How Many Input Buttons for BCS?

I'm building an ebrewsupply BCS-462 kit. I had Ryan include one input button, but I'm wondering if I might want to add at least one more.

Who is using input buttons, how many are you using, and what are you using them for?

I use Web input buttons (WIN) but it is the same idea.

I typically just have a next button on states that need input. Sometimes I change the name to something like "control boil" for the boil process. On the boil process I have a cancel button in the event of a boil over or other screw up.

sandyeggoxj said:

I use Web input buttons (WIN) but it is the same idea.

I typically just have a next button on states that need input. Sometimes I change the name to something like "control boil" for the boil process. On the boil process I have a cancel button in the event of a boil over or other screw up.

Click to expand...

That's a pretty good idea. I haven't really been in the system yet, and since I'm planning on using 4.0 there aren't a ton of screenshots available for me to figure it all out. I'm putting in another order to ebrewsupply already, so I figured I might as well try to get everything in that I want. Buttons are like $3.50, so if it's helpful to have them, might as well get them, right? I'm not going to have a laptop with me when I brew, just my phone, so I'm hoping to monitor and interact as much with the panel as possible, instead of my phone. I have PID displays for that reason too.

What displays did you get? My experience is building recipes with the laptop and then running with some powered by android. I used a laptop for the first 10 ish brews to work out the kinks.

Brewershardware has 7 segment displays for the BCS in stock. I bought four, and will post a pic on my build thread tomorrow. I still need to decide how to mount them in my panel.

I will probably have my laptop available the first few brews, but ideally I would build the brew on the BCS the night before, then just use my phone or tablet as needed. Hopefully I will be navigating most of the brew day with input buttons on the panel and watching temps on the displays.

It seems that web input buttons are disappearing in software 4.0, so it's probably best to not incorporate their use in your program design.

I use 3 physical input buttons in my setup, Two are set up as one-shot buttons to trigger increasing or decreasing the boil kettle heat - 5% up or down per button press. The third button is also one-shot and activates state change after a manual operation such as mash in or a valve change. I am modifying my setup to put the three buttons on a pendant so that I can move around the brew stand and still press buttons.

ChuckO said:

It seems that web input buttons are disappearing in software 4.0, so it's probably best to not incorporate their use in your program design.

I use 3 physical input buttons in my setup, Two are set up as one-shot buttons to trigger increasing or decreasing the boil kettle heat - 5% up or down per button press. The third button is also one-shot and activates state change after a manual operation such as mash in or a valve change. I am modifying my setup to put the three buttons on a pendant so that I can move around the brew stand and still press buttons.

Click to expand...

I like the 5% increase/decrease boil, that sounds awesome! So, if I want to be able to reset my alarm, proceed to the next state, and have buttons to manage boil power (like you do) that would put me at four buttons?

I am learning much here! I didn't realize the Web buttons are going away in 4. I'll have to buy some buttons. Before I move to 4.0.

JoshuaW said:

I like the 5% increase/decrease boil, that sounds awesome! So, if I want to be able to reset my alarm, proceed to the next state, and have buttons to manage boil power (like you do) that would put me at four buttons?

Click to expand...

I do this with two processes, BOIL and ADJUST_BOIL. BOIL starts at 100% until I start to see boiling. I use the next state button to wait for the hot break and start the ADJUST_BOIL process, which starts at 65%. The buttons for boil increase/decrease now become active. Boil rate increase/decrease in 5% increments seems sufficient to me. Once I reach a boil I let a new process take over the control of the duty cycle for the boil output. It starts at 65% and can be stepped up or down between 45% and 80%. When there is 15 minutes left in the boil, I return control of the duty cycle to the BOIL process and step it to 100% at the same time as starting to recirculate through my pump and CFC. When it returns to a boil I then switch the control back to the ADJUST_BOIL process until the BOIL process gets to the end of the boil time, when the BOIL process terminates ADJUST_BOIL and goes to a whirlpool state.

I end up using 6 processes for the entire operation and can run back to back brews although I haven't done that yet.

I went ahead and ordered three additional buttons (total of four) and if you dont mind, I might want some input setting up my processes in a couple weeks when I have everything built to imitate your system. That is exactly what I want to do, as it should minimize the amount of time I need to spend on my phone making adjustments.

ChuckO said:

It seems that web input buttons are disappearing in software 4.0, so it's probably best to not incorporate their use in your program design.

I use 3 physical input buttons in my setup, Two are set up as one-shot buttons to trigger increasing or decreasing the boil kettle heat - 5% up or down per button press. The third button is also one-shot and activates state change after a manual operation such as mash in or a valve change. I am modifying my setup to put the three buttons on a pendant so that I can move around the brew stand and still press buttons.

Click to expand...

ChuckO - Would you mind sharing screenshots of how you have the DINs configured? I am still new to the BCS platform and am learning what it is capable of doing.

mliptack said:

ChuckO - Would you mind sharing screenshots of how you have the DINs configured? I am still new to the BCS platform and am learning what it is capable of doing.

Click to expand...

Not a problem. I will do some screen shots of the system parameters and post them. Probably won't get it done until Friday though.

Waiting Patiently

mliptack said:

Waiting Patiently

Click to expand...

Don't know if this tells you much, but it is a screen shot of the BCS-460 Settings Page with the version 4.0 beta firmware. The inputs DIN0 - Increase Boil, DIN1 - Decrease Boil and DIN2 - Advance are set up as one-shot inputs. The input DIN3 - Brewery Power is set up as a continuous input.

Increase Boil and Decrease Boil are only used in my Adjust Boil process, and each changes the state to either a higher or lower duty cycle state.

Brewery Power is simply wired to a secondary set of contacts on my main contactor, simply causes the main control page to highlight the DIN label when the brewery is powered. My BCS is in a separate enclosure and is always powered, so this lets me know whether the brewery is acutally powered or not, helpful when I am changing programming in the house rather than at the brewery.

Advance is the main problem push button though. Every BCS process will respond to a DIN button at the same time. This means that a state that uses the DIN button as an exit condition will exit in each process. I had to make certain that there weren't any conditions in which two or more processes were in states where the Advance button was an exit condition, or each process would advance at the same time - probably not desirable. For instance, my Pre-Heat process uses Advance to stop the RIMS heater and pump for mash in. The Mash process uses Advance to start the sparge after I have set valves. By definition, these two states can't happen at the same time so there is no conflict.

Hope this makes sense to you.

BTW, if you are using firmware 4.0 and have a method of running your BCS without having any live outputs attached it would be possible for you to load a copy of my entire brewery process and see just what I have done. PM me if you are interested.

Thanks! I'm going to be setting mine up similarly!

For future reference, Windows 7 (Vista onwards, actually) has a tool called the Snipping Tool. I believe it's under accessories. You can use it to highlight the part of the screen you want to save as a screenshot.

JoshuaW said:

Thanks! I'm going to be setting mine up similarly!

For future reference, Windows 7 (Vista onwards, actually) has a tool called the Snipping Tool. I believe it's under accessories. You can use it to highlight the part of the screen you want to save as a screenshot.

Click to expand...

Thanks Joshua,

That's what I get for not looking at new features when I upgrade computers.

Chuck