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alexlark said:
I'm running in fridge constant at the moment (8c) as I have a keg of APA that needs chilling. Can I just have a second opinion on the chart, the fridge probe appears to measure more 'jagged' than the beer probe. The fridge probe is attached to the side of the fridge, 5in from the top. The beer probe is just laying on the shelf, 12in from the bottom. I know it will be warmer at the top but my question is just in relation to the smoothness of the lines.
Click to expand...
That looks reasonable. The reason your fridge probe is more "jagged" is because it's in the open air. The one laying on the shelf is (in part) taking the temp of the shelf. That has a much higher thermal mass so the temp of it changes slower.
 
Just wanted to check in, it's been a while since I've been back. I've found some more time to work in the last few weeks and thought I was finished with the build... and then last night happened...

When I first got the controller up and running a week ago, I had my temperature probes fail. No problem, I had some extras, and I was pretty sure I had just shorted them by hot-plugging the 3.5mm causing the data to short to 5v. I wired up two new ones and was ready to go.

I tested from last Friday through Tuesday night and everything looked great, only .1 degree temp variance, reasonable compressor/heater cycles, etc...

So last night it was finally time to brew again after months of messing with this thing. I prepared an Irish red recipe with a 1.062 O.G. and WYeast 1084. I was really looking forward to it and was meticulous with my brew. Literally everything went perfectly and I was off to a great start.... until I went to put it in the chamber.

I had unplugged it as I was worried about damaging the new temp probes, so I gently placed the carboy in, wrapped the heater blanket around it and plugged it in. Everything was flawless! for about 5 minutes...

My temperature probes cut out and read null, I tried unloading and reloading the sensors, unplugging and plugging the control unit, everything I could think of for about an hour. The temp probes stopped showing up even in the device list.

Then, about an hour into troubleshooting, the whole thing stopped working... DEAD. It wouldn't power my 5v fans, but was getting enough power that the LCD display backlight was on. It showed no characters however. Eventually that quit as well and I went to bed a very angry man with a VERY warm beer.

Right now nothing is plugged in, the beer is sitting at 75 degrees (coolest I could find in my house). I'm going to ride it out, maybe it'll be an Irish Red Saison-ish kind of thing? Who knows, could turn out okay, could taste like feet.

What could have gone wrong? I'm pretty sure the power supply crapped out and/or the cheap temperature sensors were failing on their own.

I'm not going to lie, a lot of me wants to quit brewing all together at this point. I'm not having fun anymore and I feel like I'm just diving head-first into the sunk cost fallacy. I may try a new power supply and new temp probes once they arrive (too late for this beer to be saved), but I'm not hopeful. I don't think I'll ever be able to trust it to be reliable (sort of how slow/glitchy internet is world more irritating than simply having no internet). I'm worried I'll go through the trouble of getting it working again after another couple dozen hours of work, and then everything will fall apart again when I look at it funny...
 
Sorry to hear about your troubles. It all screams power supply to me.

What kind of draw do those fans add? I'm not sure I'd power them with my Pi, Arduino and relays.
 
CheeseIsGood27 said:
Just wanted to check in, it's been a while since I've been back. I've found some more time to work in the last few weeks and thought I was finished with the build... and then last night happened...

When I first got the controller up and running a week ago, I had my temperature probes fail. No problem, I had some extras, and I was pretty sure I had just shorted them by hot-plugging the 3.5mm causing the data to short to 5v. I wired up two new ones and was ready to go.

I tested from last Friday through Tuesday night and everything looked great, only .1 degree temp variance, reasonable compressor/heater cycles, etc...

So last night it was finally time to brew again after months of messing with this thing. I prepared an Irish red recipe with a 1.062 O.G. and WYeast 1084. I was really looking forward to it and was meticulous with my brew. Literally everything went perfectly and I was off to a great start.... until I went to put it in the chamber.

I had unplugged it as I was worried about damaging the new temp probes, so I gently placed the carboy in, wrapped the heater blanket around it and plugged it in. Everything was flawless! for about 5 minutes...

My temperature probes cut out and read null, I tried unloading and reloading the sensors, unplugging and plugging the control unit, everything I could think of for about an hour. The temp probes stopped showing up even in the device list.

Then, about an hour into troubleshooting, the whole thing stopped working... DEAD. It wouldn't power my 5v fans, but was getting enough power that the LCD display backlight was on. It showed no characters however. Eventually that quit as well and I went to bed a very angry man with a VERY warm beer.

Right now nothing is plugged in, the beer is sitting at 75 degrees (coolest I could find in my house). I'm going to ride it out, maybe it'll be an Irish Red Saison-ish kind of thing? Who knows, could turn out okay, could taste like feet.

What could have gone wrong? I'm pretty sure the power supply crapped out and/or the cheap temperature sensors were failing on their own.

I'm not going to lie, a lot of me wants to quit brewing all together at this point. I'm not having fun anymore and I feel like I'm just diving head-first into the sunk cost fallacy. I may try a new power supply and new temp probes once they arrive (too late for this beer to be saved), but I'm not hopeful. I don't think I'll ever be able to trust it to be reliable (sort of how slow/glitchy internet is world more irritating than simply having no internet). I'm worried I'll go through the trouble of getting it working again after another couple dozen hours of work, and then everything will fall apart again when I look at it funny...
Click to expand...

Well, one thing is stable, and that i the Software. Fermentrack has been running flawless for a long time in my house.

That said, soldering, PSU, ****ty ebay sensors... The list is long regarding what could cause your problem.

There has been som time since I last read the whole thread, but I think there is a hardware list somewhere in here with links to HW other use with success.

This is the cost of using open source.
 
Bummer, 2 days running and I get the scrambled LCD. May have to replace the relay board for SSRs.

Thorrak, do you think adding re-initialising the LCD every minute or so would be acceptable and provide a resolution for people with EMI from mechanical relays? A quick search gives this as an option. Or even add it as an advanced option? Or do you see this as a dirty workaround?
 
LBussy said:
Sorry to hear about your troubles. It all screams power supply to me.

What kind of draw do those fans add? I'm not sure I'd power them with my Pi, Arduino and relays.
Click to expand...

I did a quick power calc this morning, I've been using a 5v 2A supplyand I'm looking at a total draw around .85 amps. (.02A relay driver, .16A LCD display, .15A 8266 controller, .26A x2 for fans) Finding the 2A supply made me go with whatever I could find on Amazon, probably just a garbage unit in the first place.

I have a 1A supply I can try. Each fan adds 0.26A of power draw so I may cut back to one or none.

As for the temp sensors, I took another chance and bought the D20B18's from Adafruit hoping that they somehow are higher quality than my $8 5-pack from a random amazon seller.

The software is well and good, just needed a place to vent as I am very frustrated. The biggest issue is that it will all work fine and blow up without warning at the worst possible moment.
 
alexlark said:
Bummer, 2 days running and I get the scrambled LCD. May have to replace the relay board for SSRs.

Thorrak, do you think adding re-initialising the LCD every minute or so would be acceptable and provide a resolution for people with EMI from mechanical relays? A quick search gives this as an option. Or even add it as an advanced option? Or do you see this as a dirty workaround?
Click to expand...

I absolutely see it as a dirty workaround. You're assuming that it being a dirty workaround bothers me in the slightest. :)

I had that issue happen a few months back, but have had pretty good luck since then - and I use all mechanical relays. Once the first "official" Fermentrack release is out I'm planning to go back to the ESP firmware and try to port in all the features from v0.2.10/11 as well as the LCD reset.


CheeseIsGood27 said:
I did a quick power calc this morning, I've been using a 5v 2A supplyand I'm looking at a total draw around .85 amps. (.02A relay driver, .16A LCD display, .15A 8266 controller, .26A x2 for fans) Finding the 2A supply made me go with whatever I could find on Amazon, probably just a garbage unit in the first place.

I have a 1A supply I can try. Each fan adds 0.26A of power draw so I may cut back to one or none.
Click to expand...

From listening to your symptoms, I'm going to agree with @LBussy that the power supply sounds like the problem. I've currently got two separate builds running on this power supply and haven't had any issues -- but admittedly, I don't have any fans running off the same supply.

I would be wary of the amperage quoted on most power supplies -- I've definitely had an "8A" power supply that failed to run a Peltier cooler I successfully ran on a 6A supply. Since most people are terrible at estimating their power draw, supply manufacturers can cheat a bit and produce a cheaper, less powerful supply without most consumers picking up on the difference. There's not an easy way for a consumer to test maximum power draw - just voltage, after all.
 
Thorrak said:
From listening to your symptoms, I'm going to agree with @LBussy that the power supply sounds like the problem. I've currently got two separate builds running on this power supply and haven't had any issues -- but admittedly, I don't have any fans running off the same supply.

I would be wary of the amperage quoted on most power supplies -- I've definitely had an "8A" power supply that failed to run a Peltier cooler I successfully ran on a 6A supply. Since most people are terrible at estimating their power draw, supply manufacturers can cheat a bit and produce a cheaper, less powerful supply without most consumers picking up on the difference. There's not an easy way for a consumer to test maximum power draw - just voltage, after all.
Click to expand...

I believe it may be the power supply, could also be the sensors on top of that. I read in a thread that sensors sourced on the cheap may not be as reliable as ones through adafruit, so I broke out the wallet and will give them a try.

What is vexing, however, is that This is the power supply I used... It's identical with a different brand name on it...

I think I'm going to try again without the fans, and potentially put them on a second supply (if it can make it fit). I almost wonder if the fans were creating a cyclic load on the 5v that caused issues.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just got home from work and did a little investigating.

Power supply was dead, took the D1 mini out with it... back to zero I guess...

It's been a very discouraging 24 hours
 
Thorrak said:
I absolutely see it as a dirty workaround. You're assuming that it being a dirty workaround bothers me in the slightest. :)

I had that issue happen a few months back, but have had pretty good luck since then - and I use all mechanical relays. Once the first "official" Fermentrack release is out I'm planning to go back to the ESP firmware and try to port in all the features from v0.2.10/11 as well as the LCD reset.
Click to expand...

Great, I'll run with the mechanical relays in the meantime. I only asked as I code a lot in VBA and depending on the day that kind of workaround would bug me ;)

I first purchased a PSU that had screw down terminals and a pot but when I tested it with my multimeter the output was all over the place. I tore it down and there was a surprising lack of components. The replacement, which was half the price and is almost identical to yours, is rock solid :D
 
As promised, my build, including the man cave! :rockin:

1.jpg


2.jpg


3.jpg


4.jpg


5.jpg
 
CheeseIsGood27 said:
Just got home from work and did a little investigating.

Power supply was dead, took the D1 mini out with it... back to zero I guess...

It's been a very discouraging 24 hours
Click to expand...

Dude, I get the discouragement. I have been there with brewing a couple of times, but a few days of distance and step back has always gotten me off of the building before I jumped.

Take a step back, fix the issues, get some ingredients, and brew another batch. And, if you've got another source for controlling your temps, preferably something simple and dumb like a Johnson controller, keep that in storage for a time like this. Or build a simple, cheap STC unit as a backup.
 
I've got a question about Fermentrack. First I have to say that Thorrak did a GREAT job on the ESP8266 controller port. Works flawlessly, and the platform is really easy to work with.

Now, on to Fermentrack. My graphs are displaying data points in UTC time, though my Pi displays the correct local time (UTC -6). Is there a way to have the system use local time, or set an offset from UTC?
 
Ripfence said:
I've got a question about Fermentrack. First I have to say that Thorrak did a GREAT job on the ESP8266 controller port. Works flawlessly, and the platform is really easy to work with.

Now, on to Fermentrack. My graphs are displaying data points in UTC time, though my Pi displays the correct local time (UTC -6). Is there a way to have the system use local time, or set an offset from UTC?
Click to expand...

Not yet, but I'm working on it and hope it will be working soon.

I'm actually working on a different, non-brewing project at the moment which revolves around timing & decent timezone support - I'm hoping once that is finished I can use what I learn to fix timezone support within Fermentrack. :)
 
Thorrak said:
Not yet, but I'm working on it and hope it will be working soon.

I'm actually working on a different, non-brewing project at the moment which revolves around timing & decent timezone support - I'm hoping once that is finished I can use what I learn to fix timezone support within Fermentrack. :)
Click to expand...

Sincerely appreciate all you've done so far. It's renewed my interest in micro controllers and now, sadly, I don't have any more free time. :)
 
ajw85 said:
Hi @thorrak

fsKrGJT.jpg


I ordered 4 and got 6. Anyone want one?
Click to expand...

They're pretty good with that. I've actually got 4 coming in the same batch you likely received -- as well as Arduino boards. If you don't have enough extras for anyone that asks, let me know - I'm virtually guaranteed to at this rate!
 
Handful of small updates from my side --

Work in Fermentrack is still on hold as I finish this non-brewing-related project. Thankfully it's getting to the "punch list" phase before it can be tested, so I'm hoping to be able to take a break and work on fun things this coming weekend.

One positive note from the delay - the PCBs I was waiting on to be able to fully test Arduino support came in as did the next set of PCBs to build additional test rigs for new ESP8266 features! Depending on how things go, I'm hoping to get at least one each of these boards soldered up before the weekend so I can use them to test firmware flashing support. Fun with hardware!

IMG_5871.jpg
 
Thorrak said:
Handful of small updates from my side --

Work in Fermentrack is still on hold as I finish this non-brewing-related project. Thankfully it's getting to the "punch list" phase before it can be tested, so I'm hoping to be able to take a break and work on fun things this coming weekend.

One positive note from the delay - the PCBs I was waiting on to be able to fully test Arduino support came in as did the next set of PCBs to build additional test rigs for new ESP8266 features! Depending on how things go, I'm hoping to get at least one each of these boards soldered up before the weekend so I can use them to test firmware flashing support. Fun with hardware!
Click to expand...
I spy with my little eye what's the c1 SMD pads for?To help with screen scramble?
 
Thorrak said:
Yep, that was the thought. Honestly though, I'm probably just going to go down the route @alexlark recommended and just add a reset to a watchdog timer.
Click to expand...

Even if you prefer to add it as an option in the settings. For me it seems to be as others have mentioned, scrambled screen after circa. 2 days.
 
I might be missing something something but why the original arduino form factor?
 
stbernts said:
Any lead on howto use it?
Click to expand...

It's not formally documented, but it's modern simple. You go to a URL to get the data you want, and it returns JSON.

The API is here:
https://github.com/thorrak/fermentrack/blob/master/app/api/lcd.py

The URL patterns you want are:
Code: 
    url(r'^api/lcd/(?P<device_id>\d{1,20})/$', app.api.lcd.getLCD, name="getLCD"),  # For a single device
    url(r'^api/lcd/$', app.api.lcd.getLCDs, name="getLCDs"),  # For all devices/LCDs
    url(r'^api/panel/(?P<device_id>\d{1,20})/$', app.api.lcd.getPanel, name="getPanel"),  # For a single device

Try starting with /api/lcd/ and go from there.

Side note - I don't remember what getPanel does offhand. I should take a look sometime when I'm home.
 
Any tips where I can buy a DS18b20 with cable that works with my d1 mini?
I have tried two different suppliers of temp sensors (ebay.com, kjell.com) and note of them work. BrewPiLess or BrewPi-ESP8266 can NOT find the sensors. The sensors work fine in CraftbeerPi connected to my Pi.

I have tested a TO-92 DS18b20 supplied with my iSpindel kit. That works fine with my d1 mini running BrewPiLess and BrewPi-ESP8266.

All sensors are connected as instructed to D6 with a pullup resistor of 4,7k to 3,3V.
(3,3V and GND are also connected). The sensors are recognized by CraftbeerPi as 28-8000000xxxxx so they are not running in parasite power mode.
 
Brewpi is programmed to ignore parasitically powered sensors, I'm not sure CraftbeerPi excludes them. At least I have not seen any reference to suggest that they do. I would double check by wiring them up as non-parasite and run the arduino sketch to check them. Because it sure sounds like that may be your problem.

There are parasite only versions of the sensor that will operate in parasite mode regardless of how they are wired up.

Edited to add: Link to Parasite Test Sketch
 
In the documentation for Fermentrack, it indicates that you need to start with a clean install of Rasbian and that if you have brewpi-www installed already, the Apache server causes problems. Would the same be true for a Raspberry Pi with RaspberryPints installed? Can Fermentrack and 'Pints coexist?
 
Thanks for the code!
I get the same result no matter how I connect the three wires to my d1 mini.

"Parasite power is: ON
Device 0 is a DS18B20
Sensor 0 23.37"

I will buy new sensors.
Anybody has a link to sensors that are proven to work?


gromitdj said:
Brewpi is programmed to ignore parasitically powered sensors, I'm not sure CraftbeerPi excludes them. At least I have not seen any reference to suggest that they do. I would double check by wiring them up as non-parasite and run the arduino sketch to check them. Because it sure sounds like that may be your problem.

There are parasite only versions of the sensor that will operate in parasite mode regardless of how they are wired up.

Edited to add: Link to Parasite Test Sketch
Click to expand...
 
CadiBrewer said:
In the documentation for Fermentrack, it indicates that you need to start with a clean install of Rasbian and that if you have brewpi-www installed already, the Apache server causes problems. Would the same be true for a Raspberry Pi with RaspberryPints installed? Can Fermentrack and 'Pints coexist?
Click to expand...

You hit the nail on the head -- the issue is that nginx expects to have complete control over port 80. That said, no - it won't coexist peacefully out of the box.

Of course, that's out of the box. There is nothing at all that would prevent it from coexisting so long as RaspberryPints was installed in such a way as to run on nginx. So long as php-fpm is installed you could technically run BrewPi-www alongside Fermentrack (as well as raspberry pints) - you would just need to have them running on different ports. Similarly, there's nothing that prevents Apache and nginx from coexisting - nginx is perfectly happy to proxy requests for Apache, or just let Apache handle them on its own (again, so long as they're on different ports).

You aren't the first person to ask for this, so I'm hoping to get full support set up before v2. Initial support will be in the form of example nginx config files, though after I have a chance to look at how RaspberryPints works it may make sense to have installation/support be an install option as well.

The overall goal for Fermentrack is to make most typical use cases easy to set up/manage, after all. :)
 

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