Any more BCS updates EVER??

After the announcement that BCS was purchased I figured we'd see MORE updates on the plans for future updates and features, but so far quite the opposite has been the case.

Has anyone seen ANY mention of any BCS improvements or new versions?

Is BCS just a giant money grab now or are there actually plans to offer some of the features that people have been asking for? (BrewTroller is getting easier to use every day and BCS remains static and has an even more questionable future than before they got purchased as far as I'm concerned...)

Learning curve on BrewTroller is still too steep for me, and the future of BCS uncertain. -This is why I doubled-down on my PID build. I'm just not going to move towards more automation until the future of BCS becomes more certain or BrewTroller because much closer to a turn-key solution.


Adam

I'm in the same situation, and am now wondering the same thing about the evolution of BCS.

Wow, seriously, you're calling it a money grab? The new owner has made a huge investment to not only buy the company but to continue development and add new features and capabilities. I wouldn't call that an uncertain future.

A new firmware update was released shortly after the announcement of the sale to address some of the bugs that were present. Several threads (at the BCS forum) have also made mention of future enhancements that are being worked on. They just got the hardware back into production last month and they'll need a bit of time to get up to speed on everything.

JonW,
First let me say that I have admired your rig and appreciated your input here and on ECC forum (which seems to have been "botted" this morning) for several years, and that is one of the reasons I have been considering BCS now that I finally have arrived at that moment. Thanks for sharing.

I also followed the BCS vs BT thread with interest, which seemed to boil down to "ford-chevy" thing.

Guess I'm now hung up on what each lacks. BT- no slick GUI. BCS - no analog I/O. Looks like folks are sprinting toward BT GUI, any insight on BCS adding analog capability? Or any other significant milestone?

Dale

Dale, let me check with Derrin at Brewers Hardware to see if he wants to publish a roadmap of features. There is another firmware update coming out very soon that adds some new features and there is a lot being worked on for a 4.0 version that will add significantly more. For analog IO, the temp ports are analog, so there are several items being looked at to utilize those for more than just temp sensing.

Thanks Jon. Guess I got juked by the wiki FAQ.
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Can the BCS work with other analog inputs, i.e., volume measurement?

The BCS-460 and BCS-462 do not support analog inputs at this time. We do have prototypes in the lab that support analog inputs by modifying existing temperature inputs with a single external resistor (works with any existing BCS). However the supporting firmware is still in progress, no ETA.

Can the BCS work with other analog outputs, i.e., proportional valves?

No, the BCS-460 and BCS-462 do not support analog outputs.
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Looking forward to learning more.

Personlay, I'm really stoked the Brewers hardware bought BCS. I've only had great experiences dealing with Adam from ECC in the past, and now I know from my experience of Brewers Hardware, Derrin will do an awesome job managing and improving the BCS product.

For me the BCS is much more approchable to the non IT, EE, Software engineer type person like me. The Brew troller to me looks like a lot of fun to work with if you are confident in your abilities to get it up and running. Fro me I was intimidated at first about the BCS, and fried a board some how that Adam replaced for $20 in a week or two. Once I figured it out with some help from the forum I was able to do all I wanted with it, and am planing on adding it to control more in the brewing process soon.