We've used the small computerized home roasters, but actually find the 'dutch oven' method just as quick and good. We graduated from a cast iron skillet to a dutch oven and can thus roast about 4 cups of beans at a time--a week's worth.  I turn the gas burner to high and use a metal whisk and keep the beans moving.  Coffee beans burn easily. It's also smokey, so we open windows and use a fan to blow it outside.  When I started roasting, I put a dish of roasted beans beside the stove and compared color.  We like a good French roast, so I pull it off just as it starts to develop a sheen and there are still some brown beans.  Himself dumps the beans into a colander and runs them outside and stirs madly with a whisk to cool them off and release the remaining smoke to the environment.  Good stuff!    

Let me know how it goes!