Hmm...this thread popped up in the "New" pile right after I downloaded the Arduino software package to check it out. The Arduino board and software look simple enough, and I'm excited to order one and try it! After reading about brewman's success with steam injected mashing, I may switch gears to a similar system. I really like the idea of less moving parts, and electric elements are easier (and safer) to control via automation. If I'm ambitious, I'll re-teach myself Java and create a brewing app to interface with an Arduino board, some thermistors, and a few relays. Otherwise, I think I could flash a simple temperature control program onto the board itself. If I'm being really lazy, I might start with an ugly VBA driven piece of garbage from within Access or Excel (MSCOMM32 might work in that case).
Anyway, the Arduino board solves a lot of the microcontroller headaches that I would've run into with a breadboard and individual components. Thanks for the UberGeek oriented thread(s), and good luck to all with similar projects in mind!
The Java part is easy. Download the Eclipse IDE and install the Visual Editor package. (www.eclipse.org) Its actually more work to to the downloading and installing than it is to write code with it.
With VE installed, you build the user interface by dragging and dropping components like buttons and text boxes. Then you fill in code behind the controls to make them do things. Its pretty straight forward.
Using libusbJava is a little more involved, but I've got the kinks worked out of that.
The Java part is easy. Download the Eclipse IDE and install the Visual Editor package. (www.eclipse.org) Its actually more work to to the downloading and installing than it is to write code with it.
With VE installed, you build the user interface by dragging and dropping components like buttons and text boxes. Then you fill in code behind the controls to make them do things. Its pretty straight forward.
Using libusbJava is a little more involved, but I've got the kinks worked out of that.
yeah the USB aurdino is nice but the New Bluetooth Aurdino is Awesome!!!
As for interfacing to it, you are basicly just talking to the chip via rs-232 serial. THere are accually different versions of the Aurdino that connect up via serial, usb, and bluetooth, but ultimatly you are just making the pc see another serial port.
I too plan to be building a mashing system as well, I've just been waiting for some $$ to free up. Though i really need to buy a couple other items before i start this project..
We should really startup a project like on source forge and pool our talents on this project. Just an idea.
$139 for the BlueTooth version ! For $100 over the USB version, I can use a USB cable.
The other issue is the PC side of things, finding a Java/Windows library for BlueTooth. Linux has about a dozen various BlueTooth libraries. None of them are for Java, but that could be rectified with the JNI interface.
But between the $139 for the card and the fact that I have one and the lack of a Java library for Win/Linux and Bluetooth, I think I will pass on the Bluetooth part.
The reason I chose Java and libusbJava is that the PC can be Mac, Windows, Linux or even BSD. Nothing like having a server grade computer running your brewstand.
I'd love to have a 20 inch touchscreen mounted right on my brewstand.
I had gotten a book called "Linux Toys" for christmas and it had a project using 1 wire probes for temp and humidity recording... I have been on and off trying to think how to liquid proof the sensor so I can monitor my temps.. I may have to get on the ball to get ahead of some of you guys.. dangit!!
The Java part is easy. Download the Eclipse IDE and install the Visual Editor package. (www.eclipse.org) Its actually more work to to the downloading and installing than it is to write code with it.
Going straight to the source (Sun) proved to be a great solution, also. I downloaded the latest JDK and NetBeans IDE from http://java.sun.com last night before I read this post, and it's one of the nicest programming editors/GUI builders I've worked with. I might check out Eclipse's offering as well. The Java language concepts are coming back to me faster than I expected. I think I may have a shell of an application up and running pretty quickly (GUI and all monitoring/control logic with placeholder classes/methods for the serial/USB interface until I can get a hold of an Arduino board).
As far as the Blue Tooth option, for me, it's a waste of money at the moment. I don't have any Blue Tooth devices right now anyway, and I really can't justify the price.
You guys really have the gears turning in my brain right now, though. I'm thinking that with a couple of actuated valves and flow meters (expensive?), I could completely automate fly sparging as well.
most of what you guys said flies right by me. But couldn't you use a coffee maker element to heat the sparge water as it flows/trickles through the sparge arm
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most of what you guys said flies right by me. But couldn't you use a coffee maker element to heat the sparge water as it flows/trickles through the sparge arm
I suppose you could, but having a heated HLT sort of eliminates the need for that. For 10-15 gallons of sparge water, I think a small element like that would be highly inefficient. I'm not completely poo-pooing your idea, though, as I could see it having some value, especially in a mini-mash system.
The coffee maker element idea is not a bad one but you would need 3,000-4,000 watts to be able to do a 30 minute sparge with 5 gallons, coffee makers are 800-1000 watts typically. You could put a gas burner under a coil of tubing but that would be a manual control only setup. The upside of the gas burner tubing setup would be the ability to heat water on demand to strike and sparge temps but it would require a way of pushing the water through the tubing, pressurized cornies or pump from container.
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