HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

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My problem is related with lcd weird character. Anybody has this problem? What is the solution? I am using the suggested guide on the first post.
 
- Did/does the LCD ever work properly?
- Can you post a picture of the LCD?
- Did you build the LCD interface yourself or are you using a BrewPi shield?

Cheers!
 
Dolomieu said:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Roku/comments/1z80mb/problem_with_roku_3_wifi_interference/

I have been trying to figure out what's been going on with their networks for over a year. A soft reset gets you back up and running but WTF??? I'm no IT guy, though work likes to use me as one, so I had no idea that this could be the issue until I set it up on my network. I have had this brewpi running since June and Rpints with daytrippers logger running on another unit for months with out issue. Turns out they they have been good canaries in my mine, sota speak.

Anyway, I know the roku is a pretty popular device so I thought I would share. Not sure exactly how I'm going to fix the issue but at least it seems fairly easy (though extremely annoying) to manage.

If anyone has a roku and a brewpi running with out issue please let me know.

Edit: when the roku seemingly causes this issue it also basically kick all the devices off the network: phones, printers, laptops and cameras. I would think that severity may vary depending on the router. I have a cheap belkin I picked up years ago.

My apologies for the long post. I'm stuck in Charlotte waiting on my 3rd delayed flight this trip and I'm getting bored.
Click to expand...

I have a 1st Gen Roku HD, 2x XBox 360, Wii, 4 PCs, 6 laptops, 10 Andriod tablets or phones, 2 ipods, 2 Blueray Players, 3 Smart TVs, 2 Wyse Thin Clients, 2 Servers, BCS 460, 2 HP printers with Jet Direct Cards, HP All in one printer, BrewPi running with RaspPi B+. For network gear Motorola (owned) Cable Modem on Comcast. Asus RT-AC66U router/AC Wifi as the primary router. Cisco SG200-26 gigabit switch. A couple older Linksys WRT54G access points to extend wifi coverage to other buildings and across most my property.

So far I haven't had any issues with the BrewPi dropping out. I do work in the IT field which is pretty obvious when one looks at my home network.
 
@day_trippr, it doent work properly. Starts working good, but after some cicles of start fridge and heater the lcd start showing weird characters. I will post some pictures tomorrow. And I built my own hardware, but like suggested on the first post of this thread.
 
Ok, you're mostly in good shape. Much better than a dead display.

One thing about the whole BrewPi Uno-LCD interface it is extremely "fragile". The BrewPi AVR code never refreshes the full display - ever - so a single, noise-induced error will leave the display irrecoverably corrupted, requiring a reset of the Uno.

It needs to be noted that the Uno will still be doing its thing even while the display is totally illegible, and a reset will just cause everything to wait 10 minutes before picking right back up again.

- Anyway, start with the voltage level at the Uno, HC595 shift register and LCD. Make sure it's close to 5V at all point.

- Make sure the HC595 and the LCD aren't in between the power source and any relays.

- The three wires from Uno to the HC595 (Uno IO 10, 11 and 13) should be kept as short as possible. Likewise, the wires to LCD pins 6 and 4.

- And there should be a couple/few high frequency bypass capacitors (eg: 0.1uf to 1uf) across the 5V/GND lines at the HC595.

A few things to look at...

Cheers!

brewpi_lcd_new.jpg
 
Borisfa said:
@day_trippr, it doent work properly. Starts working good, but after some cicles of start fridge and heater the lcd start showing weird characters. I will post some pictures tomorrow. And I built my own hardware, but like suggested on the first post of this thread.
Click to expand...


This is the exact problem I encountered, I'm trying to follow the new guide by daytrippr which is different to the one in this thread I'm hoping all my parts arrive this week to rebuild it, but I should be able to get a breadboard version later on today, if it solves my problem issues you'd be in with a good shout it'll solve yours to I guess.
 
@time2brew, I am using your suggested schematic , but after some time, weird characters appears on the lcd. Is it happens with you?
 
@day_trippr, Arent there other simple way to fix my system? Add more capacitor??? I am asking it, because I have 2 system mounted and change it will be a hard work to me and I have no skill so good to do this.

Thanks,

Fabiano
 
Borisfa said:
@day_trippr, Arent there other simple way to fix my system? Add more capacitor??? I am asking it, because I have 2 system mounted and change it will be a hard work to me and I have no skill so good to do this.

Thanks,

Fabiano
Click to expand...


Here is the breadboard I've followed https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f258/how-brewpi-lcd-add-510036/ I'm just waiting for my test profile to finish running before I plug the display in to see if it works I really hope it does!
 
About weird characters, look what occurs when fridge turn off. Interesting is that it occurs only when system send to relay an information to turn off the fridge. When I reset the system and brewpi send the first info to turn on the frigde, the lcd still showing properly.

Looking for other systems, the capacitor used not on RC circuit is diferent of I am using (look below the black capacitor that have other orange small one). Could be this the cause?

View attachment 1420987416938.jpg

View attachment 1420987431755.jpg
 
That schematic is correct and really isn't materially different from what I did.
I noted that the pull-ups at the HC595 aren't needed as the rev C BrewPi AVR code apparently assigned pull-ups at the AVR. But having the pull-ups won't make the display more susceptible to noise.

The 100nf (= 0.1uf) cap is perfect.
More of them would be better

I also see a big electrolytic cap in the foreground straddling the 5V and GND rails. That would be an asset, but you have it installed reversed. The negative lead is clearly marked with the vertical stripe on the right - and you have that side plugged into the 5V header. Might want to fix that ;)

Also, that schematic shows the electrolytic cap placed at the LCD, not the Uno.
Only Elco knows if that's significant.
You might want to try soldering it directly to the LCD pins to see if it makes any difference.

If the problem is related to noise incurred when a relay is switched, most likely that's voltage or ground noise that's coupling back to the HC595 (which is a total glitch-catcher). The point that the relay module draws its coil voltage wants to be as close to the power supply as possible and away from the shift register.

Also, break up the parallel wires (pull them apart) to help avoid coupling clocks to data signals. Specifically the three signal connections between the Uno and the shift register, and the wires to LCD pins 4 and 6, should not be run parallel within their respective groups for the entire ~8" of jumper wire.

Using SCRs instead of relays might resolve DC noise problems, but they introduce other issues like control input requirements - I don't think you can drive an SCR directly from the Uno - and heat dissipation. So there's a trade-off.

More if I think of it...

Cheers!
 
ok i am back and trying to install the script. I am using debian mint to see if i can get it up and working.

Now, following the directions on http://docs.brewpi.com/manual-brewpi-install/webserver-setup.html and trying to pull up the server, it keeps giving me an error that it is not found. I am also assuming that the software will work on this computer even though I still dont have the hardware in to configure to. I ran all the code from the page and I guess it was all completed.

Should I wait for the hardware to get in before I play around with it, or am i doing something else wrong?
 
After just installing Apache2 you can create an index.htm/.html file in /var/www and access that through the web server, just point a browser at the server (your laptop's localhost, for instance).

Then when you have PHP installed, you can create a sample index.php file and access that through the web server (note: I'm not sure what the hierarchy is for default "index" files - you may need to use an explicit url like localhost/index.htm or /index.php to get to one versus the other).

No other software or hardware required to get that far.

Cheers!

[edit] The default log files for Apache are found in /var/log/apache2. The access and error logs can be informative...
 
Is there a cheaper LCD alternative then what's listed on their site? I don't want it to involve code changes or different wiring schematics that have been laid out here.
 
day_trippr said:
If you want an LCD cheaper than $11 delivered you'll have to hit ebay.
Looks like you could cut the acquisition cost in half if you don't mind waiting...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

$11 would be fine but what you linked doesn't ship to my location. So any of these 20x4 LCD modules on ebay should work fine and use existing wiring schematics?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I am trying to get my new Pi up and running. The script is running but when I try to update my SeinSmart Uno by way of BrewPi/RaspberryPi, I get a message that "Your Arduino is either not programmed or running a very old version of BrewPi. Please upload a new version of BrewPi to your Arduino."
I just bought the Arduino and I know it works since I downloaded and programmed various "Blink" programs.
I am a NewBee, so thanks for any help!
 
day_trippr said:
That schematic is correct and really isn't materially different from what I did.
I noted that the pull-ups at the HC595 aren't needed as the rev C BrewPi AVR code apparently assigned pull-ups at the AVR. But having the pull-ups won't make the display more susceptible to noise.

The 100nf (= 0.1uf) cap is perfect.
More of them would be better

I also see a big electrolytic cap in the foreground straddling the 5V and GND rails. That would be an asset, but you have it installed reversed. The negative lead is clearly marked with the vertical stripe on the right - and you have that side plugged into the 5V header. Might want to fix that ;)

Also, that schematic shows the electrolytic cap placed at the LCD, not the Uno.
Only Elco knows if that's significant.
You might want to try soldering it directly to the LCD pins to see if it makes any difference.

If the problem is related to noise incurred when a relay is switched, most likely that's voltage or ground noise that's coupling back to the HC595 (which is a total glitch-catcher). The point that the relay module draws its coil voltage wants to be as close to the power supply as possible and away from the shift register.

Also, break up the parallel wires (pull them apart) to help avoid coupling clocks to data signals. Specifically the three signal connections between the Uno and the shift register, and the wires to LCD pins 4 and 6, should not be run parallel within their respective groups for the entire ~8" of jumper wire.

Using SCRs instead of relays might resolve DC noise problems, but they introduce other issues like control input requirements - I don't think you can drive an SCR directly from the Uno - and heat dissipation. So there's a trade-off.

More if I think of it...

Cheers!
Click to expand...
@day_trippr, I did lot of your suggestions and change the fridge (was a old frigde for a frostfree one) and after some cicles and after running 3 hours, still ok. Tomorrow I told you if still ok.

I solder the capacitor directly on lcd, decouple wires, change some positions of ground and 5v....

Obs: sorry for my English.

Fabiano
 
Borisfa said:
@day_trippr, I did lot of your suggestions and change the fridge (was a old frigde for a frostfree one) and after some cicles and after running 3 hours, still ok. Tomorrow I told you if still ok.

I solder the capacitor directly on lcd, decouple wires, change some positions of ground and 5v....

Obs: sorry for my English.

Fabiano
Click to expand...

Excellent - sounds like you're moving in the right direction!

One thing I just noticed in this picture:
248017d1420987433-howto-make-brewpi-fermentation-controller-cheap-1420987431755.jpg


it appears the V5 protoshield only makes a single 5V connection to the Uno (that header pin is over in the "Power" section near the corner where the power supply connects).

The V6 protoshield adds a bottom-side 2x3 header that picks up an additional 5V and ground from the ICSP header in the foreground. The V5 protoshield didn't have that. I expect that could make some difference between my builds and yours, as the power and ground distribution on these protoshield boards (and the Uno PCB as well) isn't great.

It's only a double-sided PCB (no inner layers) and there's some rather long thin conductors sending 5V and ground to various places. If you were to continue to have issues I might suggest wire-bonding ground pins and power pins to fatten up the conductors.

And your English is just fine - and likely an order of magnitude better than my command of Latin languages ;)

Cheers!
 
@day_trippr, thanks again. Still working good without weird characters.

I would like to ask how close beer temperature (BT) near to set point (SP). If you look to picture attached, you can see that the BT is not too close to SP. I imagene that a good difference was 0.1°C and not almost 0.4°C (like we can see).

What parameter should I adjust to decrease the error, without add overshooting?

Thanks

Fabiano

View attachment 1421316056640.jpg
 
I'm sure this has been asked, but I was going one of you guys could help with a quick answer.

I'm trying to run the install script from the brewpi website, and am running into a few issues. On their site, it said to use the following commands to run the installation

git clone https://github.com/BrewPi/btewpo.tools.git ~/brewpi-tools

sudo ~/brewpi.tools/install.sh

I guess my first dumb question is: those lines are supposed to be separated, right? I type the first one, wait for stuff to happen, then type the second?

When I type in the first line, it's asking for a user name and password, which I don't see listed anywhere in the instructions. What is it?

I know I've got to be doing something wrong here. Any help is appreciated.
 
I'm assuming you're here.

There are indeed two commands there.

Code: 
$ git clone https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-tools.git ~/brewpi-tools
$ sudo ~/brewpi-tools/install.sh

The first one goes and grabs the files at the target on Github, the second one executes the installation script.

There's no password required for either step. Not sure what's prompting that...

Cheers!
 
Borisfa said:
@day_trippr, thanks again. Still working good without weird characters.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Good job! :mug:

I would like to ask how close beer temperature (BT) near to set point (SP). If you look to picture attached, you can see that the BT is not too close to SP. I imagene that a good difference was 0.1°C and not almost 0.4°C (like we can see).

What parameter should I adjust to decrease the error, without add overshooting?
Click to expand...

How do you have the Beer probe connected to your fermenting vessel?

Looking at the chart, it appears to me that the Beer temperature plot is tracking the Fridge plot very closely (with an offset, of course). There's very little slope difference between what is visible between the two curves, which makes me think the thermal coupling and/or isolation aren't optimal.

Not certain which settings you'd change to tighten up the Beer temp without seeing what you have right now...

Cheers!
 
I would like to ask how close beer temperature (BT) near to set point (SP). If you look to picture attached, you can see that the BT is not too close to SP. I imagene that a good difference was 0.1°C and not almost 0.4°C (like we can see).
Click to expand...

I had the same issues with mine until I got a thermowell.
 
day_trippr said:
I'm assuming you're here.

There are indeed two commands there.

Code: 
$ git clone https://github.com/BrewPi/brewpi-tools.git ~/brewpi-tools
$ sudo ~/brewpi-tools/install.sh

The first one goes and grabs the files at the target on Github, the second one executes the installation script.

There's no password required for either step. Not sure what's prompting that...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

After running the first command, it returns :
Cloning into '~brewpi-tools'...
Username for' https://github.com':

It sounds like this isn't common, so I'm wondering if I've just got something wrong in my Raspian setup. I'm really new at this.
 
Borisfa said:
@day_trippr, thanks again. Still working good without weird characters.

I would like to ask how close beer temperature (BT) near to set point (SP). If you look to picture attached, you can see that the BT is not too close to SP. I imagene that a good difference was 0.1°C and not almost 0.4°C (like we can see).

What parameter should I adjust to decrease the error, without add overshooting?

Thanks

Fabiano
Click to expand...


The other possibility that I've just noticed on mine is that after a reset of brewpi is assigned the temp probes the wrong way round beer as fridge and fridge to beer.

Whilst it was doing this my beer temp swung 1-2c either side of my water
 
jevers said:
After running the first command, it returns :
Cloning into '~brewpi-tools'...
Username for' https://github.com':

It sounds like this isn't common, so I'm wondering if I've just got something wrong in my Raspian setup. I'm really new at this.
Click to expand...

Jeeze, I apologize, but apparently I totally forgot about this.
In my defense I've had a Github account for-friggin'-ever without knowing it had anything to do with cloning a repository, as Chrome stores passwords for such accounts and I never have to enter them again ;)

Cheers!
 
Mikmonken said:
The other possibility that I've just noticed on mine is that after a reset of brewpi is assigned the temp probes the wrong way round beer as fridge and fridge to beer.

Whilst it was doing this my beer temp swung 1-2c either side of my water
Click to expand...

Hmm....What does "reset of brewpi" actually mean?

I've never seen BrewPi lose track of device assignments - unless the Uno was re-programmed without restoring previous settings...

Cheers!
 
day_trippr said:
Hmm....What does "reset of brewpi" actually mean?



I've never seen BrewPi lose track of device assignments - unless the Uno was re-programmed without restoring previous settings...



Cheers!
Click to expand...


Sorry that's what I mean, when I had the prompt to reprogram I didn't restore previous settings, and ten mixed up the temp probes when reassigning them.
 
day_trippr said:
Awesome! Good job! :mug:



How do you have the Beer probe connected to your fermenting vessel?

Looking at the chart, it appears to me that the Beer temperature plot is tracking the Fridge plot very closely (with an offset, of course). There's very little slope difference between what is visible between the two curves, which makes me think the thermal coupling and/or isolation aren't optimal.

Not certain which settings you'd change to tighten up the Beer temp without seeing what you have right now...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

@Day_trippr, you are right. After did my final implementation, where I think fixed weird character, I put both probes inside I glass with water to test the temperatures and the controlability. So, I imagine the error should be lower 0,1°C. How to set (tunning) the PID to reduce the error and do not increase the overshoot?
 
I'd start by taking the Chamber probe out of the water glass and position it roughly in the middle of the chamber. And if you don't have a small fan keeping the chamber air stirred up, I recommend adding one.

Next, I'd strap the Beer probe to the side of your fermentation vessel covered with something thick - I use roughly 4" square 1" thick foam pads.

Then, go into BrewPi - Maintenance Panel - Advanced Settings - Control Constants and see what the values are for Temperature idle range top and Temperature idle range bottom. They define the "dead band" range I believe. If the spread is wider than you want you can narrow both values toward the middle.

Otoh, if the spread appears tight enough already, perhaps recording all of the current BrewPi settings, and then reloading the BrewPi default settings and starting over (with the probes now relocated) and then observing what BrewPi does might be the way to go...

Cheers!
 
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