BCS-460 Beta Test
 

For those of you who are following, I am in the process of beta testing the BCS-460. This is a unit designed to automate a brew rig or do fermentation control or what ever else you could think of, and provide a user friendly way to interact with it. Latter today I will post pictures of the unit and talk about my first impressions. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask, and I will give you my slant on it.

Sean:rockin:

Here are some pic's
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/...m/DSCN0301.JPG
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/...m/DSCN0302.JPG
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/...m/DSCN0304.JPG

So the first pic is of the BCS-460. It is the little black box of brewing. It is compact, easy, and encased in aluminum. So it is ready for abuse. The second pic is of my set up for fermentation. The beer in the fermenter is a pub ale. The third pic is a screen shot. It is exactly like the web site depicts.

My first impressions are simple. I am impressed. I was able to start programing my unit before it was even shipped. I don't think this will be the norm, but I wanted to illustrate the fact that if you were more savy than I with the computer, you could start your brew day before you even left work. This is a cool trick if you ask me. The BCS-460 seems to be at home both on my mac and my PC in both Fire Fox and Safari. After you figure out how the state machines work, creating a program for brewing, fermenting, or just temp controlled cooling is a snap. In less than five minutes I set up a program for temperature controlled fermentation. The other part that is cool, the computer need not stay hooked up to the unit for it to carry out a process. The temperature probes are impressive and I will post a pic of that later. It is just on of those things that you have to see. So I would say at this point I am very impressed.

Sean

Cool. Keep us updated on the progress.

As promised, here is the temperature probe.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/...m/DSCN0299.JPG
As can be seen, it is quite hefty. A good solid piece of equipment. The best part, is that it screws into a 1/4" fitting. So no fuss, and no muss. Sean

Here are some links to screen shots of data from my BCS-460. I currently have it doing fermentation control. She has been holding pretty tight.
http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/tmp/BCS-460.jpg
http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/tmp/BCS-460Data2.jpg
http://www.embeddedcontrolconcepts.com/tmp/BCS-460Data3.jpg

Anyway these are different views of the same data. The first one is compressed the second is more expanded and the last is one up from the full magnification. The dots in the middle are the recorded temps at that point and the squiggly line that goes up and down sharply is the heating pad being turned on and off by the BCS. You can set the recording intervals for what ever, but for the purpose of the ferment I think I have it set to 1 minute. It really is cool. If you click on the links you will also get a good idea of what the BCS's interface will look like on your computer . Everyone enjoy.

S.

This seemed like a really random post, as I'd never heard of a BCS-460. It seems like it's got some real potential, especially if they find a way to make the probes connect a little cleaner and make the interface more attractive.

ScubaSteve,

If you don't mind my asking, what would you like to see in the interface and what do you mean by "the probe connect cleaner"? Are you talking about the probes interface with the HLT,MLT,or boil kettle or are you talking about the connect to the module? This is great input. Keep it coming. S.

Here's a link to the original post
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/temperature-control-system-beta-testers-needed-82734/

We are rewriting the interface to clean it up, getting rid of the frames and the grey background. But any specific suggestions would be appreciated.

Does the software support integrated PID? Also what is the total analog and digital I/O's, I couldn't tell from the other page whether there were an additional 4 inputs besides the 4 mV inputs for thermocouples or not. Any plans for expansion modules or an advanced model? That may be your way to seperate them is to sell an advanced module with more I/O's and heavier software, and then the current unit with a lite version.

I didn't mean to be so critical, I guess I just meant that the grey interface was kind of boring.....maybe different "skins" would be cool. As far as the probe connect, I meant where it hooks up to the unit. It looks like there's a naked connection where you insert the probe wires on the terminal. Maybe a "plug in" like on a 1394 cable....or even like a cellphone charger?