BrewPi@ESP8266, no need of RPI and Arduino.

[DuncB]

@ShaneB
This post has link to @day_trippr copy of the raspberry pints webpage and install guide.
Post in thread '[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution' [Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

 

[day_trippr]

Note, however, that that is an archive of the original RaspberryPints support page, and iirc the application will not work on any Raspberry Pi OS newer than Stretch...which is a few versions ago and not so easily resourced now.

The current forked version developed by HBT member @RandR+ has taken over the original R'Pints thread and if one works back from the tail pointers to the installation script can be found...

Cheers!

 

[DuncB]

Note, however, that that is an archive of the original RaspberryPints support page, and iirc the application will not work on any Raspberry Pi OS newer than Stretch...which is a few versions ago and not so easily resourced now.

The current forked version developed by HBT member @RandR+ has taken over the original R'Pints thread and if one works back from the tail pointers to the installation script can be found...

Cheers!

Just found that it was the original.
The raspberry pints webpage that now doesn't work was idiot ( or me) proof.

 

[day_trippr]

Truth be told my keezer still sports the original version, while I'm slowly getting around to tailoring the newest version to get it close to what I have now...

Cheers!

 

[DuncB]

Truth be told my keezer still sports the original version, while I'm slowly getting around to tailoring the newest version to get it close to what I have now...

Cheers!

Yes been watching your tribulations.
I've got a couple of flow meters now so next steps are headache laden I expect.

 

[day_trippr]

To be clear, once we got some bugs out of the way I've been keeping one of test beds running continuously for stability testing and haven't had any crash or even application halt in over a month. What's slowing adoption is - just as I did with the classic version - going through the fonts and changing literally all of them and likely going through the main html to add a class or two as well. I'm easily distracted to play with things that don't require much mental effort these days

Cheers!

 

[DuncB]

Good to know, going through the main html would take a lot of learning and mental effort for me I reckon. But we all have our skills and I know you are standing by.

 

[rkhanso]

I bought some of the PCBs at PCB Way and am wondering if it's better practice to put Female pin headers on the PCB or Male pin headers.
Arduino has female, Raspberry Pi has male.

Male is what I see on the example on PCB Way's website, but wondering if it's better for female since there might be less chance of shorting the pins together.

https://www.pcbway.com/project/shareproject/BrewPiLess_ESP32_Rev_00.html

 

[Thorrak]

I mean… you’re going to be soldering both, so you have the same risk either way. I prefer male pins on the controller as it makes it easier to plug directly into a breadboard, but I think you’re welcome to use whatever you prefer.

 

[rkhanso]

I flashed a different ESP32 (of the same type) and it worked OK. Device Manager said it was on COM2 and I used that when building and uploading to the ESP32. No trouble.
I connected that other ESP that I was having trouble with to the same cable, same port in the hub and this ESP shows up as COM11 instead of 2. Shouldn't the COM port be the same as the ESP that was just flashed?

Edit - Got the "bad" ESP32 working. I manually changed the COM port in Windows Device Manager to COM1 first, then changed VSCode to reflect the same COM port in the PlatformIO config and it worked that time.

 

[rkhanso]

If your ESP8266 has the ip 192.168.1.152, browse to
http://192.168.1.152/testcmd.htm


Enter the following string, and "send". Then you have it.

j{"tempFormat":"F"}

Every time I lose power, this returns back to Celsius.
Is there a way to have this saved to stay on Fahrenheit after a reboot or power loss?

 

[pocketmon]

Every time I lose power, this returns back to Celsius.
Is there a way to have this saved to stay on Fahrenheit after a reboot or power loss?

The setting was not saved correctly.
Try formatting the file system by visiting
http://[address of your controller]:8008/format-spiffs

 

[rkhanso]

Thanks @pocketmon - that worked perfect.

I noticed that the temperature graph for one of my Dallas sensors appears to have a different behavior than the others. It's like it doesn't have as fine a granularity of precision. Notice how the gray line is flat for longer periods, while the blue and green temperatures are more analog looking. It's gotta be the sensor, right?

 

[pocketmon]

Thanks @pocketmon - that worked perfect.

I noticed that the temperature graph for one of my Dallas sensors appears to have a different behavior than the others. It's like it doesn't have as fine a granularity of precision. Notice how the gray line is flat for longer periods, while the blue and green temperatures are more analog looking. It's gotta be the sensor, right?


View attachment 820182

As far as I could remember, only fridge and beer temperature readings are filtered. The gray line is room temperature, which is not filtered.

 

[rkhanso]

I've been able to adjust the calibration / offset for only one Dallas sensor on the Device Page, but trying to later go in and change another sensor offset isn't sticking. It always goes back to 0 after refreshing the web page. Do I need to erase it all and set them up again but adjust all offsets the first time since it doesn't seem to be changeable after that?


EDIT -
This started working OK after a while (and futzing with the dallas wiring)

 

[rkhanso]

Would it be possible (or difficult to add) flow-meter capability to BrewPiLess? There's enough input/outputs. I'm not a programmer and wouldn't be able to do it myself.

I'd like to be able to take the pulses from a flow meter and calibrate to beer flow volume. Then subtract that from a starting value to calculate the remaining beer in the keg (like Keg Cop does).

One other thing I'd like to add is a temp control for a tower fan. I have a temp probe stuck up in the tower and I'd like to be able to have BPL be able to control the relay it's connected to similar to the compressor - have a set temp and turn on/off based on the temp reading. An alternative I suppose would be to just get a quieter tower fan and have it run all the time.

Or can BPL do all this already? I see on the Device configuration page other functions (doors, lights, fans, capper, humidifier, etc), but don't elsewhere in the GUI how to control those devices.

 

[waynerob11]

What bin file can I use with a ESP8266 or an ESP32, to run BrewpiLess, with glycol cooling , wire heating and fermenting under pressure

 

[DuncB]

What bin file can I use with a ESP8266 or an ESP32, to run BrewpiLess, with glycol cooling , wire heating and fermenting under pressure

I use my brewpiless with fridge for cooling and heating belt.
Measuring pressure I'm able to do.
The auto spunding is a work in progress, some appear to have managed it on the Reddit.
Issue is the solenoid control to release pressure.
But I've worked out a solution just waiting for a different auto valve to arrive from AliExpress then I'm confident that I will be able to use brewpiless for temp control and auto spunding without solenoids overheating etc.
The latest brewpiless bin has the code for it it's the hardware that's tricky.

 

[pocketmon]

What bin file can I use with a ESP8266 or an ESP32, to run BrewpiLess, with glycol cooling , wire heating and fermenting under pressure

Before 4.2.1, glycol cooling is supported by default. You just need to "unplug" fridge sensor and adjust the minimum cooling/idel time.
After 4.2.2, there is a dedicated version for glycol, like
https://github.com/vitotai/BrewPiLess/releases/download/4.3/BrewPiLess.v4.3.glycol.bin
There is no binary of ESP32 that supports glycol cooling. It can be created easily by editing the platformio.ini.

 

[waynerob11]

Thanks for that - what if I were to replace the two buttons with a PCF8754 and Rotary Encoder - would I have to amend the config.h file or is there a bin file that covers it.
So, my desired setup is ESP8266, ILI9341 LCD, and Rotary Encoder - I have downloaded BrewPiLess-master.zip and have Visual Studio.
Fermenter cooling is relay controlled.
Fermenter Heating is relay controlled.
Pressure is relay controlled.

 

[pocketmon]

Thanks for that - what if I were to replace the two buttons with a PCF8754 and Rotary Encoder - would I have to amend the config.h file or is there a bin file that covers it.
So, my desired setup is ESP8266, ILI9341 LCD, and Rotary Encoder - I have downloaded BrewPiLess-master.zip and have Visual Studio.
Fermenter cooling is relay controlled.
Fermenter Heating is relay controlled.
Pressure is relay controlled.

I would suggest ESP32 instead. I don't have a setup with PCF8754 for now, so it might not work as expected.
I've switched to ESP32 for about one year. ESP32 used to be less stable than ESP8266, in my opinion. However, it seems to work better, at least as good as ESP8266, after upgrading to latest framework recently.

 

[DuncB]

@waynerob11
How do you intend to contol the pressure / autospund?

@pocketmon
Is there a binary for ESP 32 for fridge, heater, pressure / autospund .

My esp8266 died so needs replacement and it did seem to struggle with the above requirements. Seemed fine for just temp control.
In fact it was perfect for my requirements. Thank you.

 

[pocketmon]

@waynerob11
How do you intend to contol the pressure / autospund?

@pocketmon
Is there a binary for ESP 32 for fridge, heater, pressure / autospund .

My esp8266 died so needs replacement and it did seem to struggle with the above requirements. Seemed fine for just temp control.
In fact it was perfect for my requirements. Thank you.

Yes. Those are supported by default.

 

[waynerob11]

Yes. Those are supported by default.

Pressure is monitored by a pressure transducer on GPIO 3 which activates a solenoid valve with a small hole to release pressure slowly. I also want to replace the two buttons with a Rotary Encoder via a PCF8754 expander

 

[pocketmon]

Pressure is monitored by a pressure transducer on GPIO 3 which activates a solenoid valve with a small hole to release pressure slowly. I also want to replace the two buttons with a Rotary Encoder via a PCF8754 expander

On ESP32, it's pin 36.

 

[DuncB]

Pressure is monitored by a pressure transducer on GPIO 3 which activates a solenoid valve with a small hole to release pressure slowly. I also want to replace the two buttons with a Rotary Encoder via a PCF8754 expander

Monitoring pressure straightforward difficulties are the control process hardware limits.
Trouble I found was you either have a normally closed solenoid which you need to keep open all the time at the beginning of the ferment. Or normally open which you need to keep shut at the end of ferment and intermittently open.
The solenoid likely to overheat and fail unless you fit flyback diode and resistor to reduce the power to the solenoid.
I couldn't get this method to work efficiently enough to reduce the heat and load.
I have worked out a way that should work to avoid this issue but haven't been able to build and test it yet.
Interested to hear how you've done it or different components.

 

[waynerob11]

Monitoring pressure straightforward difficulties are the control process hardware limits.
Trouble I found was you either have a normally closed solenoid which you need to keep open all the time at the beginning of the ferment. Or normally open which you need to keep shut at the end of ferment and intermittently open.
The solenoid likely to overheat and fail unless you fit flyback diode and resistor to reduce the power to the solenoid.
I couldn't get this method to work efficiently enough to reduce the heat and load.
I have worked out a way that should work to avoid this issue but haven't been able to build and test it yet.
Interested to hear how you've done it or different components.

my system is to keep it closed until pressure hits desired level and then activate - I not sure why it would overheat - they are rated for continuous use, and it is electrically isolated from the ESP

 

[DuncB]

my system is to keep it closed until pressure hits desired level and then activate - I not sure why it would overheat - they are rated for continuous use, and it is electrically isolated from the ESP

Which solenoid is it please?

 

[rkhanso]

Is there a way to get BrewPiLess-32 to retain a wider time range of data on the temperature/control graph page? It seems to want to reset at random times. Or maybe it's not random and I just don't see the pattern. Maybe it rests after every page load or refresh?
I'm using version 4.2.

 

[DuncB]

Yes I think you set up logging in the logs menu.

I think it will do it remotely as well.
Certainly can send to brewfather as well.
The graph page keeps the data since you last refreshed that page or changed to another menu option. So each time you go back to graph it starts a new data display.
Let us know how it goes.

 

[DuncB]

@waynerob11
Still wondering which solenoid you have that's good for continuous?

 

[waynerob11]

This is the valve I use - draws no current when closed and is only opened briefly to reduce pressure - had no problems so far

 

[DuncB]

Thank you @waynerob11
So you aren't using this from the beginning of fermentation? Just using at the pressure build and overpressure prevention near the end of fermentation.
I'm planning to use mine from the start of ferment so it would need to be open and hence powered to release the gas. Then trigger it to close at a certain gravity from the ispindel and then intermittent open and close. Mine certainly gets warm during testing and quite a few mentions of this as an issue on the github correspondence.

 

[pocketmon]

I bought this on Aliexpresscapacitive touch), to run BrewPiLess on it.
https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005005138982767.html
It's a pity that only three free pins available, while one of it is input-only and good for pressure transducer.
Connected temperature sensors work, and the actuator control pin controls LED as expected.

The main display can be customized so that only values you need will show in the sizes you like.
There are still works to be done, but it's promising.

I would like to gather options before making it public.

 

[DuncB]

@pocketmon
That looks very good already.

 

[waynerob11]

looks very promising - hopefully one for each fermenter - Fermwatch was very good but it only does one fermenter

 

[DuncB]

Would be ideal if it could cycle ispindel temp displays from multiple Ispindels even if only controlling via ispindel / temp sensor for one brew. Lovely big display though.

 

[korev]

looks very promising - hopefully one for each fermenter - Fermwatch was very good but it only does one fermenter

Now that I have made the Tappo, I think there are possibilities to display more than one fermenting batch... which could mean multiple iSpindels

 

[DuncB]

Now that I have made the Tappo, I think there are possibilities to display more than one fermenting batch... which could mean multiple iSpindels

What's the Tappo?

 

[day_trippr]

What's the Tappo?

Why, it's "a Tap List using the Brewfather API and a cyd", of course!

Cheers!