HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

Maybe this pic is better?

 

Make sure you don't have the colors wrong. I know my colors on the probes where in fact, not what this thread says they were.

 

Has anyone running multiple instances, had issues with the whole public beer/admin page?

I can get it to have a public panel, and the admin asks me to login but returns a 500 internal server error.

 

You make an excellent point rabeb25 - I got my probes from ebay/China w/o any markings or documentation. How were you able to figure which is the correct way?

 

I got mine from there as well.... I think it was in the details of the auction.

 

YUP! Thank you, you're 100% right! Thanks so much...now the setup and troubleshooting continues.

 

Read through the last 50 pages or so. I've provided (more than once) a method of figuring out which wires go where.

 

I've got a head scratcher here... I have 2 different relays.. One 2 relay board, one 4 relay board:




The 4 relay board works fine, but the 2 relay board doesn't. They both show the indicator lights popping on, but the 2 relay board doesn't switch. I thought it was a bad board, but I have another one, it does the same thing. Indicator light comes on, but the relay doesn't fire.

Any ideas?

 

Fix the links? Not sure onedrive even allows hot-linking, but those image urls are definitely not working here.

Otherwise...my 2-channel boards have a jumper that dictates the source of the power to energize the relay coils. It can be tied to logic power or separate 5V. If your board is similar, make sure that jumper is over the correct header pins for your configuration...

Cheers!

[edit] Ah, that's much better. That jumper is near the top of the first picture and it appears to be in the proper position.
The other thing, then, is to make sure you are powering the 2-channel board from 5V, not 3.3V.

 

Yeah, I even tried this with a simple breadboard setup..

int Relay = 11;
int Relay2 = 12;

void setup()
{
pinMode(Relay, OUTPUT); //Set Pin12 as output
pinMode(Relay2, OUTPUT); //Set Pin12 as output
}

void loop()
{
digitalWrite(Relay, HIGH); //Turn off relay
digitalWrite(Relay2, LOW); //Turn on relay
delay(2000);
digitalWrite(Relay, LOW); //Turn on relay
digitalWrite(Relay2, HIGH); //Turn off relay
delay(2000);
}

http://cloudprojects.blob.core.windows.net/images/IMG_0593.MOV
http://cloudprojects.blob.core.windows.net/images/IMG_0594.MOV

I don't get it... Indicator lights fire, but relays don't engage..

 

Check your ground.

 

Try using brewpi from the ui and invert the pin.

 

I switched to use SSR Relays, works fine... probably preferable since I'm sure the fridge is more than 10 Amps..

 

I've got the similar problem with SainSmart 2 Channel Relay board, but in inverse.
Mi brewpi was running ¡BOTH! channel 1 (freezer) and 2 (heater) at the same time all night long. The result is a fermenting beer at 154F!, in appearance because the relay 2 (heater) doesn't stop ever (perhaps blocked?)

I can't ever trust in this relay board anymore!!, my yeast is R.I.P. at 1020D without completing attenuation.

 

You probably have the inverted state set wrong

 

Are you sure???? Mine isn't

 

That isn't probably. The conexions are OK, and it worked sure for me very well during 3 batches.
Now, the problem comes when the Brewpi script order to fire the heater (relay 2) then the relay's led in board changes to red normally, but when that order to stop, led becomes off but the heater don't power off (relay don't stop the power)

 

There is a simple way to debug a relay module: disconnect the control signal for the Hot channel relay and connect it to a 5V pin, then a GND pin, and see what happens to the load...

Cheers!

 

I got my BrewPi all put together and all setup! Just need to get my darn freezer in and see how it works! I tested with two phone chargers to make sure each relay kicked on when it said it would. Awesome instructions on this thread!
Just need to cut the hole for the socket on the top.

 

Auto-Installing BrewPi on a PC (instead of an RPi)

I played around with a few fresh installs of different Linux distros to see how well they'd take the BrewPi software using the auto-install method. I tested Ubuntu 15.04, Linux Mint 17.1, and Debian 8.1. These are all the latest versions of each distro as of right now. They're also all Debian-based so I expected they'd all play the same, and they did. Note that one or more of these needed a bit of finagling to get the sudo command installed and get my default user to have access to it.

The short version: Auto-install scripts work just fine with no real problems.

What I did: First, I found it helps to modify the install.sh script before running it, to replace the "pi" user with my default Linux user as this isn't a Pi and doesn't have the default "pi" user installed. After cloning the repository to ~/brewpi-tools:

Code:

sudo nano ~/brewpi-tools/install.sh

I do a WhereIs search for the string "pi||" (that's "pi" with two pipes after it) which takes me to the lower part of the script where the string appears in two consecutive commands. I just replace "pi" with my username and write it out.

Second, I like to put BrewPi in its own directory, because I know there are other web-based things I'll want eventually (like RaspberryPints). With the new implementation of Apache using /var/www/html as the default document root instead of just /var/www, and with a persistent hiccup where the install script fails after not finding the directory I specify (for me, /var/www/html/brewpi), I found I can just create the directory I want before running the script and it will be there waiting for me when it gets to that point:

Code:

sudo mkdir /var/www
sudo mkdir /var/www/html
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/brewpi

I had to create each subdirectory individually, hence the three-step process.

Other than that, everything goes straight through and works just fine. I haven't unpacked my Arduino and probes to actually test it, but the web page pops up at localhost/brewpi as expected so I'm guessing the installer works correctly.

One other note: The auto-installer does not install mysql, but it's not required for BrewPi. I had to install it after the fact (just picking up in the BrewPi documentation for the manual installation and running the commands as they're written) so I could run RaspberryPints as well.

I've got an RPi in the mail so I can add Elsinore to the mix, but I used a PC for a few months and it worked very well. Feel free to PM me if you think I can help with any of this!

 

The only problem I ever had with the install script was it dying on the raspi-setup part because that doesn't exist for any other os. But they may have fixed it. I simple use the same login for my Linux test rig and I don't have to worry about login and permission problems while testing. Let me know how your Elsinore stuff goes, I'm getting into myself now that it seems brewpi will be quite some time getting caught up with their HERMS stuff. But with the pi in there now I can easily switch over to brewpi in the future of the HERMS stuff ever comes around. I'm also looking into getting a wiifit balance board setup with the intent of maybe getting a wireless solution setup for gravity readings.

 

Would you mind sharing your case design files with the rest of the community?

 

Hi I've been following this thread for a bit. I got all the hardware in order and now I'm on the software side. I hope this hasn't been covered before because I certainly do not have the fortitude to read through 3500+ posts. I am at the reprogramming step for the arduino through the web interface. I am on dl.brewpi.com/brewpi-avr/stable. Looking through the .hex files, I know which one I need. But if I click on them, they pull up another page that's is just numbers. It won't actually let me download the .hex files

 

Never mind. I got it figured out. That was a silly question.

 

Not a silly question at all, interestingly though I found that when I right click and download it saves it as a txt file rather than hex like I was expecting. So I had been changing the file name manually.

Turns out you don't need to and if you select the txt file in the web gui it recognises it as hex.

 

I didn't realize that. Well here is a good question, what is everyone using as a heater?

 

I've got two brewpi fridge the first has one of these http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/40082654072...3D190480149184&_trksid=p2056116.c100408.m2460 the 2nd one just heats with the internal door light as it doesn't take much to get it hot.

 

I have a fermwrap coiled up in the corner

 

This is the one I have, but after the first run I turned it off.

Unless your brew area is cold, there is just not a lot of need for heat.

If I ever do a Saison in the winter, I will likely use it. Other than that, a small fan to move the air in the chamber is more valuable than a heater.

Cody

 

on brewpi is there any form of manual mode? building a system now but hard to test outputs without being able to manually enable relays and other devices.

 

You can use Maintenance panel - Device configuration and toggle the "Pin type" polarity of your actuators...

Cheers!

 

Im having an issue where my RaspberryPi is booting but only connecting to the USB devices, not loading anything else. Anyone else ever have this issue? I have a solid red light on the unit right now.

 

Not seen that one. Yet.
Do you have a console display attached?

Cheers!

 

I had this happen a couple of times when I was trying to add a touch screen and was editing the Config files, I figured it was down to me making a change to a file which broke something, it ended up with me restoring from a back up.

 

I'm guessing that I can't do this because when I go to recovery mode nothing is listed to recover to, all I have is the option to exit and run the installed OS. I'm guessing I'll have to format this SD card and start all over?!

 

Sorry I mean I have backed up my SD card so I reimage, have you made any changes to your set up, it sounds like if you retrace your steps you might be able to solve the problem.

 

Nope, haven't made any changes to anything. I noticed yesterday that the script wasnt running when i was trying to start a new beer so I rebooted the Raspberry PI and it loaded up and stopped once it loaded the USB devices. When I go to Recovery mode nothing is listed to recover to. After doing some research online it looks like it is booting to safe mode every time. But, I can't figure out how to get it out of safe mode.

 

So I have a half gallon jug of water as a test to see how it keeps up the temperature. It's been running three hours now showing consistent swings in temperature from 63-60-63. I feel like 3 degrees is too many. Anyway to stop that?

 

Are you using a thermowell?

Also, 1/2 gallon might not be enough thermal mass, depending on what you're using for heating and cooling

 

Fill up a carboy if your going to be fermenting in a carboy. You don't make beer in a half gallon milk jug