrade. ha. sorry. thanks again!
 
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