[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

[DrunkleJon]

Speaking of which. Ita time to clean up the garage, relocate the keezer out there and see if my copy still boots up. Otherwise I guess i get to try another reinstallation to make sure I still got it.

 

[jdunst]

Hello all. I've taken many ideas from HBT over the years and am thankful for everyone's contributions. A couple of months ago after I replaced my keg fridge I decided to do RPints as part of the upgrade. Soooo a couple of weeks ago I purchased a Pi 3B+ board and dove in head first.

Has there been a successful port to Stretch, UNO, flow meters, and Pi 3B+?

 

[jdunst]

Deleting an accidental re-posting of same message.

 

[day_trippr]

@kcolby has been developing a Stretch-compatible branch and I believe he's got a non-flow meter kit working.

Otherwise your best bet is to go with Jessie - and if you're going to use flow meters I recommend using an Arduino UNO R3 (original or clone) instead of the Alamode shield. Not only is it much cheaper ($5 UNO clones are hard to beat) you avoid a major hardware issue with the RPi3B/3B+ boards...

Cheers!

 

[jdunst]

@kcolbyI've t/USER] has been developing a Stretch-compatible branch and I believe he's got a non-flow meter kit working.

Otherwise your best bet is to go with Jessie - and if you're going to use flow meters I recommend using an Arduino UNO R3 (original or clone) instead of the Alamode shield. Not only is it much cheaper ($5 UNO clones are hard to beat) you avoid a major hardware issue with the RPi3B/3B+ boards...

Cheers![/QUOTE

Many thanks! I'm new to Raspberry Pi, but I don't think Jessie will load on a 3B+. I've tried and failed a few times, I'm sure I read somewhere (here or raspberrypi.org) that it is not compatible. I have a true UNO R3 and flow meters that have been used on here before.

 

[day_trippr]

Ah, ok, the 3B+ probably needs new microcode for its SOC.
Same thing happened when the 2B superceded the B - but in that case if you had a working B one was able to upgrade the firmware then move the card to the 2B without wiping and starting from scratch.

I recently acquired a 3B+ and a few 2Bs, the latter for building motion-sensing/recording wifi web cams that do not require an account/subscription with an off-site service and the former to see if I can get my full cold-side brewery management running on it. Seems pretty clear there'll be a ton of hurdles so I'll likely put that effort way down on my priority stack...

Cheers!

 

[kcolby]

If you load up my version, PLEASE let me know how the install goes. I'll be more than happy to help work through any issues. The code should work both with and without meters (the meter handling has changed somewhat so that's where I would expect the most issues).

I also have big questions as to the functioning of the Installer. I'm thinking about doing a shell installer that handles a bunch of pieces and then have final config happen in the web interface (or possibly all on the CLI depending on how it goes).

 

[jdunst]

If you load up my version, PLEASE let me know how the install goes. I'll be more than happy to help work through any issues. The code should work both with and without meters (the meter handling has changed somewhat so that's where I would expect the most issues).

I also have big questions as to the functioning of the Installer. I'm thinking about doing a shell installer that handles a bunch of pieces and then have final config happen in the web interface (or possibly all on the CLI depending on how it goes).

Thanks kcolby! I've sent you a PM.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, there is a way to upgrade Jessie for the RPi3B+.

I have two Model Bs and four Model 2Bs running Wheezy, and a 2B, a Zero, and a Zero W running Jessie. Each group shares a common SD card image which makes fault recovery cake, and both groups run everything I need.

I'm going to take advantage of the migration procedure on the 2B Jessie crate to create an upgraded OS version SD card, then boot that on the 3B+, and with any luck everything will still work and I'll have validated hardware before moving to Stretch. I totally expect to have to switch from an AlaMode shield to an Uno for the flow meter support (I'm still cranky about the lost hardware UART on the RPi3 series) but I'll get over that.

Then I'll work on a Stretch implementation, with all the gore I expect that entails

Cheers!

 

[carrsgarage]

long time lurker, first time poster...

I thought I could get away with just reading a bunch of posts and figuring things out on my own, but I am stumped.

My wife got me a Raspberry Pi 3B+ for my birthday with the idea that I could run Raspberry Pints on it. Well, I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. I've been trying to piece together what needs to be done to install it, but I'm hung up on the php5-curl, MySQL, etc. step. It says it can't find it to load it.

I don't want to run flow meters at this point, I just want a taplist. I built a keezer top over the winter with 6 taps and I'd like to get Pints up and running.

 

[kcolby]

long time lurker, first time poster...

I thought I could get away with just reading a bunch of posts and figuring things out on my own, but I am stumped.

My wife got me a Raspberry Pi 3B+ for my birthday with the idea that I could run Raspberry Pints on it. Well, I have no idea what the heck I'm doing. I've been trying to piece together what needs to be done to install it, but I'm hung up on the php5-curl, MySQL, etc. step. It says it can't find it to load it.

I don't want to run flow meters at this point, I just want a taplist. I built a keezer top over the winter with 6 taps and I'd like to get Pints up and running.

if you type

php --version

what do you get? I'm assuming you get php 7.1 or something similar. If so you can try to work though my fork of the code that has been updated to support PHP7 but probably has a zillion other issues.

The github repo is available at https://github.com/zaepho/RaspberryPints If you run into issues, post here and I'll be happy to assist (and hopefully be able to update the code and/or documentation accordingly).

 

[Redtab78]

Is it possible to buy one of these already built and software installed? kinda like a "plug n play" type model? I can get all the rest of the stuff, I am just not very computer savy, but I would love to have this for my keezer!!

 

[kcolby]

Is it possible to buy one of these already built and software installed? kinda like a "plug n play" type model? I can get all the rest of the stuff, I am just not very computer savy, but I would love to have this for my keezer!!

the problem here is that none of the code has an easy update mechanism which would be expected of a commercial product. Also this begs the question, what would be a reasonable markup for the labor involved in spinning up a pre-installed, pre-configured setup?

 

[Redtab78]

the problem here is that none of the code has an easy update mechanism which would be expected of a commercial product. Also this begs the question, what would be a reasonable markup for the labor involved in spinning up a pre-installed, pre-configured setup?

Well, I am not sure, I have read all the steps from the site, and after step 1 (buying the necessary equipment), the rest of the steps are completely foreign to me.

Is it even possible to have someone else pre-program a rasberry pi system and I just install the software so that I can update it?


I guess at the end of the day...I can always TRY to do it....

 

[day_trippr]

If you had acquired a 2B or even a 3B you might have been able to get someone to burn you an SD card for its cost.

The thing with the 3B+ is under conventional methods the OS (Raspbian Stretch) and included packages (particularly phpmysql) have advanced to where the original RaspberryPints package is borked due to deprecated functions that it relied upon.

As he mentioned @kcolby has been working on converting/rewriting/waving magic bones at the code to come up with a kit that will work with phpmysql7 that would be worth trying.

Alternatively there appears to be a migration method to take a working Raspbian Jessie OS on an older model RPi and upgrade it to make it work on the 3B+. When I get a chance I'll be giving that a try, and if it works out I might be amenable to helping you out, but I can't provide an inkling of when that might happen.

In any case, if you intend to use flow meters I strongly recommend NOT buying an AlaMode shield and instead obtain an Arduino UNO R3 - original or clone. Not only will the UNO work with the RPi3B/3B+ with relative ease, it'll save you $30...

Cheers!

 

[carrsgarage]

if you type

php --version

what do you get? I'm assuming you get php 7.1 or something similar. If so you can try to work though my fork of the code that has been updated to support PHP7 but probably has a zillion other issues.

The github repo is available at https://github.com/zaepho/RaspberryPints If you run into issues, post here and I'll be happy to assist (and hopefully be able to update the code and/or documentation accordingly).

I've got version php 7.0.27

I'm still trying to wrap my head around how the Raspberry Pi works as far as command lines, etc.

I downloaded the Raspberry Pints 2.0.1 ZIP and unzipped it. At this point, do I take your code and replace the original code, then install it? I feel so technologically incapable. It's funny, I used to make fun of my little brother for sitting in front of a computer all day while I was outside working on cars and motorcycles. What a nerd! - Who's laughing now?!?

As far as flow meters go, I'm not there yet. If I decide to take that plunge, I'll definitely get an UNO.

 

[carrsgarage]

Okay, I've gotten this far:

Validating Entries...Success!
Checking DB connectivity...Success!
Checking folder permissions (/var/www/html/includes)...Success!

Cannot write the configuration files. Please check the /includes/ folder permissions. See the RPints Installation page on www.raspberrypints.com..
Cannot write to the logs directory. Please check the /logs/ folder permissions. See the RPints Installation page on www.raspberrypints.com.
Cannot write to the template cache directory. Please check the /templates_c/ folder permissions. See the RPints Installation page on www.raspberrypints.com.

Please press the back button on your browser to fix these errors

How do I correct?

Edit - I was able to get the /includes/ permissions changed, but I'm stumped about the /logs/ and /templates_c/ folders. I'm not even sure where they are.

 

[day_trippr]

RaspberryPints should be installed in the Apache2 DocumentRoot folder.
On Wheezy that was /var/www and all of the documentation on raspberrypints.com will indicate that.
But on Jessie (and probably Stretch) the default DocumentRoot is at /var/www/html.

fwiw, the default DocumentRoot can be changed by editing /etc/apache2/sites-available and change the DocumentRoot setting from /var/www/html to /var/www. Restart Apache2 if you make any changes (sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart).

Reference this post and some of the following posts for other tips that may still be applicable...

Cheers!

 

[carrsgarage]

Well, I decided to start screwing around since I can't make it work less than it does. Since the installer couldn't write to the logs or templates_c directories, and I couldn't find them anywhere, I created two new folders in the /var/www/html directory. The installer got a little farther, but now I've got this error:

Validating Entries...Success!
Checking DB connectivity...Success!
Checking folder permissions (/var/www/html/includes)...Success!
Update config files...Success!
Creating RPints database user...Success!
Running Database Script...
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in /var/www/html/install/includes/configprocessor.php:177 Stack trace: #0 {main} thrown in /var/www/html/install/includes/configprocessor.php on line 177

 

[day_trippr]

This is becoming a faq.
If you are trying to install the stock RaspberryPints 2.0.1 kit on Stretch with phpmysql7 you would get that message.
R'Pints uses a database connection paradigm that was deprecated with phpmysql7, which is part of the motivation behind @kcolby's work...

Cheers!

 

[collindv]

Anyone have a link to fittings that would go from the Adafruit 828 flow meters to my liquid lines (3/16''ID x 7/16''OD Thickwall PVC Beer Line)?

 

[Chuggles]

Hi All,

Thanks again for all the work everyone has put in so far. I'm excited to say I have successfully made it through step 7 and can see the default tap list displaying.

Wish I had followed @atariplayr's instructions more closely, as I got tripped up with an auto upgrade during Jessie installation by having an ethernet cord plugged into my pi. And fell down again by blindly following the apt-get upgrade in step 3 of the instructions.

I ran through my instruction set on a new Rpi system and found a mistake and some confusing instruction.
Attached are my version 2 instructions with corrected commands and clarifications made. These instructions should be used instead of what is posted by me originally on Dec 3, 2017.

Anyway, the Uno should be arriving in the next few days and I hope to move forward with flow meter installation at that point.

Thanks again!

 

[kcolby]

My apologies for not responding over the weekend. The wife and I were at the beach. My code completely replaces the previous RPints code and is entirely self contained (not an update, it is a complete solution in and of itself) and does not require anything from the original zip. (in fact it restructures a few things so you want to definitely not start from the original code).

I'll try to flesh out a few of the steps necessary to install my version to make it more clear. However, I don't have a Pi handy to gather exact command lines, so if somebody works through it, please keep notes! (Soon(tm) i'll have a Pi to test on)

 

[ccostel]

I have been reading for a while and am getting the parts together for building this. I ordered the Alamode board which seems to be unsupported now? Website comes up wrong.

Ordering the Arduino board today.

Interested in solutions for the pi 3b+ as I already have one.

 

[CadiBrewer]

I have been reading for a while and am getting the parts together for building this. I ordered the Alamode board which seems to be unsupported now? Website comes up wrong.

Ordering the Arduino board today.

Interested in solutions for the pi 3b+ as I already have one.

Definitely don't go with the Alamode board. The Arduino is bullet proof. If you want to use the 3b+, make friends with @kcolby as he is working on the version of pints that works with Raspbian Stretch.

 

[jbadd99]

Definitely don't go with the Alamode board. The Arduino is bullet proof. If you want to use the 3b+, make friends with @kcolby as he is working on the version of pints that works with Raspbian Stretch.

The Alamode will work, it just requires a little finesse, as does the 3b+ board. That said, I'm still running Jessie.

 

[day_trippr]

@jbadd99, did you write up how you got the AlaMode working on a 3B+? Or even a 3B?
Or did you refer to something already on the forum?

Cheers!

 

[jbadd99]

@jbadd99, did you write up how you got the AlaMode working on a 3B+? Or even a 3B?
Or did you refer to something already on the forum?

Cheers!

I followed these instructions and got mine working. Most importantly, power the Pi through the Alamode.

Admittedly, it's been nearly a year since I programmed mine using these instructions, so some of the modules may no longer be accessible.

Good Luck!

 

[CadiBrewer]

I followed these instructions and got mine working. Most importantly, power the Pi through the Alamode.

Admittedly, it's been nearly a year since I programmed mine using these instructions, so some of the modules may no longer be accessible.

Good Luck!

This post reminds me of posts where new people refer to @Yooper as a dude.

 

[day_trippr]

I followed these instructions and got mine working. Most importantly, power the Pi through the Alamode.[...]

I'm getting old - I remember that post now
I might give that a test drive when I get a chance.

imo, however, unless one has a packaging problem that the Alamode solves it's easier to go with an Uno R3, and way cheaper going with an R3 clone...

Cheers!

 

[jbadd99]

I'm getting old - I remember that post now
I might give that a test drive when I get a chance.

imo, however, unless one has a packaging problem that the Alamode solves it's easier to go with an Uno R3, and way cheaper going with an R3 clone...

Cheers!

I only went with the Alamode because I had already purchased and assembled it when I got into the depths of the thread and found there were people using the Uno.

 

[Michael Williams]

Ghost Pours: I'm still having issues with ghost pours, I did install a 4" small fan I run off the Uno to help with distributing cool air in the keezer. I'm using swiss flow meters I make cider, mead, and carbonated waters. Typically I like to carbonate with 30 psi and let the keg sit for about 2 weeks at around 32-34 deg in the keezer. After I tap the keg and use about 10 psi so serve some , not all my flowmeters are ghost pouring so its hard to say why. I like more carbonation, which might mean this isn't ideal having flowmeters if the carbonation in the lines is making the meter track pours. Any tips or trick would help. Thanks in advance.

 

[DrunkleJon]

Where are your flow meters located again and how are they orientated? Mine are about a foot from the quick disconnect, and I have them going down the side of the keg before heading up towards the taps. I havent had any ghost pours since doing that.


Also, A while back I promised I would re-post the files, explanations, etc from the last time I installed Raspberry Pints using Jessie (September of 2016) but it successfully installed everything onto a Pi3 B with alamode board.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2Ik_Urf2DpKTWQ1dENYWlhCZGc
The PDF's are the website's directions, the word document was my translation that worked. Disclaimer, I did not make the change to pull the old version of Chromium, and the available libraries, packages, and software versions may be different.

I may have to throw in a new sd card and tinker with the new versions.

 

[Michael Williams]

My meters are horizontal about 2’ of tubing away from th kegs on the top left inside the keezer.

 

[fusa]

What doesn't work with Raspbian Stretch? I successfully upgraded my RaspberryPints a couple of months ago to stretch, although I haven't enabled the pour meter yet.

 

[carrsgarage]

What doesn't work with Raspbian Stretch? I successfully upgraded my RaspberryPints a couple of months ago to stretch, although I haven't enabled the pour meter yet.

I've been having a hell of a time getting it loaded onto a brand new Pi with a fresh SD card and OS install.

 

[fusa]

The biggest difference I found was editing the autostart file. Its now at /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/

Mine looks like:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
@xscreensaver -no-splash
@point-rpi

@xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank

@chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --kiosk 127.0.0.1:8100 --incognito

sudo python /home/pi/pir_run.py

Which sets the Pi to load RaspberryPints in chromium at full screen and does not interact with keyboard or mouse. I also use the motion detection add-on to blank the screen. (which is pir_run.py)

Chromium command changed from chromium to chromium-browser. I also host the website at port 8100, not the default port 80.

Also the location to move the RapsberryPints files are no longer at /var/www/ but at /var/www/html/

The part about assigning a static ip is also outdated, you need to edit /etc/dhcpcd.conf not /etc/network/interfaces
I added the following to the end of my dhcpcd.conf

interface wlan0
static ip_address=192.168.1.105/24
static routers=192.168.1.1
static domain_name_servers=4.2.2.2 4.2.2.1

Most of these changes were before Stretch was released so I really just had to follow RaspberryPi's instructions on upgrading from Jessie. I haven't used the Pi to work with flow meters yet so that might be another issue.

 

[day_trippr]

File this under "BFD": I just got RaspberryPints working on an RPi Zero W with an Alamode shield using an updated version of my Jessie standard SD card - updated on an RPi2B then mounted on the Zero W. I was actually working towards getting to where I can boot an RPi3B+ off this Jessie kit but just for whims stuck a test Alamode card atop the Zero W and verified it responds properly to a flow meter pour.

But, "BFD": it's glacially slow compared to a 2B. It literally takes a handful of seconds for the pour message from the Alamode to propagate to the local console tap list display. Not a solution I'd recommend...

Cheers!

 

[DrunkleJon]

My meters are horizontal about 2’ of tubing away from th kegs on the top left inside the keezer.

It may be due to them being horizontal. Its always worth trying the simple fixes before getting overly technical.

 

[kcolby]

What doesn't work with Raspbian Stretch? I successfully upgraded my RaspberryPints a couple of months ago to stretch, although I haven't enabled the pour meter yet.

A fresh install of Stretch has PHP7 which does not support the database calls made in the RPints code base. If you upgraded you probably still have PHP5 which does support those calls.

That being said, I'm working with carrsgarage and Chuggles to get a working install process for my fork on a fresh Stretch install.

Also a stab has been made at collecting the notes from those and compiling into the beginnings of an install document at https://github.com/zaepho/RaspberryPints/wiki/Fresh-RaspberryPi-Stretch-Installation