Is there a place I can find an online manual or description of the latest build? (2.08)
Thx
Generally this is the latest manual:
Yes, I have that.
But I mean somewhere that explains Roastime. like what the various tags mean and how to customize it.
Like DV vs DT…and others.
Thanks,
Dan
Oh great… Rev 2.9 of the manual makes it wrong for me to have installed the replacement exhaust fan motor that Sweet Maria’s sent me. It also means that owners installing the V1.5 IBTS mods themselves are also set up to have further warranty claims disallowed. And for those of us that plan on upgrading to V2 by installing the replacement power board are further violating the warranty conditions. Oh, and don’t even think about disassembling something for cleaning! This is nonsense. @Jacob et al, I believe you need to rethink this wording. Perhaps add a phrase to the effect “… unless authorized by Aillio or its dealers or as needed for cleaning, maintenance and installation of authorized modifications and repairs.”
Bab raises some very important points and I just read the " Alterations Service & Accessories" info on page 4 of the manual. That page is about the closest thing in the manual to a “limitations of warranty” statement.
There are statements on page 4 that run counter to what a lot of Bullet owners are told to do when they encounter a problem. One of the largest ones is this statement “Do not disassemble R1. Only authorized service personnel are allowed to repair malfunctions”. How many times have we seen people at Aillio and Sweet Marias suggest that we remove the Control Panel and check for loose wiring. That action falls into the category of “disassembling” the R1. Also, who are the “authorized service personnel” and where are they? Do we need to send the R1 back to Taiwan for “malfunctions”?
I’m being a bit over the top here on purpose. But Bab’s point does need a response. If we take the statements in the manual literally, then there could be a lot R1’s that have voided warranty by no fault of the User.
I believe the people at Aillio are reasonable and I would want to think of them that way. Clarification on this stuff does need to be made so that the customer knows what lines of self repair they can cross and which ones they cannot due to warranty violation. This kind of product is very different from other consumer products. There will be gray-areas of what can be “user repaired”, modified and updated. It is a coffee roaster and by its nature we all know these things to be true having owned and operated them for years.
PS: Here’s a perfect example of an Aillio provided process that requires “disassembly” and also greatly opens the door for the User to break something. It is following the process in the “Manual Bootloader Mode” document at the location (below). I’ve been in computer engineering for decades and would be perfectly comfortable performing the actions in this procedure. But I also know that it provides a good opportunity for the User to disconnect or do something that creates a new failure. There should have been a reset switch installed to do this instead of having the user physically short (2) contact points.
Manual Bootloader Mode
I understand your point guys, but let’s get real and try and focus on truly relevant issues here and avoid overwhelming an already overworked small Aillio team with obscure concerns that can be answered by exercising a modicum of common sense. In other words don’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg. It’s true that the manual needs updating and they seem to be, if slower than we might like, doing their best to keep it updated, when the Bullet team is focused on product enhancement and providing all of us with the opportunity to keep our machines current with the latest release as well as certain ongoing enhancements that are not yet even offered on the newest retail units. To paraphrase Jacob d in one of his responses, “ we are a small company trying to keep up”
Papas Cup, absolutely no offense intended sir but I will agree with you that you are ”being a little over the top here”. And Bab’s question can easily be answered by simply asking himself the question: Does it make sense that a small, growing manufacturer with a product that is revolutionizing home roasting and gaining world-wide recognition; that has owners and employees that seem to spend a great bulk of their time attempting to answer users questions and rectify any technical problems within 24 hours (including user-induced ones), a company that is no doubt totally aware of the result of such an action in the coffee world social media, would then try and stiff a customer on a warranty issue by claiming they breached the warranty after following specific instructions given by the company to the customer? Not only is that illogical but Aillio (or Sweet Maria) wouldn’t have a hope in hell of defending such an action in any court, anywhere, should it come to that. And they would kill their business in the process. I say let’s all relax and get back to this awesome journey Jacob and the folks at Aillio are taking us on…the trimmings will come eventually.
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Where you are missing the point is that the language that caused Bab’s concern is recent and was not in the manual when we purchased our Bullets. Look, we are all adults here and full well know the Aillio team is small. So going over that to the level that you did is just as tedious. When a recent statement like the one just added to the manual is made, that is not something that is insignificant. Especially, when we have all been under the idea that we are helping Aillio test and confirm changes.
Companies make statements like that to limit certain things from happening for their own good reasons. Saying that the end-user is not to “disassemble the product” and at the same time suggest that we do that very thing is an important dichotomy to resolve. If you don’t like the question, don’t concern yourself over it. But we have the right to ask about it. We didn’t invent the statement and it is important to have clarity on something that Allio thought was important enough to add as a recent addendum to the manual.
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The changes to the manual are required for CB and CE certification, as we are not allowed to encourage users to open up and fix things by themselves.
There will eventually be a service manual with more details of how to service and fault find problems and maybe a disclaimer before being able to download it.
Also, if you are following a guide that we provided, then of course your warranty stays intact.
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Ahh that probably explains the stickers “no user serviceable parts inside” on electronics from my youth 
Still a distinct dichotomy between what Aillio is “required to say” (via the manual’s new language) and the fact that Aillio (in practice) suggests that users “open up” the product to fix something. I favor the latter of course and will just have to go on the precedents set (both by Aillio and Sweet Marias) that do allow users to “open-up and fix things themselves”. I’m done. 
I’m pretty sure I have seen the “no disassemble” verbiage in various online care and feeding guides for a long time, as Jacob says, maybe it only recently made it into the manual for “reasons”. Maybe the solution is to add that last sentence “unless you are following a guide that we (support) provided.” That would be in line with many other companies.
@stuartmcknight They don’t have that luxury anymore due to the CB/CE requirements that preclude the user from doing self-repair. The language in the manual used to say “Do not attempt to service the roaster yourself unless instructed to do so by us.” That has now been changed to remove the “unless instructed to do so by us” statement.
Better to just think of this whole thing as there are “off-the-menu” ways of doing things, but Aillio just can’t say that officially in Europe. In the US, we should be able to operate by US standards where folks can tinker with their own products (without voiding the warranty) given agreement and assistance from the manufacturer.