Have you considered one of the small scale plc products sold on Ebay that would accept industry standard temperature sensors and provide digital and or analog outputs for control
Nah, that would take all the fun out of it... I like tinkering, and I have nearly everything I need to make it, with the exception of the loads (elements, pumps...etc)... Not to mention I can adapt it anyway I need.
Besides, I could also just go to the store and buy a 6-pack of beer instead of brewing, but I choose to brew..
I have my degree in Computer Science, and I'm a self-taught DIY guy, so I can build stuff, and I can program stuff, but I'm almost helpless when it comes to interfacing the stuff I build with the stuff I program...which is where you apparently shine!
I was thinking of making a mash monitor of sorts out of a Ranco controller and a furnace valve to turn the burner on and off under my HERMS HLT in order to keep the heat exchanger at a constant temperature (and/or raise the temperature in the case of step mashing).
Yuri
Look for one of the electric gas burner ignition modules that both ignite and test for flame presence, and control a solenoid valve, this way you wont find out what happens when the gas flows through the burner without igniting. Furnace control valves are not designed for anything other than low pressure propane (11"WC) or natural gas use, which leaves out most of the popular (cheap) high pressure propane burners. There are a few high pressure safety shutoff valves made but are usually spendy, mostly used on space heaters. If one is patient you can find the ignition modules, 24V transformers, solenoid valves, and ignition components on Ebay at reasonable cost. As to safety, GFCI for line voltage connection, test all the piping joints for leaks with a soap solution, ignition testing with out gas to confirm module provides spark and locks out fuel valve after time delay, and finally with fuel (preferably outdoors) to confirm burner ignition and flame sensing.
Yuri
Look for one of the electric gas burner ignition modules that both ignite and test for flame presence, and control a solenoid valve, this way you wont find out what happens when the gas flows through the burner without igniting. Furnace control valves are not designed for anything other than low pressure propane (11"WC) or natural gas use, which leaves out most of the popular (cheap) high pressure propane burners. There are a few high pressure safety shutoff valves made but are usually spendy, mostly used on space heaters. If one is patient you can find the ignition modules, 24V transformers, solenoid valves, and ignition components on Ebay at reasonable cost. As to safety, GFCI for line voltage connection, test all the piping joints for leaks with a soap solution, ignition testing with out gas to confirm module provides spark and locks out fuel valve after time delay, and finally with fuel (preferably outdoors) to confirm burner ignition and flame sensing.
Thanks for the tip - I hadn't seen anything like that, but it sounds very useful. I'm using natural gas (see the Mega Burner link in my signature) which is why I chose the furnace valve. I may still use the furnace valve since I already have it along with a 24V power supply. Of course, safety is of the utmost concern, so I will certainly be sure of a leak free system with a safety shutoff in the event of no flame. Thanks again, though - the components in what you describe sound like the ticket to making a pretty foolproof system!
"I used Borland C++ Builder to create the app, and just use normal rs-232 serial to communicate with the board, although I'm kinda reading up on USB stuff, that way I could power the board through USB instead of an external power source.. "
I'm doing the same thing. I got USB working today as a matter of fact. I used libusb which will compile and run under C++ Builder. I love C++ Builder, but it doesn't run under Linux, which my projects have to. So I am using Eclipse and Java, which runs on anything. I know about Kylix, but its buggy and unsupported.
I have my degree in Computer Science, and I'm a self-taught DIY guy, so I can build stuff, and I can program stuff, but I'm almost helpless when it comes to interfacing the stuff I build with the stuff I program...which is where you apparently shine!
I'm an EE by degree, but fell more into the embedded software (automotive) side of things... I really love the idea of controlling 'real stuff' with software/hardware...
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Could you do something similar to this for a temp probe
It could easily be adapted to that, and just slow down the sampling rate to once every 15 minutes or so... I've never considered monitoring temps for fermentation yet.. All I do is ales so far, and the room I keep them in is generally 65-70 and I've had no problems so...
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I'm doing the same thing. I got USB working today as a matter of fact. I used libusb which will compile and run under C++ Builder. I love C++ Builder, but it doesn't run under Linux, which my projects have to. So I am using Eclipse and Java, which runs on anything. I know about Kylix, but its buggy and unsupported.
Very nice... I'm not much of a PC programmer. I can generally get things to work, but no doubt anyone who does it regularly would laugh at my code, but C++ Builder makes things pretty easy.. Thanks for the tip for libusb.. Unfortunately I haven't had too much time to work on this lately, but I wanna get back into it within the next week or so...
That Ardriuno board looks pretty nice, and it's pretty cheap, especially for what it does... For small projects at home, I pretty much stick with the (PIC microcontrollers , which are fairly simple to use, also pretty powerful for the price, and have a fairly wide variety...
The next step is to build something similar to this:
The idea is to enter in a volume and a temperature (e.g. 3.75 gal at 130*F) and it will fill with the appropriate amount of water, and heat to 130... Then set an alarm, or maybe have it drain directly into the mashing cooler, although I'd need to work on a way to automatically stir for that..........
Linear Mode
