Loaded up BruControl this last weekend, played with it for a couple hours, and was able to actually get a brew in on it the same day. Seemed stable, and did everything I needed it to do for now, and seems like it will be able to grow to whatever functions I could possibly need. I did have a couple issues though.
For starters, what is everyone using for their PID settings in their RIMS tubes? Is there an autotune function to get to the right ballpark? I went all over the place, and finally settled on P:1.75 I:.15 D:1 for it, and it worked good for most of the brew, but the slightest change in valve position, and it would start to oscillate further and further away from the set point, up to +/- 5 degrees. Most of the brew it was within a half degree though, so it has to be close. I am using a 5500 watt element at 120, so only 1375 watts, in a Stout RIMS tube. I know 5500 watts is a lot of power in that small of a space, but I was previously able to run the tube on both low and high power with my Auber PID and it kept it in check pretty well.
Also, how is everyone handling enabling and disabling their elements when the interface is locked. First I tried adding a switch, but I found no way to tie that directly to the element in question. Then, I built a simple script that monitors that switch, and if the switch is enabled/disabled, it then changes the output to the same status.
Code:
[elements]
//Check HLT switch status, turn element on or off
if "HLT" state == on
"HLT Element" enabled == on
endif
if "HLT" state == off
"HLT Element" enabled == off
endif
// Check RIMS switch status, turn element on or off
if "Rims" state == on
"Rims Element" enabled == on
endif
if "Rims" state == off
"Rims Element" enabled == off
endif
//Check Boil switch status, turn element on or off
if "Boil" state == on
"Boil Element" enabled == on
endif
if "Boil" state == off
"Boil Element" enabled == off
endif
//Repeat ad nauseum
sleep 1000
goto elements
This seemed to work good for making the switch control the outputs, however whenever the script would run, my graphs stop working. It seemed to be a product of the sleep statement. If I increased the sleep time to 10 seconds, graphs continued to work fine, but I really don't want a 10 second delay between telling it to turn off, and it actually turning off. Bad things could happen in that long of a time period.
Finally, in my panel the last device power runs through before going to the element, is a large 30 amp contactor powered by a switch on the front of my panel. Because the script switch wasn't working well, I was using the physical switch to enable/disable it. Frequently when throwing that switch, it would cause some sort of EMF or something, and the temp probes (PT100) would drop connection for a second. It then comes back, and all is well, but the -1700 some degrees really throws off my graph for the 10 minutes it takes to scroll off. Any suggestions to keep this from happening? I set the floor of the temp probes to 50 degrees, and that helped make the graph not so drastic, but that's just a band aid, and I would like to fix the root cause.
Also,
@BrunDog, these are the Wemos D1 Lite I inquired about possibly working with your 8266 firmware. They are supposed to be the same thing, only missing the flash storage. Thanks.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BK435ZW/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20