I'm an SR500 owner since January 2011. We're a 2 drinker household, that decided home roasting might reign in our $300 am month Blue Bottle / SightGlass / Four Barrel habit. I roast pretty offen, every 7-10 days or so, putting about 2 green pounds through the machine each session. I take a lot of notes. I am mostly following the instructions. I cover the kitchen with bags, bowls, and colanders, plus a stopwatch, a flashlight, and a scale. I dream about thermocouples and profile graphs. Some days, I feel I have a good handle on this roasting thing. Other days, I feel lost, like maybe all along I've been a complete hack.
My lurking makes me wonder if there's many other SR500 users out there, and if so, where's the best place to compare notes? Since I 'mostly' follow the instructions, I'd like to learn where others have or have not done the same, to help sanity check my progress in the good fight.
Anyone else out there on an SR500, or and SR300? Not sure how much the older FR models are similar. I know a lot of the knowledge from the DIY Poppery crowd will carry over, as will learnings from others in the air camp. That said, if you're using a FR product, you're a lot closer to feeling the exact pain (and joy) that I go through every week or so. I''m hoping for idle chatter and commiseration at the least, and perhaps a nugget or two of insight as well.
Have been roasting and having tons of fun for ~2 months. I roast 2-3 times a week, with one batch each time. I follow SM's shake and bake method but modify it a bit. Instead of shaking the chamber with no cover, I keep the chaff collector on and shake the 2 pieces together. For the 1st 2 mins, i do ~30sec low heat/high fan and ~15sec shaking. Start of the 1st crack is 3-4 min. City+ is usually my goal and it takes ~6min to get there.
All I'm thinking about adding is the thermocouple that SM sells, to try and validate temperature against what my ears, eyes, and nose are telling me. 
