HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

[wbarber69]

Go to BestBuy, get the Motorola modem wifi combo, dump your providers hardware and use your own. also I think something else came along with recent upgrades other than the python serial problem. my octopi system has started to intermittently disconnect from wifi if it sees no activity for a few days kinda like you guys are seeing. my most recent apt-get upgrade has seemingly suppressed this though only time will tell.

 

[roth140]

Just wondering if there have been updates to the public brewpi page instructions. I have created a beer.php and PublicBeerPanel.php. when I go to the beer.php page it looks like it tries to load brewpi with the maintenance panel missing so thats good. The lcd and graph dont quite get going all the way. The lcd says Live LCD waiting for update from script. The graph never loads. Thoughts?

edit: read https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=6594822&postcount=2683 all fixed and working

http://scottbrewing.ddns.net

 

[KLucky_13]

Did someone already succeeded in implementing some kind of "bubble counter" to the brewpi? So it logs the activity of the airlock during fermentation. This gives a good indication of how the fermentation is coming to an end.

 

[nsap]

Hi all,
Trying to set up an installation of brewpi with an old arduino and brewpi. I read about how I have to use the legacy branch so I installed it from a fresh in stall of Debian Wheezy. I did so by following the current instructions posted on HomebrewTalk

> I started with a fresh installation of raspbian weezy, and followed these instructions
> http://docs.brewpi.com/manual-brewpi...i-install.html

> At section 4. "Using Git for BrewPi", after running
> "sudo apt-get install git-core"

> I entered
> "sudo -u brewpi git clone -b legacy https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-script /home/brewpi"

> Then

> "sudo rm /var/www/*"

> and finally

> "sudo -u www-data git clone -b legacy https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-www /var/www"

> to install the legacy version of BrewPi

> afterwards, it was necessary to run the command
> "sudo /home/brewpi/utils/fixPermissions.sh"
> to fix the permissions of the /var/www folder to allow the flashing of the arduino.

So after doing that the script is running and everything seems alright except when I try and flash my arduino I run into errors. First there was an issue opening serial communications/finding a device so I modifed config.cfg as such

> port = /dev/TTYUSB0
> altport = /dev/TTYUSB1

The script now can open serial communications. Now I'm trying to flash the Arduino. It's a knockoff Uno so I chose Uno as the device, found the newest .hex, and chose do not restore. When I try and flash I get the following error in the output window on the web interface.

Additionally, on the Pi itself the following error shows up in the Terminal.

> File “brewpi.py”, line 636, in <module>
> bg_ser.stop()
> AttributeError: ‘NoneType” object has no attribute ‘stop'

I'm totally lost. Any help explanation as to what is going wrong and how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Really want to brew some beer.

Thanks all,

 

[CGish]

Did someone already succeeded in implementing some kind of "bubble counter" to the brewpi? So it logs the activity of the airlock during fermentation. This gives a good indication of how the fermentation is coming to an end.

Not to downplay this idea, but why would you need it when you have the temperature chart? I find the temperature chart far more accurate than the airlock activity.

 

[wbarber69]

not to downplay this idea, but why would you need it when you have the temperature chart? I find the temperature chart far more accurate than an the airlock activity.

+1

 

[wbarber69]

Hi all,

Trying to set up an installation of brewpi with an old arduino and brewpi. I read about how I have to use the legacy branch so I installed it from a fresh in stall of Debian Wheezy. I did so by following the current instructions posted on HomebrewTalk







So after doing that the script is running and everything seems alright except when I try and flash my arduino I run into errors. First there was an issue opening serial communications/finding a device so I modifed config.cfg as such





The script now can open serial communications. Now I'm trying to flash the Arduino. It's a knockoff Uno so I chose Uno as the device, found the newest .hex, and chose do not restore. When I try and flash I get the following error in the output window on the web interface.

Additionally, on the Pi itself the following error shows up in the Terminal.



I'm totally lost. Any help explanation as to what is going wrong and how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. Really want to brew some beer.



Thanks all,

Did u try running the fix permissions script

 

[GrogNerd]

I admit I'm dense

I don't see how a temperature graph, locked in at whatever° bouncing around ±.1° can tell you anything about how far along your fermentation is

looking at the State bars at the bottom I noticed it wasn't cooling as much, even started heating & by that, guessed the fermentation wasn't generating heat as much. figured that was a sign fermentation was slowing

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I admit I'm dense

I don't see how a temperature graph, locked in at whatever° bouncing around ±.1° can tell you anything about how far along your fermentation is

looking at the State bars at the bottom I noticed it wasn't cooling as much, even started heating & by that, guessed the fermentation wasn't generating heat as much. figured that was a sign fermentation was slowing

Yes that. Its pretty easy to see once you do it a few times. My chamber goes from turning on every 30 minutes to turning on every 3 hours.

 

[CGish]

I admit I'm dense

I don't see how a temperature graph, locked in at whatever° bouncing around ±.1° can tell you anything about how far along your fermentation is

looking at the State bars at the bottom I noticed it wasn't cooling as much, even started heating & by that, guessed the fermentation wasn't generating heat as much. figured that was a sign fermentation was slowing

Yes that. Its pretty easy to see once you do it a few times. My chamber goes from turning on every 30 minutes to turning on every 3 hours.

+1 ^

For me, there is 12 to 48 hours where the chamber temp floats right at or just a little under the fermentor temp. This is the lag or reproduction phase. Somewhere between the end of day one and the end of day three, depending on the yeast, the brewpi begins to drive the chamber temp down in order to maintain the fermentor temp. When the chamber temp rises and stabilizes a degree or two under your fermentor temp - sometime between days 5 and 10 - fermentation is finished and the yeast are in cleanup and go to sleep mode. After two to three days of stable chamber temps, I go ahead and cold crash. Total fermentation on a sub 1.060 beer is almost always 10 days. Add a four day cold crash and you can keg at the two week mark.

Higher gravities, specialty sugars, and yeast strain can all change the fermentation time, but the temperature progression is always the same.

Yeast activity = heat, so lack of heat = finished fermentation.

With the BrewPi chart, we are watching the inverse. We are monitoring the temp of the chamber as the indicator of fermentation.

I should note that this is my experience on ales, I have not done a lager yet.

 

[roth140]

If you are having problems flashing, go to a windows machine and get xloader. Use that to flash the .hex file.

Also, in the arduino IDE, go to examples and load the blink sketch to make sure the arduino is working. After that you can do the clear eeprom sketch.

Once the hex is flashed go back to the Pi and plug the arduino in. Open brewpi and go to the devices. Check the box and go. You should be back on track.

 

[darrinvw02]

if you are having problems flashing, go to a windows machine and get xloader. Use that to flash the .hex file.

Also, in the arduino ide, go to examples and load the blink sketch to make sure the arduino is working. After that you can do the clear eeprom sketch.

Once the hex is flashed go back to the pi and plug the arduino in. Open brewpi and go to the devices. Check the box and go. You should be back on track.

+1

 

[Wolfpack87]

I work as a lab rat in a brewery in the north of England (UK). Our team has constructed a micro-brewery in the back of our lab, as an educational tool only, you understand ;-).

I have suggested using the Brewpi software to better control our sluggish fermentations. We don’t have a lot of money to throw at this, so buying a Brewpi spark is not possible. The homemade Arduino setup looks perfect. Using the guide on this thread, a budget of £30/40 and a computer appropriated from somewhere in the brewery we should be able to get the job done.

So before I buy all the kit, I wanted to check that the guide in the first post is still up-to-date or hasn’t been superseaded by a different Arduino hardware configuration? (As I read the guide in the first post, could no longer be edited.) Also is it still compatible with a supported version of the brewpi software? And really, is there any important info that has cropped up through the intervening 400 pages of posts I should be aware of?

Thanks in advance

Thanks for the help thus far.

I've run into a few problems during the software installation on Debian.

I originally couldn't get into the web server, but found the solution here - https://community.brewpi.com/t/solved-brewpi-on-debian-jessie-cant-access-web-interface/478

I am now stuck on the "Setting up users and permissions" section of the manual install.

The command:

"sudo chown -R brewpi:brewpi /home/brewpi"

returns the error

"chown: cannot access ‘/home/brewpi’: No such file or directory"


Thanks in advance

 

[day_trippr]

I'm going to guess you didn't actually execute the following git command from step 4.2.1 of the installation procedure

$ sudo -u brewpi git clone https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-script /home/brewpi

Cheers!

 

[Wolfpack87]

I'm going to guess you didn't actually execute the following git command from step 4.2.1 of the installation procedure

$ sudo -u brewpi git clone https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-script /home/brewpi

Cheers!

Thanks for the reply.

I hadn't got as far as that yet

$ sudo -u brewpi git clone https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-script /home/brewpi

is the next section.

When I try it I get

"fatal: could not create work tree dir '/home/brewpi'.: Permission denied"

 

[mattrox]

Thanks for the reply.

I hadn't got as far as that yet

$ sudo -u brewpi git clone https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-script /home/brewpi

is the next section.

When I try it I get

"fatal: could not create work tree dir '/home/brewpi'.: Permission denied"

Sounds like it didn't add the user brewpi

What do you see when you do this?:

$ id brewpi

 

[Wolfpack87]

Sounds like it didn't add the user brewpi

What do you see when you do this?:

$ id brewpi

uid=1001(brewpi) gid=1001(brewpi) groups=1001(brewpi),20(dialout),33(www-data)

 

[mattrox]

uid=1001(brewpi) gid=1001(brewpi) groups=1001(brewpi),20(dialout),33(www-data)

Well, the user is there but it look like permissions are wrong somehow.


I had trouble at this point

$sudo usermod -a -G www-data pi
$sudo usermod -a -G brewpi pi

because my computer was not called 'pi'

I had to type

$sudo usermod -a -G www-data mattrox
$sudo usermod -a -G brewpi mattrox

 

[Wolfpack87]

Well, the user is there but it look like permissions are wrong somehow.


I had trouble at this point

$sudo usermod -a -G www-data pi
$sudo usermod -a -G brewpi pi

because my computer was not called 'pi'

I had to type

$sudo usermod -a -G www-data mattrox
$sudo usermod -a -G brewpi mattrox

I had the same problem. It took me a while to remember that "pi" is the default user for the RBP.

I am thinking of doing a clean install of debian and making my username "pi". Installing Apache2 and changing the .conf file. Then trying an automated install of brewpi.

I think that some of my tinkering while trying to fix this, and the webserver, may have screwed it all up.

 

[georgedamonkey]

Whew! After reading this entire thread, I finally got my BrewPi all setup. I've got my first beer fermenting with it. I'm absolutely loving it so far. Thank you to everyone for all the great information on this.

I do have a question though. The script restarts constantly. Everything seems to be working ok, so I wasn't sure if that's normal or not. It's not real consistent, but seems to average about every 3-4 seconds. Is that normal? Here's a screenshot of what I mean.

 

[Bigdaddyale]

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBIxvwZ_0og[/ame]

 

[CaptnDelta]

Whew! After reading this entire thread, I finally got my BrewPi all setup. I've got my first beer fermenting with it. I'm absolutely loving it so far. Thank you to everyone for all the great information on this.

I do have a question though. The script restarts constantly. Everything seems to be working ok, so I wasn't sure if that's normal or not. It's not real consistent, but seems to average about every 3-4 seconds. Is that normal? ...

You using Safari on an ipad? Try Google Chrome...

Cheers,
-Th

BTW, how cold is your garage?

 

[roth140]

Did you plug external power into the arduino? You can check the 5v+ with a multimeter to make sure the arduino is running right. I'm not sure if it is a brew pi problem.

 

[georgedamonkey]

You using Safari on an ipad? Try Google Chrome...

Cheers,
-Th

BTW, how cold is your garage?

I was using Safari on my iMac and Macbook Pro. Sure enough, tried Chrome and it's fine.

Just checked the temp out there and it's 18F.

Based on that chart, it's amazing how much opening the door for a quick second (wanted to check if I needed a blowoff or not) really messed up the temps.

 

[Wolfpack87]

I had the same problem. It took me a while to remember that "pi" is the default user for the RBP.

I am thinking of doing a clean install of debian and making my username "pi". Installing Apache2 and changing the .conf file. Then trying an automated install of brewpi.

I think that some of my tinkering while trying to fix this, and the webserver, may have screwed it all up.

This seems to have done the trick Brewpi has installed and opens up in the browser, no problem.

I am now just wondering where the Uno Rev C hex file is located in github?

Thanks

Never mind, found it!

 

[day_trippr]

Lately, whenever I read this thread - and the RaspberryPints thread for that matter - I feel I should have some popcorn...

Cheers!

 

[gezzanet]

Lately, whenever I read this thread - and the RaspberryPints thread for that matter - I feel I should have some popcorn...



Cheers!

And a beer

 

[day_trippr]

And a beer

Of course that's right

Cheers!

 

[Mikmonken]

Whew! After reading this entire thread, I finally got my BrewPi all setup. I've got my first beer fermenting with it. I'm absolutely loving it so far. Thank you to everyone for all the great information on this.



I do have a question though. The script restarts constantly. Everything seems to be working ok, so I wasn't sure if that's normal or not. It's not real consistent, but seems to average about every 3-4 seconds. Is that normal? Here's a screenshot of what I mean.

There is a fix that Elco found and I've posted in this thread a long time a go but it's to do with a keep alive setting.

If you go to the official brewpi community and search for safari about half way down sept 15 it says

Confirmed! Changing the setting in the apache config fixes the connection issues in Safari!

In /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, if you change the KeepAliveTimeout from 5 to 99, the problem goes away.

KeepAliveTimeout 99
Now what would be the best way to handle this in our install/update script?

 

[Mikmonken]

Duplicate post

 

[Mikmonken]

Duplicate post

 

[twardnw]

Had a few bumps along the way with my build (using a Leonardo, and having to manually flash the .hex file from OS X), documented it in a blog post:

http://www.twardnw.com/blog/brewpi-arduino-leonardo-os-x

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Whew! After reading this entire thread, I finally got my BrewPi all setup. I've got my first beer fermenting with it. I'm absolutely loving it so far. Thank you to everyone for all the great information on this.

I do have a question though. The script restarts constantly. Everything seems to be working ok, so I wasn't sure if that's normal or not. It's not real consistent, but seems to average about every 3-4 seconds. Is that normal? Here's a screenshot of what I mean.

Good job getting it up and running although i am concerned by your picture. Specifically at ~20:00 on Jan 11th. There is nothing you can do that could possibly be dropping 5+ gallons of wort by 3-4F in a matter of 30-60 minutes WHILE your fridge is at 80F. Something is fishy, either with where your placing your fridge sensor, and or your beer sensor. Im going to wager to guess you are measuring the beer by taping/insulating it to the side.

 

[georgedamonkey]

Good job getting it up and running although i am concerned by your picture. Specifically at ~20:00 on Jan 11th. There is nothing you can do that could possibly be dropping 5+ gallons of wort by 3-4F in a matter of 30-60 minutes WHILE your fridge is at 80F. Something is fishy, either with where your placing your fridge sensor, and or your beer sensor. Im going to wager to guess you are measuring the beer by taping/insulating it to the side.

I was wondering about that too. Everything seemed to be going well until after 6 on the 11th. I opened the door for a second and it made everything go haywire. From now on, I'll just start off using a blowoff tube so I don't have to worry about it.

For the fridge sensor, I have the wire taped to the inside, but the sensor itself is hanging a few inches from the top. That doesn't touch any surface.

The beer sensor is in a thermowell in the carboy.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]The beer sensor is in a thermowell in the carboy.

That blows one theory out of the water.

Honestly, the longer I look at that plot the less I understand what's going on.
That fridge temp plot makes no sense unless that probe is hanging outside the fridge, and the fridge setting never goes below the beer temperature?

Something's FUBAR...

Cheers!

[edit] Does this system have a heater - or is it "Cool Only"?

 

[gromitdj]

That blows one theory out of the water.

Honestly, the longer I look at that plot the less I understand what's going on.
That fridge temp plot makes no sense unless that probe is hanging outside the fridge, and the fridge setting never goes below the beer temperature?

Something's FUBAR...

Cheers!

[edit] Does this system have a heater - or is it "Cool Only"?

Something is definitely odd, it appears the beer temp goes up, even though the fridge temperature and setpoint is decreasing.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

I was wondering about that too. Everything seemed to be going well until after 6 on the 11th. I opened the door for a second and it made everything go haywire. From now on, I'll just start off using a blowoff tube so I don't have to worry about it.

For the fridge sensor, I have the wire taped to the inside, but the sensor itself is hanging a few inches from the top. That doesn't touch any surface.

The beer sensor is in a thermowell in the carboy.

Are you sure that the sensor is actually in the thermowell below the level of the liquid? Not at the very bottom of your thermowell, as others have found out this results in you measuring the trub at the bottom.

The way i fixed this is to measure from the top of my bucket to the 2.5G mark on my bucket. I then measured out that distance on my probe and wrapped some electrical tape around it. Now i know exactly how far into push my probe, with the additional bonus that the electrical tape plugs my thermowell so no cold air in the fridge is coming down the tube contaminating the measurement. This way my probe ends up right in the middle of my wort.

Regardless if it looks like it was running right earlier, it most definitely is not. Im trying to think of what the problem could be. The orange line jumping up at 6 is weird if thats when you opened your door. Regardless of the temperature of the fridge air, your beer is almost at the set point, it should not be skyrocketting the temperature it thinks it needs when your that close to your setpoint..I believe it should have just continued downward until the fridge temp met the beer setpoint then just cycled up and down based on if it needed more heat.

For example this is what one of my beers from long ago looked like controlling both heat and cold. You can see at 20:00 when the temp dips is when I opened my freezer door to check on it, and it looks nothing like what your seeing.

What are you heating with?

 

[georgedamonkey]

Are you sure that the sensor is actually in the thermowell below the level of the liquid? Not at the very bottom of your thermowell, as others have found out this results in you measuring the trub at the bottom.

The way i fixed this is to measure from the top of my bucket to the 2.5G mark on my bucket. I then measured out that distance on my probe and wrapped some electrical tape around it. Now i know exactly how far into push my probe, with the additional bonus that the electrical tape plugs my thermowell so no cold air in the fridge is coming down the tube contaminating the measurement. This way my probe ends up right in the middle of my wort.

Regardless if it looks like it was running right earlier, it most definitely is not. Im trying to think of what the problem could be. The orange line jumping up at 6 is weird if thats when you opened your door. Regardless of the temperature of the fridge air, your beer is almost at the set point, it should not be skyrocketting the temperature it thinks it needs when your that close to your setpoint..I believe it should have just continued downward until the fridge temp met the beer setpoint then just cycled up and down based on if it needed more heat.

For example this is what one of my beers from long ago looked like controlling both heat and cold. You can see at 20:00 when the temp dips is when I opened my freezer door to check on it, and it looks nothing like what your seeing.

What are you heating with?

Wow. That is very different. And, makes a whole lot more sense than what I'm seeing. Right now, the beer temp has been spot on. Here's what it looks like now:

The thermowell I have goes down about 2/3 of the way into the carboy, so plenty of space above the trub. I do have the sensor all the way on the bottom of it. It fits in pretty snugly. Tape's a good idea. Once the beer's done, I'll measure it out so I can make sure it's in the middle for the next batch.

For a heater, I use the same one mentioned in the first post, the Lasko.

I just went out and took a picture of the inside of the fridge so you can see where everything is.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Put the lasko heater on the floor not pointing at the fridge sensor. Heat rises so get it low and pointing away from the fridge probe, probably towards the fridge door. The fan will help spread the warm air throughout the chamber, its triggering so often because its not actually measuring the ambient air, its measuring the hot air coming out of the heater.

 

[day_trippr]

^Brilliant^

That's why HBT pays Fuzze the big money...

Cheers!