GeekBrew
Member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2017
- Messages
- 18
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I wanted to give a quick overview of what I have been thinking about and see if anyone else is interested. I'm new to homebrewing so let me know if I'm talking nonsense. I have looked at a bunch of software which is great, but I had a few things I personally wanted to avoid or additional functionality I haven't seen available. So on to it...
New to brewing, I've realized quickly that controlling temps during fermentation is important to the quality of the final product. Obviously, that means, knowing your temperature is quite important. There are a bunch of solutions already out there that are great not just for tracking temperatures but also for controlling a fermentation chamber/fridge. So, I started thinking about my own criteria to see which option fit best.
- inexpensive
- least amount of hardware
- real time data from anywhere
- ability to scale
- end user configuration to be able to do anything
- almost no wiring of any device above 5v
- simple
And then of course because I'm a nerd, I thought maybe I should try to make something that is extremely simple but can be scaled to do anything (by the average person, not just programmers). I'm in the very beginning stages and it starts with
-Waterproof DS18B20 Digital temperature sensor ($4)
-Raspberry Pi W ($10 plus USB cable for power and memory card)
-Adafruit IO platform (free for basic)
I just got the parts today and utilizing libraries and example code from Adafruit (they really are such an amazing company), I have the raspberry pi reading the temperature of the sensor every second and sending it to the Adafruit IO platform which is put into a graph and is accessible from anywhere/any device with an internet connection.
Once it's in Adafruit IO, it really opens a lot doors. So far, I would say the hardware is inexpensive and currently it limits the amount of hardware needed. As already discussed your temperature data is now real time and available from anywhere. So how does it grow from here? A quick note, that I don't consider myself a programmer, but would consider myself to be a tinkerer. Utilizing a great platform, now opens doors by working with other platforms. Adafruit IO works with IFTTT. That means that you can now set rules for things to happen based on your data values. Your temperature hits a certain point, high or low, send an email or a text. And you do not need to be a programmer to be able to set your own rules. IFTTT works with smartthings (OK this is $50, but if you already have one, now you can utilize it for homebrewing). I am not at a point of testing this, but the idea is that with Adafruit IO, IFTTT, and smartthings, you could control your fermentation chamber/fridge all just with easy to setup rules. Smartthings can turn on/off outlets that your fridge would be plugged into.
Additional temperature sensors could be wired to the same PI for additional readings. Since it is a pi, you can still log data locally and develop an internal interface also.
I understand there are a lot of pieces working together in this vision, and I know that means more points of failure. I'm going to stop there for now, to see if everyone thinks this is useless or if someone else sees this being useful. Pics below of the test setup.
New to brewing, I've realized quickly that controlling temps during fermentation is important to the quality of the final product. Obviously, that means, knowing your temperature is quite important. There are a bunch of solutions already out there that are great not just for tracking temperatures but also for controlling a fermentation chamber/fridge. So, I started thinking about my own criteria to see which option fit best.
- inexpensive
- least amount of hardware
- real time data from anywhere
- ability to scale
- end user configuration to be able to do anything
- almost no wiring of any device above 5v
- simple
And then of course because I'm a nerd, I thought maybe I should try to make something that is extremely simple but can be scaled to do anything (by the average person, not just programmers). I'm in the very beginning stages and it starts with
-Waterproof DS18B20 Digital temperature sensor ($4)
-Raspberry Pi W ($10 plus USB cable for power and memory card)
-Adafruit IO platform (free for basic)
I just got the parts today and utilizing libraries and example code from Adafruit (they really are such an amazing company), I have the raspberry pi reading the temperature of the sensor every second and sending it to the Adafruit IO platform which is put into a graph and is accessible from anywhere/any device with an internet connection.
Once it's in Adafruit IO, it really opens a lot doors. So far, I would say the hardware is inexpensive and currently it limits the amount of hardware needed. As already discussed your temperature data is now real time and available from anywhere. So how does it grow from here? A quick note, that I don't consider myself a programmer, but would consider myself to be a tinkerer. Utilizing a great platform, now opens doors by working with other platforms. Adafruit IO works with IFTTT. That means that you can now set rules for things to happen based on your data values. Your temperature hits a certain point, high or low, send an email or a text. And you do not need to be a programmer to be able to set your own rules. IFTTT works with smartthings (OK this is $50, but if you already have one, now you can utilize it for homebrewing). I am not at a point of testing this, but the idea is that with Adafruit IO, IFTTT, and smartthings, you could control your fermentation chamber/fridge all just with easy to setup rules. Smartthings can turn on/off outlets that your fridge would be plugged into.
Additional temperature sensors could be wired to the same PI for additional readings. Since it is a pi, you can still log data locally and develop an internal interface also.
I understand there are a lot of pieces working together in this vision, and I know that means more points of failure. I'm going to stop there for now, to see if everyone thinks this is useless or if someone else sees this being useful. Pics below of the test setup.
