I'm not sure if someone else has already done this so I decided to share this idea with you.
So once I bought a Tilt hydrometer which I'm very pleased with I started thinking of how else I can use it so that those 135 bucks are paid off. I came up with this idea of a fully wireless fermenter-agnostic temperature controller.
So what I did is I bought a Raspberry Pi 3 which has Bluetooth so that it can read a Tilt temperature readings. I also needed some kind of relay to switch on/off the heating/cooling device so I decided to make things simpler and bought a TP-Link HS 100 smart plug, this guy connects to your Wifi so that you can switch it on or off and since the Raspberry also connects to the same Wifi network it can control the plug as well. So I've written a small app that runs on Raspberry Pi and here's how it works – every 1 minute it reads the Tilt's current temperature and turns the plug on or off based on the setting I provided to it.
I've been using this thing for about 8 months for both summer and winter fermentation and to control my kegerator temperature. Overall I'm very pleased with the results.
According to Tilt FAQs it has up to 1F error so it's pretty accurate. You also get the readings from the inside of the fermenter/keg which is really nice since even commercial kegerators can't do that and you also don't need to mess up with those thermowells or duct tapes outside of the fermenters. And more importantly, it works with any vessel.
Here's the picture of my recently brewed batch (Raspberry is glued on the fridge door), I ferment in a keg so it's still in primary.
Anyways, if you guys are interested I can provide more details and photos. Cheers.
So once I bought a Tilt hydrometer which I'm very pleased with I started thinking of how else I can use it so that those 135 bucks are paid off. I came up with this idea of a fully wireless fermenter-agnostic temperature controller.
So what I did is I bought a Raspberry Pi 3 which has Bluetooth so that it can read a Tilt temperature readings. I also needed some kind of relay to switch on/off the heating/cooling device so I decided to make things simpler and bought a TP-Link HS 100 smart plug, this guy connects to your Wifi so that you can switch it on or off and since the Raspberry also connects to the same Wifi network it can control the plug as well. So I've written a small app that runs on Raspberry Pi and here's how it works – every 1 minute it reads the Tilt's current temperature and turns the plug on or off based on the setting I provided to it.
I've been using this thing for about 8 months for both summer and winter fermentation and to control my kegerator temperature. Overall I'm very pleased with the results.
According to Tilt FAQs it has up to 1F error so it's pretty accurate. You also get the readings from the inside of the fermenter/keg which is really nice since even commercial kegerators can't do that and you also don't need to mess up with those thermowells or duct tapes outside of the fermenters. And more importantly, it works with any vessel.
Here's the picture of my recently brewed batch (Raspberry is glued on the fridge door), I ferment in a keg so it's still in primary.
Anyways, if you guys are interested I can provide more details and photos. Cheers.
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