Hacking the BCS to add customized web pages - done!

Thanks..Now i need to find time to play with it

Thanks!

Just an update on the direction I'm going with my BCS interface....

I wanted to be able to customize the interface more than I previously had with the web based version and I started thinking about even tieing other aspects into it (BeerSmith recipe loading, process prompts/messages, etc.). I started with a proof-of-concept app running on my laptop to talk to the BCS. Wow, I can poll it and do screen updates in under 500 ms! I've now made a little customization manager that allows all the objects in the current desktop app be moved/resized, fonts changed, colors changed, images added (to the buttons), etc. There is still a bit to do with adding some animated graphics and such, but so far this is shaping up to be a nice interface. My main goal here was to be able to see all processes, states and temperatures on a single screen without having to use drop-downs or menus.

All the customization information is saved in an XML file so I can basically load up the app with different layouts whenever I want.

Thoughts? Ideas? Comments?

Wow! That is pretty sweet interface! Nicely done!

It looks great. How did you do it and can someone without programming knowledge do it?

brentc17 said:

It looks great. How did you do it and can someone without programming knowledge do it?

Click to expand...

I made it with Visual Studio and no, you wouldn't be able to make something like this without a good programming knowledge. However, I have been thinking about making it available as a customizable program that others could use. I currently have it setup to allow changing colors, fonts, sizes & locations of all the objects on the screen and saving the layout. A non-programmer would easily be able to customize it and add graphics for their own system. I'd like to see if there is much interest in a customizable front end like this if I were to make it available (for a nominal charge).

Looks great JonW. Count me in if you decide to make available.

Count me in also. Thanks for sharing


Brent

And, yes, you may count me as well.

I'm in for sure.

Hey I offered to help with that!

I'm of course interested.

JonW said:

I made it with Visual Studio and no, you wouldn't be able to make something like this without a good programming knowledge. However, I have been thinking about making it available as a customizable program that others could use. I currently have it setup to allow changing colors, fonts, sizes & locations of all the objects on the screen and saving the layout. A non-programmer would easily be able to customize it and add graphics for their own system. I'd like to see if there is much interest in a customizable front end like this if I were to make it available (for a nominal charge).

Click to expand...

In for a penny, in for a pound! Me too!

I would be very interested in a custom front end.

Ditto even.

would love to contribute to this! Truly great work here Jon. I am ordering a BCS right now for my build with the idea of using this interface.

Things are moving good on this. Still adding more features. I've been trying to find a nice instrumentation package to spruce up the gauges, but they're all $500-$1000! At this point I'll probably just go with LED style displays.

Im in.

You had me at "hacking". In.

JonW said:

I made it with Visual Studio and no, you wouldn't be able to make something like this without a good programming knowledge. However, I have been thinking about making it available as a customizable program that others could use. I currently have it setup to allow changing colors, fonts, sizes & locations of all the objects on the screen and saving the layout. A non-programmer would easily be able to customize it and add graphics for their own system. I'd like to see if there is much interest in a customizable front end like this if I were to make it available (for a nominal charge).

Click to expand...

In as well.

I'm in. Great stuff, Jon. I'm in the process of building my single-tier system and I'm borrowing liberally from your 3-pump design. Thank you!

Are you going to share the interface? How difficult was it to make?

trip2hard said:

Are you going to share the interface? How difficult was it to make?

Click to expand...

Yes, it will be coming out, but I've not been able to work on it much lately. I have 2 other people doing additional testing on their systems and I'll be doing some more changes based on feedback.

As far as difficulty, well I guess that depends on your coding skills. It's not a simple app at all.

This could make you a very rich man. I'd be interested. Smart and rich a good combination.

What solenoid valves did you settle on, how much and from where?
I'd sure appreciate it as starting my beautiful build and could save copious hours of searching testing growling!
Thanks, Jim

Did you ever finish this project?

That is awesome. I can't wait to start playing with stuff I actually know about.

Looks great, I can't wait to read up n it.

The interface is being used by several people right now. It still needs more work before it's ready for public consumption.

JonW - thanks for really thinking out of the box your an inspiration.

Will the new hmi show when you share your brew day through the bcs?

JonW said:

The interface is being used by several people right now. It still needs more work before it's ready for public consumption.

Click to expand...

What ever came of this JonW? You were really on to something...

cyberbackpacker said:

What ever came of this JonW? You were really on to something...

Click to expand...

Couple of things happened with this.... Mainly, the basic layout has been incorporated into the BCS as the new 4.0 interface. The BCS is now much faster, responsive and easier to use with this interface. You can see some early screen shots here: http://forum.embeddedcc.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2365 . Pretty easy to see the resemblance. I've been running alpha releases since early this year on my system.

I'm getting ready to update those screen shots as there will probably be a public release of the new version in the next week or so.

The other thing that happened was that the 4.0 version has added a completely new API. I'll need to rewrite all the comm routines to use this. However, I'm going to wait on that until the design of the new BCS custom HMI is finished. (The first release of the new 4.0 version will not include a custom HMI feature.) Since the new web interface is so responsive, I may drop this project altogether if the new HMI gets me where I want to be.

Thanks for the update... Very interesting. I'll try to more closely monitor the ECC board for the 4.0 release.

Looking forward to the new software. 4.0 looks like a major improvement to the BCS. Great job


MaxOut Brewstat

Any news on new release? gearing up to brew full steam and would like to start up on new system, tweaking my processes now.


MaxOut Brewstat

Resurrecting an old thread here!

I previously shelved this project when the new BCS roadmap was set to incorporate my basic app layout into the BCS as the new default UI. However, I've now decided that I will still continue development of this interface and will be adding many new features to it. I have just recently switched it to use the new BCS 4.0 API, so all the basic functionality is there and available to use right away. The future 1.0.0 release will have most of the new features in it, but I may add some tweaks to this pre-release version if there is a consistent issue that multiple people are dealing with.

I would like to keep all feature requests and support over on the ECC/BCS forum, so please use that location. Basic comments here are fine though.

You can download the app from here:
http://forum.embeddedcc.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2720

Bumping this up for those that were interested in getting a copy of the program.
It is available for download at the BCS / ECC forum.

FYI - The current version of BCS-Desktop is now running on both Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu Linux. Mac OSX will be tested soon. I hope to release this version in the next week or two to support these additional platforms. After that, the next major release will be the multi-unit (multi-BCS) version that will also support more customization options.

New version released with a dedicated thread in the automated brewing forum: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=550468

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