Stc-1000+

They definitely have some "logic" they also have run dry protection and they shut down at 220f. They sell the same model with a speed control built in that has a 3rd wire on it but I didn't know that when I bought mine.

Aha... Well then, if they do contain logic, then yes it might not respond well to PWM. I guess that must be some desirable features for solar systems then, because I would personally not like that from a pump

Yeah it's got its downsides. Like when I'm recirculating and it shuts off. But it is nice when I forget it's running and it empties out and shuts off automatically.

smithabusa said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/inline-fuse-wiring-stc-1000-questions-445683/

Interesting read here on the current draw of stc being extremely low

Click to expand...

I read alphaomega's post about 3 fuses, then read thru the thread smithabusa posted and now I'm a little confused, as I know nothing about electronics and electricity.

I have a chest freezer that's used for serving kegs and fermenting ales. I have one STC controlling the freezer and a fan, and two STC's controlling fermentation temps with a heat wrap (www.reptilebasics.com). Should I have a fuse for the heat outlet instead of the power going into the STC?

I think you need PLM(pulse length modulation) to control those pumps. It is the length of the 12v pulse and the length of 0v in combination that control the pump RPM. Those 3 wire pot often goes to a controlbox that generate PLM to the pump.

AKA Pulse width modulation (PWM).

FWIW, I've read elsewhere (dunno where) about some pumps having their own pwm circuit built-in to ensure the RPM of the pump, and some of those having an input to use an external PWM signal

smithabusa said:

There is a fuse built into the power inlet, the slow blow 10amp fuse that will recommends

Click to expand...

Where do you get this power inlet with a fuse? That'd kill two birds with one stone with my upcoming build.

wbarber69 said:

http://bit.ly/1rqExyJ

Click to expand...

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

I was asking not because they're impossible to find, but more on a hope that a national retailer might carry them (Home Depot, Walmart, Radio Shack, etc.) and I had simply missed them before - or that smithabusa would tell me that they're a bit difficult to find in retail stores, so they were purchased online.

Settle down kids, save it for the playground.

Here's the inlet I use:
http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70133364


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

And the fuse http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=70159968

Arduino showed today, and flashed the two new units from Will. Awesome.

Question though, I can't seem to figure out the right combination of when to connect things etc. When I plug the header into the STC1000, I hear the USB cycle, and I get error messages that the com port is busy being used by another program. If I close everything down, reopen Arduino, re-upload to uno, then try again I eventually get it, but thinking I must be doing something wrong.

I have the uno plugged into USB, comes up as com5 in device manager (shows arduino uno, com5), I open Arduino, open the picprog file, then hit upload. Sometimes it will upload, and others it will say com port being used by another program. Once I have it uploaded, I go into serial monitor, and sometimes get that same message.

When do you plug your USB device in, and when do you connect it to the STC1000 in your process? Experience anything similar to what I have going on?

Another dumb question, once you flash the STC, is the program removed from the Arduino Uno? I would like to be able to flash lots of STC's right in a row if possible, from the serial monitor screen could I flash them over and over or does it require a new upload to the Arduino, then go back into serial monitor each time?

Thanks very much guys.

Greg

Plug in USB, then start Arduino software, then open serial monitor and flash.

Before you do the next one you need to close the Arduino software and unplug the Arduino. Then make the connection to the next STC, plug the USB back in, open Arduino software, flash, repeat.

And no, you cannot flash multiple units without restarting the Arduino software, as far as I know.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Wrong post.

Gotcha, thanks Will the stcmaster

smithabusa said:

Gotcha, thanks Will the stcmaster

Click to expand...

Mats is definitely the STCmaster, but I may be the less glamorous "flashmaster" as I have about 350 under my belt so far!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Im up to 3, flashed one of the two twice for practice lol

I was able to flash 2 the other day with the Pro mini.Those things are so cheap I'm going to mount one in each of my stc1000+ enclosures.I installed header pins in the stc1000 and ran wires out the back.Thanks for all of the hard work Alphaomega.
I got it engrained in the brain 98grd5v3

Hi!

Will, I have no doubt that you're the 'grandmaster flash' However, my poor dev board has probably seen a couple of hundred cycles at least. And I have not had these types of issues myself. But I'm running Linux. Only thing I have noticed is that if the serial monitor is open when I remove the USB, it will have a new device name when I replug it, but I never need to restart the IDE.
So the obvious solution is to switch to Linux

If you need to flash a lot of units, and are annoyed by this, you could try to enable AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD in the sketch. With this you won't need a computer at all. Just power. When you enable power to the Arduino, it will check for an STC present and if so upload. I think that auto upload works now, but it's been a while since I tested it.

Bigdaddyale said:

I was able to flash 2 the other day with the Pro mini.Those things are so cheap I'm going to mount one in each of my stc1000+ enclosures.I installed header pins in the stc1000 and ran wires out the back.Thanks for all of the hard work Alphaomega.
I got it engrained in the brain 98grd5v3

Click to expand...

I really think that just adding a connector is better. You could do it this way, but then you should add a diode between the arduino Vcc and STC Vcc to make sure Arduino is unpowered when not connected.

Or...

Check out my next post

I finally had some time to work on my datalogger project for the STC.
It is far from finished, but this will be sweet

It is a pretty simple deal actually, an arduino pro mini that is hooked up to the relevant lines of the STC. If you remember my fermentation fridge setup in this post, I have separated the display from the main board and connect them via a cable instead. The logger will simply plug into this cable.
For development, I have also modified my dev board in a simpler way, that is probably a more reasonable way to go if you are interested in doing this yourself.


So this is my dev board with the needed 'upgrade'.


This is the protoboard I use. An arduino pro mini, mini SD card module and a light gate (this is optional, I want to count bubbles in the air lock as well).


The bottom of the board. Connector for the cable and I also added a pushbutton.


The protoboard fits in an encosure.


Top of the enclosure.

The way I have chosen to implement this is pretty clever I think.
First off, I have chosen to maintain the connections from the programming sketch, so I can upload it and reflash the STC with the same hardware.
When using it as a logger, the temp probe outputs are connected to analog input pins and read the same voltage as the STC and the exact same method is used to convert the reading to a temperature. On my dev board this seems to differ 0.2 deg C from the STC, but it seems to be pretty consistently off by this, so it would be pretty easy to correct for.
I'll also log heating and cooling (and bubble count).

So far I have only gotten proof of concept working. I need to 'polish' the logging sketch a bit, but I'm pretty amazed myself at how easy this was

I'll probably put this project up on the github page when I feel it is good enough to share.

Cheers!
//mats

alphaomega said:

If you need to flash a lot of units, and are annoyed by this, you could try to enable AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD in the sketch.

Click to expand...

This is awesome! FYI, I had to make a small tweak in the sketch to get this to work with the fahrenheit version; after uncommenting the #define for AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_FAHRENHEIT, I also needed to remove the "AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_CELSIUS ||" from the #ifdef statement a few lines down. I don't think the "||" operator gets along with #ifdef?

Anyway, this is a great feature, thanks for pointing it out!

alphaomega said:

Will, I have no doubt that you're the 'grandmaster flash'

Click to expand...

Totally off-topic, but speaking of "Grandmaster Flash", have you seen this story? Hilarious.

wilconrad said:

This is awesome! FYI, I had to make a small tweak in the sketch to get this to work with the fahrenheit version; after uncommenting the #define for AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_FAHRENHEIT, I also needed to remove the "AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_CELSIUS ||" from the #ifdef statement a few lines down. I don't think the "||" operator gets along with #ifdef?

Anyway, this is a great feature, thanks for pointing it out!

Click to expand...

But of course... I'll fix that, noobish misstake
I don't know about great... I mostly added it because with my fermentation fridge, the STC is mounted and I don't want to have dig out and boot up my old eeePC to reflash it...
But I'm glad you like it

wilconrad said:

Totally off-topic, but speaking of "Grandmaster Flash", have you seen this story? Hilarious.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that was in the 'news' here as well last week Pretty darn funny

wilconrad said:

This is awesome! FYI, I had to make a small tweak in the sketch to get this to work with the fahrenheit version; after uncommenting the #define for AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_FAHRENHEIT, I also needed to remove the "AUTOMATIC_UPLOAD_CELSIUS ||" from the #ifdef statement a few lines down. I don't think the "||" operator gets along with #ifdef?

Anyway, this is a great feature, thanks for pointing it out!



Totally off-topic, but speaking of "Grandmaster Flash", have you seen this story? Hilarious.

Click to expand...

This is great guys, so much easier now to flash many of them when the opportunity arises.

I made up a quick graphic in case anyone else wants to try and modify the sketch

Yeah.
I already fixed it and pushed the change, so you can get the sketch from github as well.

alphaomega said:

Yeah.
I already fixed it and pushed the change, so you can get the sketch from github as well.

Click to expand...

You are too fast Mats

Alpha;

So for logging you had to splice between the two boards, or simply tap into the connections.
I had hoped that one could simply read the temp probe, or get serial data from the STC.
I was looking at building a simply arduino board with a display to log/show temp graphs on
the display. That way the logging/display board could be plugged into an STC, or not.

adam01 said:

Alpha;

So for logging you had to splice between the two boards, or simply tap into the connections.
I had hoped that one could simply read the temp probe, or get serial data from the STC.
I was looking at building a simply arduino board with a display to log/show temp graphs on
the display. That way the logging/display board could be plugged into an STC, or not.

Click to expand...

I don't understand... This is exactly that (well... I won't use any display). I can connect or disconnect the logger whenever. Maybe I don't understand what you are asking. If you build an enclosure for your STC, then you can simply have a connector (DB9 comes to mind).

What you need to be able to log the temp(s) on an Arduino, is the probe output(s), and you also need common ground and preferably common AD ref voltage.
You can find these on the programming header + the temp probe terminals. You won't be able to monitor cooling/heating though.

I found it good enough to 'steal' power from the STC and feed Arduino with that and use the internal AD ref. This is also very convenient as you won't need any external power supply for the Arduino. If you are going to run a graphical display, you'll probably need external power.

Serial communication is probably not going to happen. At least I won't attempt to. Reason being it will not fit (at least within this firmware), and it won't be 'good' (i.e it would pretty much have to be hard coded 1 wire comm with severely limited functionality). It would be a cool experiment to see if it could be done, but even if it can, you probably would not be able to run anything else on the STC, it would be a pure slave. I'm not really interested in that and I don't have the time to spare to have a go at it either.

alphaomega said:

I don't understand... This is exactly that (well... I won't use any display). I can connect or disconnect the logger whenever. Maybe I don't understand what you are asking. If you build an enclosure for your STC, then you can simply have a connector (DB9 comes to mind).

What you need to be able to log the temp(s) on an Arduino, is the probe output(s), and you also need common ground and preferably common AD ref voltage.
You can find these on the programming header + the temp probe terminals. You won't be able to monitor cooling/heating though.

I found it good enough to 'steal' power from the STC and feed Arduino with that and use the internal AD ref. This is also very convenient as you won't need any external power supply for the Arduino. If you are going to run a graphical display, you'll probably need external power.

Serial communication is probably not going to happen. At least I won't attempt to. Reason being it will not fit (at least within this firmware), and it won't be 'good' (i.e it would pretty much have to be hard coded 1 wire comm with severely limited functionality). It would be a cool experiment to see if it could be done, but even if it can, you probably would not be able to run anything else on the STC, it would be a pure slave. I'm not really interested in that and I don't have the time to spare to have a go at it either.

Click to expand...

you can't tap into the heating / cooling output pins and log them as an on/off state? I tapped into the 12v control for them when I added the tri-color LED, I am not sure what level they have coming out of the chip that opens the transistors, is it 5v?

Oh, yes you can. And I do.
It is all 5v logic. What I said was, that if you don't solder on connections (like the picture of my dev board), but rather use the programming header and probe terminal(s) for the breaking out the signals, then you wont have access to heating/cooling signals, only temp.
The point I was making is that it is not enough to connect the probe terminals to the arduino, as you will need common ground as well (but if you are willing to use programming header as well, then at least you can get something). So, say you have a boxed STC, but have put in a connector for the programmer, and a connector for the probe(s), then you can build a logger/whatever that simply 'jack' into these.(but without heating/cooling). But with only a connector for the probe(s) (i.e. without access to the programming header), you can't.

I had a non stc-1000 temperature controller fail on my fermentation chamber today and would like to order a replacement stc-1000+ pre-flashed with this firmware if possible. I noticed that Black Box sells them, but it says he's on vacation until Thursday and orders are turned off until then. Does anyone know if anyone else sells them pre-flashed? I need to get it replaced as soon as possible and would rather not have to order a non-flashed controller. Thanks for the help.

I have a couple I just bought from Will, I flashed 1.06 on them, can drop one in the mail tomorrow for you if that helps get you by.

Greg

alphaomega said:

I finally had some time to work on my datalogger project for the STC.
It is far from finished, but this will be sweet ...

Cheers!
//mats

Click to expand...

I'm having trouble building this based on your photos.
I'm hoping you didn't intend for us to start the build yet. I just wanted to express my interest in this new development and encourage further progress and updates. Thank you!

Singletrack said:

I'm having trouble building this based on your photos.
I'm hoping you didn't intend for us to start the build yet. I just wanted to express my interest in this new development and encourage further progress and updates. Thank you!

Click to expand...

Hey!
Thanks a lot! It's nice to know it is of interest to someone
Yes, I know. It is work in progress... I've started a github project, but it is still mainly for my own use. I probably won't document the heck out of this, as it is kind of 'power user' stuff, but absolutely well enough that anyone with some 'maker skills' will have no problem wrapping their heads around it.
The sketch I'm developing will be pretty much the stuff I want, but if you have other stuff in mind, it should be a good starting point.
I'll try to push some code and update some documentation in the next few hours if you're eager, but it is still early

Cheers!

I have some comments and questions on v.1.06:

When in the soft power off state, is the display supposed to show OFF continously? It would be nice to have it show the temperature as well, say as an alternate display after pressing "SET", if you're just letting the temperature free rise or you want to know what temperature the beer is conditioning at just at ambient temperature.

When turned back on from the soft power off state the temp reading seems to default to Temp Sensor 2 and shows some erratic values even when it is disabled.

Also when turned back on from soft power off it seems the temp reading is reset, and it takes some time for the display to stabilize. Not sure what is going on here, if I'm not mistaken this didn't occur in previous versions and showed the correct temperature immediately as long as the temp sensor itself was stable.

alphaomega said:

Hey!
Thanks a lot! It's nice to know it is of interest to someone
Yes, I know. It is work in progress... I've started a github project, but it is still mainly for my own use. I probably won't document the heck out of this, as it is kind of 'power user' stuff, but absolutely well enough that anyone with some 'maker skills' will have no problem wrapping their heads around it.
The sketch I'm developing will be pretty much the stuff I want, but if you have other stuff in mind, it should be a good starting point.
I'll try to push some code and update some documentation in the next few hours if you're eager, but it is still early

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Mats, you’re the hardest working man in brewtronics! No, instead of pushing code and updating documentation in the next few hours, I suggest you take a break and have a cold one. (Then right back to work! )

I certainly wasn’t trying to push you. I just wanted to show enthusiasm for this project, since that seems to be the only payment you request/receive.

In my case, logging would be great because I am away from my brewery all week for work. For all I know, the STC takes a 5-day snooze as soon as I leave. With my STC+, at least I can vary temperatures while I am away. (Thank you!) Now I would like to know how fast I can ramp without crazy heat-cool oscillations.

[Yeah, I know, with a BrewPi I could blah, blah, blah. Wrong thread, people. Sorry BrewPioneers, must be the saison talking.]

My first step is to install and use the second temperature probe to control temperature offset. Brilliant. I’m not sure I understand how to install the probe from reading the operating manual, but maybe I just need to read through some of the old posts. I was disappointed to find that my stash of resistors are all 5% tolerance, and I should use 1%. Oh well, someone will sell them to me.

So, you see I am not quite ready for your logging modification, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless.

orangehero said:

I have some comments and questions on v.1.06:

When in the soft power off state, is the display supposed to show OFF continously? It would be nice to have it show the temperature as well, say as an alternate display after pressing "SET", if you're just letting the temperature free rise or you want to know what temperature the beer is conditioning at just at ambient temperature.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your feedback!
Yes it is, as previously it was blank, which led people to believe the unit was broken, when they plugged it in after some time when it was only in 'off mode'.
I'm not crazy about this idea, but I understand your reasoning. I'm not sure I even can do this as the timer responsible for temp and temp control is shut off during power down. I'll make a note and think about this for a bit.

orangehero said:

When turned back on from the soft power off state the temp reading seems to default to Temp Sensor 2 and shows some erratic values even when it is disabled.

Click to expand...

Yes. I've noticed too. This due to pwr btn being used for more than one thing. I'll see if there is something I can do to prevent the switch. Switching temp is 'legal' though even if Pb2=0. The setting only says not to use probe 2 in regulation algorithm.

orangehero said:

Also when turned back on from soft power off it seems the temp reading is reset, and it takes some time for the display to stabilize. Not sure what is going on here, if I'm not mistaken this didn't occur in previous versions and showed the correct temperature immediately as long as the temp sensor itself was stable.

Click to expand...

Yes. But with probe 2 I need to init the the filter statically as taking readings from both made init too complex. I don't think this is a big thing as you still have the 1 minute grace period on start.

Singletrack said:

Mats, you’re the hardest working man in brewtronics! No, instead of pushing code and updating documentation in the next few hours, I suggest you take a break and have a cold one. (Then right back to work! )

I certainly wasn’t trying to push you. I just wanted to show enthusiasm for this project, since that seems to be the only payment you request/receive.

In my case, logging would be great because I am away from my brewery all week for work. For all I know, the STC takes a 5-day snooze as soon as I leave. With my STC+, at least I can vary temperatures while I am away. (Thank you!) Now I would like to know how fast I can ramp without crazy heat-cool oscillations.

[Yeah, I know, with a BrewPi I could blah, blah, blah. Wrong thread, people. Sorry BrewPioneers, must be the saison talking.]

My first step is to install and use the second temperature probe to control temperature offset. Brilliant. I’m not sure I understand how to install the probe from reading the operating manual, but maybe I just need to read through some of the old posts. I was disappointed to find that my stash of resistors are all 5% tolerance, and I should use 1%. Oh well, someone will sell them to me.

So, you see I am not quite ready for your logging modification, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless.

Click to expand...

No worries, it is good to have some incentive.
5% might well work. You could try measuring, and see if you find a resistor that matches the one on the stc.

Maybe a tip..?
Is there available space, in a profile, to set DryHop1 and DryHop2 as parameter. Example dH1=120 dH2=168 and the display flashes dH1 when the time is reached?

Hi,

just received the wrong version (from eBay seller mixtea). It is labelled 20140528 FR-4, micro controller is HOLTEK HT66F40, see attached photos.

Is this version compatible in any way?

Cheers.

HansEinar said:

Maybe a tip..?
Is there available space, in a profile, to set DryHop1 and DryHop2 as parameter. Example dH1=120 dH2=168 and the display flashes dH1 when the time is reached?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion! But I think unless you could incorporate an automatic hop dropper of some sort, this would be of limited use (and also use up valuable code space). I would think setting an appointment in your calendar (in your phone or filofax or whatever you like to use), would be more useful. I would think more often than not, the ferm fridge will not be in direct line of sight when this happens anyway. Using the buzzer would make more sense, but even so, I think this just adds unnecessary complexity.

haheim said:

Hi,

just received the wrong version (from eBay seller mixtea). It is labelled 20140528 FR-4, micro controller is HOLTEK HT66F40, see attached photos.

Is this version compatible in any way?

Cheers.

Click to expand...

No, sorry it is not compatible with STC-1000+. It'll still function as a regular STC-1000 though which is not all that bad. They can be useful for a bunch of stuff. Maintaining HLT temp during brewing for example, or just as a backup.