The End of an Era
New Thread is here.
This original thread is 210 pages and with this post, 8,363 posts. The initial post was about how a Homebrewer might reproduce a BrewPi system, which was Open-Source, but for which Elco sold the hardware commercially. Elco no longer sells this version of BrewPi, so the situation has changed.
Elco has taken BrewPi in a new direction with updated and more capable hardware. The original BrewPi (which came to be called “Legacy”) is no longer functional on contemporary hardware/software without substantial work/effort. BrewPi Legacy has been forked, uplifted to current platforms, and enhanced, and this effort is called BrewPi Remix (with Elco’s blessing.) It still runs on an Arduino Uno and is still based on the Raspberry Pi.
The new thread will serve as a “fresh start” in a way to reduce the confusion and lower the barrier to entry for folks just jumping into this fork. The Mega-Thread will always have its place, but now is an archive for the great discussions we have had while still available to be linked, of course, as needed.
The original thread also spawned several other discussions, which should be linked here. These were supplementary to the original BrewPi hardware and, by extension, BrewPi Remix:
- How To: BrewPi LCD Add-On - Started by @day_trippr: We might consider this thread and approach as overcome by events since the BrewPi Remix release. BrewPi Remix supports I2C LCDs on the Arduino Uno as well as the ESP8266. A user may still choose to follow this article; BrewPi still fully supports this approach.
- How To: BrewPi Over Bluetooth – Started by @day_trippr: When day_trippr embarked upon this path, Bluetooth was perhaps the only option available to us for a wireless connection. Now with BrewPi forks (see below) having built-in WiFi available, this may be overcome by events but is still a viable alternative if desired. I have also posted an article consolidating and refining the process.
- Wireless Brewpi Via WiFi – Started by @thekraken: As soon as cheap, plentiful controllers with WiFi became available, this update was inevitable. The linked thread approaches this using an ESP8266 controller as a wireless bridge to the Arduino. New installations may benefit from the pure ESP8266 system documented in the thread from @Thorrak as discussed below.
BrewPi also spawned several other products which are rightfully forks as well, but are substantial products in their own right:
- Fermentrack: Fermentation monitoring & BrewPi-www Replacement for Raspberry Pi – Started by @Thorrak: Fermentrack is an alternative to the legacy BrewPi web interface used in BrewPi Remix. It is a different interface but is compatible with Arduino-based controllers using the legacy BrewPi and BrewPi Remix firmware as well as ESP-based controllers. It adds new features and is a separate project from BrewPi and BrewPi Remix.
- BrewPi@ESP8266, no need of RPI and Arduino (aka BrewPiLess) – Started by @pocketmon: This project is an off-shoot of the ESP8266 firmware, incorporating the web, controller, and scripts into a single controller firmware intended to run on the ESP8266.
- Native Python BrewPi controller (aka Fuscus) – Started by @ame: This project is the opposite of BrewPiLess in some respects, moving the web, controller, and script into a single Python package intended to run on the Raspberry Pi.
- Native ESP8266 BrewPi Firmware - WiFi BrewPi, no Arduino needed! - Started by @Thorrak: The ESP8266 project is a fork of the original BrewPI firmware to run on an ESP8266 instead of an Arduino. It has been additionally uplifted to leverage the ESP8266’s built-in WiFi capabilities. This ESP8266 firmware project fully supports and is supported by the BrewPi Remix web interface.
I did not suggest making this change lightly, and I did not suggest it without consulting several key community members and (obviously) Homebrew Talk staff who have assisted in this transition. Some of you may feel invested in the old thread and may not appreciate this move. To you, I say: I appreciate everyone’s support in helping clean this up for the folks who will need help. We are taking this path for the new folks; I am sure the rest of us can adapt.
New Thread is here.
