After 1 1/2 years of 2 different BPi running almost flawlessly, Heating Ales, I just went online with its first Lager.
My set up is a top-load freezer in which I put a cooler full of water with a submersible pump in it. This pumps cold water through a Heat Exchanger in my Chronical Fermenter by Ss BrewTech.
I have 3 sensors - BEER, CHAMBER (Freezer air temp.), and ROOM.
When I put the Chamber sensor in the freezer water, the temp drops, of course, but then when the temp hits the BeerProfile temp (48 start Lager Temp), it shuts the cooling off and sits there forever in Idle.
I have to take the Chamber sensor out of the freezer, into room temp, and when the temp (the temp of the Chamber sensor) gets above the Beer Profile algorithm target, the cooler happily kicks back on!
All sensors are Inverted with there own address and each assigned to Beer, Chamber, and Room....
Who can figure this one out? I thought I knew Alllll......the bugs and my mistakes.....but NO!
After 1 1/2 years of 2 different BPi running almost flawlessly, Heating Ales, I just went online with its first Lager.
My set up is a top-load freezer in which I put a cooler full of water with a submersible pump in it. This pumps cold water through a Heat Exchanger in my Chronical Fermenter by Ss BrewTech.
I have 3 sensors - BEER, CHANBER (Freezer air temp.), and ROOM.
When I put the Chamber sensor in the freezer water, the temp drops, of course, but then when the temp hits the BeerProfile temp (48 start Lager Temp), it shuts the cooling off and sits there forever in Idle.
I have to take the Chamber sensor out of the freezer, into room temp, and when the temp (the temp of the Chamber sensor) gets above the Beer Profile algorithm target, the cooler happily kicks back on!
All sensors are Inverted with there own address and each assigned to Beer, Chamber, and Room....
Who can figure this one out? I thought I knew Alllll......the bugs and my mistakes.....but NO!
You are right, I have won the I'm screwed lottery. Wondering if you could provide some additional assistance. I did a complete reinstall per the instructions and followed them to the letter. Everything works smoothly up until this step,
"It will ask you where you want the web files installed(by default /var/www, it wiill say the folder is not empty do you wish to still use it, select Y for Yes. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are using a version newer than Wheezy(7.9) such as Jessie(8.0) then you need to ensure this path is /var/www/html or else brewpi wont install the files to the right location"
I have version 7.8 wheezy and when I try to install to default /var/www nothing happens, no error message it just does not install and does not get to the step where it asks about updating the CRON job. I went ahead and tried it again and this time changed the directory to var/www/html. This seemed to work and it moved through the remainder of the install, provided a ip address and says "Happy Brewing" When I go to this IP address I am greeted with,
"It works!
This is the default web page for this server.
The web server software is running but no content has been added, yet."
I'm SO close but not sure what is going wrong here. While watching the process I saw one of the lines that flew by said, "Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName." Not sure if this is normal bit other than that I cant see why this is not working. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated."
EDIT: Removed index.html and moved the files manually from /html to /www Now I have the web interface but showing cannot receive LCD text from python script.
EDIT2: Reran python updater. All is right with the world again... Back in business.
Happy to get it working. Snapped back on the raspi case to hook it up the fridge and the sd card had popped out. Pushing the case snapped the end of the sd card. On my way to BestBuy for a new one. Not been my week.....
GrogNerd
I am PUMPING cold water from the freezer holding tank through the heat exchanger that is inside my Conical fermenter!
The Coni is OUTside of the freezer!
It should not matter what the Chamber probe measures???? I want to let the BPi know what the water temp is not the ambient air in the freezer.
I still cant figure this one out......
Thanks for your help!!
Yea i just dont think beer profile or beer constant will really work for your setup.
UNLESS. You put both your beer and fridge sensor in the cooling water, and have your pump running continuously. Then your beer profile mode controlling the fridge power should work. As we've figured out your beer will always be at the temp of your cooling water if your continously pumping, so you really just want to control that. The PID algorithm doesnt expect the beer to move that fast, much like your cooler of cold water wont move fast. This should work just fine...
So i change my answer, put your beer and fridge probes in the water next to eachother. I am pretty sure that should work?
Have any of you smart RPi people got it working with one of the Sainsmart touchscreens? It is an eGalax 7" and I've been trying to get it to work...all without having any really programming knowledge. I get the screen to work, but not the touchscreen. It needs kernel recompiling and stuff like that....I'm afraid I just get in over my head. Damn it Jim, I'm just a brewer!
If anyone has done this and can get me an SD image, I would be forever in their debt..............
Brew on!
PROBLEM SOLVED !!??
A quick refresh -
Fridge probe in cold water thermowell (in freezer)
Freezer temp set on its own control at 32-38 degrees (Not BrewPI controlled)
Beer probe in Conical thermowell
Lager BEER PROFILE start time 48 degrees, ramp up to 50 over 1 day, Hold...
I recirculate the Cold water with a submersible pump in the cold recirc-water, as BrewPi calls for Cooling, through a submersible heat-exchanger in the fementing Wort inside my Conical fermenter.
Initial problem - BPi would sit there for hours at IDLE.
LCD shows Fridge = 38, Beer = 62 (This is before I put the hot wort into the Conical). My Beer Profile is set 0.00 = 48 and day 1 = 50, then hold at 50
OMG! Panic time - Cant put my wort into a "broken" BPi...
Took Fridge probe out and put next to Coni....NOW BPi started to call for Cooling!! So why would the BrewPi NOT work call for Cooling, when the Fridge probe was in the cold water thermowell?????????
Later on brewday, I put the sensor probe back into the cold water thermowell when the Fridge and Beer temperatures were within 5 degrees of each other...Now BPi keeps on call for cooling (my circulation pump in the cold water) Hmmmm?????
I then went to bed, could not sleep knowing that when the Wort in the Coni hits the target of 48degrees, it may again, stop working (Idle or Waiting for Peek)
Kept opening my eyes in bed, watching my smart phone logged onto my router BPi IP address......until the wort finally hits the 48. (from 142 to 48 over 10 hours - see screenshot)
NOW the BPI sits there forever "Waiting for Peak"......
I think I GOT THE FIX!!???
Get out of bed at 1:00 in the morning, go to the brewery and CHANGE the Fridge Temperature Setting from (I think 58) down to 32 degrees -
SHAZAM!! BPi now calls for COOLING !!! Yahooo, problem solved !!!! Then a while later - calls for a short cycle of HEATING
THANKS for your help FUZZEWUZZE, daytrippr, and wbarber69, for your help.
I like the anser of putting my Fridge probe on the return water of the Coni heat exchanger instead of in the cold water... This should work also, I think!!??
Not sure if the BPi will keep working now....I see my Maintenance Panel Advanced Settings has ramped up my 32 degrees I set it at 2 days ago, to now it shows 39.35 degrees??????
Will this keep ramping up until it starts to sit at Idle or Waiting for Peak, forever??
To be continued.......
Thanks - Edward Bloom, Gibsonia PA (1/2 hour North of Pittsburgh)
Buy a touchscreen driver from adafruit and remove the Chinese pos that they sent you with the touchscreen
Go into your /home/brewpi/settings folder and edit the config.cfg file with sudo nano config.cfg
Add the following line
port = /dev/ttyUSB0
and save the file
I think that should fix it if it really is using TTYUSB0 for some reason, you can also edit the defaults.cfg file to use that instead of auto although im pretty sure in Jessie or later it uses the config.cfg
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