HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

joebob296 · May 22, 2016

Dollar_bill said:
Having trouble with my brewpi setup. I have everything up and running on the web interface side. But, it is not detecting the temperature sensors only the controller sensors. I have changed the sensors, used a different Arduino, and have read everything I could find on google. Attached is my current wiring setup. I could only find 10k resistors and not 4.7k, is that ok? Any suggestions?

No you need to use 4.7k ohms.

day_trippr · May 22, 2016

Dollar_bill said:
Having trouble with my brewpi setup. I have everything up and running on the web interface side. But, it is not detecting the temperature sensors only the controller sensors. I have changed the sensors, used a different Arduino, and have read everything I could find on google. Attached is my current wiring setup. I could only find 10k resistors and not 4.7k, is that ok? Any suggestions?

Put a pair of the 10K resistors in parallel and you'll have 5K - close enough.
As for the probes: where did you get them?

Cheers!

Dollar_bill · May 22, 2016

Got the probes from Amazon. They are the ds18b20.i will try radio shack again tomorrow and see if they get any more resistors in stock.

farmskis · May 22, 2016

I had ordered some Ds18b20 probes and they ended up registering as parasite power mode. Which brewpi will not show them as devices when setting up. So I ordered some Ds18b20 from another supplier. Not the waterproof just the sensor. They ended up not working either. I then contacted the supplier and he tested some of his stock and found some of those did not work either and we determined that the ones he originally sent must of been counterfeit. He has another set of sensors on the way that he has tested out and they work.

LBussy · May 23, 2016

Following instructions here, on the wiki, and on BrewPi.com I got my system set up and working yesterday. I don't have relays yet but from all accounts it seems like the sensors are the hard part.

Thank you @Elco, @FuzzeWuzze and all who have contributed here.

There were things missing here and there, some things not immediately clear, and some things that only made sense after you got them right. I told myself I was going to make notes. You think I did? Hell no.

Now I need to go back through the thread and hopefully find some ideas for a case.

Dollar_bill · May 24, 2016

I bought a 4.7K resistor. Still did not work so I found the sketch a few posts back by geordish and the sensors were running in parasitic mode. Ordered some new ones that will be here tomorrow. Hopefully they will work.

wbarber69 · May 24, 2016

This coupled with the influx of counterfeit ch340 chips out there will make this project nearly impossible

day_trippr · May 24, 2016

The whole probe fiasco is amazing to me for how many people seem to have been bitten.
But I thought there was a work-around for the ch340 bridge?

Cheers!

Bigdaddyale · May 24, 2016

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-fix-bad-Chinese-Arduino-clones/

CaptnDelta · May 24, 2016

wbarber69 said:
This coupled with the influx of counterfeit ch340 chips out there will make this project nearly impossible

Those chips are not counterfeit, they're just wholly different chips (for which the arduino IDE - obviously - doesn't install a driver).
The arduino knockoff-producers went to use that chip after FTDI (the original chip maker) bricked devices that used FTDI knock-off's:

http://hackaday.com/2014/10/22/watch-that-windows-update-ftdi-drivers-are-killing-fake-chips/

Cheers,
-Th

day_trippr · May 24, 2016

Ok ladies, someone tell me how to "calibrate" ds18b20 probes under BrewPi.
I've dug into the Wiki, Googled the hell out of the BrewPi "forums", and what I get out of all of that isn't enough to give me a clue.

I'm looking for something explicit here.
You know, the way I write up stuff, so any knucklehead can get it...

Cheers!

ame · May 24, 2016

http://wiki.brewpi.com/index.php/Temperature_Sensor_Calibration

day_trippr · May 24, 2016

Seriously, do you really believe I couldn't find that page without help?

OK, so where do the commands get entered?
In a random terminal session, or what?

Cheers!

ame · May 24, 2016

There are several ways to do it. First you should stop BrewPi so that it "lets go" of the serial port. Next, you need to be sure you know the serial port path to your Arduino (e.g. /dev/ttyACM0). Finally, you need to send the string to the Arduino, by using your favourite terminal emulator (I like gtkterm), or "screen", or maybe a simple "echo" command.

There is a little more discussion here:
http://forum.brewpi.com/discussion/448/temperature-probe-calibration

day_trippr · May 24, 2016

Ok, for the record, here's how to calibrate probes in BrewPi.
Assumes an RPi host with network connectivity, with the entire procedure performed remotely via Putty or equivalent terminal emulator.

- tie all probes to a trusted thermometer and allow to normalize
- use the BrewPi web gui to record the probe temperatures and note any variances from the trusted reading

- use the BrewPi gui to Stop the running Script

- open a Putty session and log into the RPi host
- if the program Screen is not installed on the RPi, install it as follows:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install screen

- use Screen to connect to the serial port used by the Arduino.
Note if you have a multi-instance configuration to be sure to use the correct port reference.
In this example I'm using a Bluetooth-connected Uno using rfcomm1.
For a single-instance, USB-connected Uno, the most likely ports used are either /dev/ttyACM0 or /dev/ttyUSB0.

$ screen /dev/rfcomm1 57600

There will be no indication that Screen is connected.

- dump the data associated with all probes:

h{v:1}

- probes are referenced using an index i with values of 0 through 2.
Examine the data stream dumped above, looking for each value of "i", and the corresponding temperature reading. The One-wire address of each probe is also provided to help correlate datasets with probes.

- apply the desired adjustment factor for each probe:

U{i:n,j:v.v}

where n=probe index (0 through 2) and v.v is the adjustment value (if negative, then -v.v).

For example, I applied a negative 1.4°F adjustment to a room temperature probe, using:

U{i:2,j:-1.4}

After applying the adjustment factor you can use the dump command to verify the setting.

- Disconnect Screen from the serial port using

ctrl-a, k then answering "y".

- Use the BrewPi web gui to start the script and verify the probe data has been adjusted as desired.

Cheers!

LBussy · May 25, 2016

Very nice writeup @day_trippr. I saved that off so I can refer to it later.

Now tell us how you got Bluetooth to work.

day_trippr · May 25, 2016

LBussy said:
Very nice writeup @day_trippr. I saved that off so I can refer to it later.

Now tell us how you got Bluetooth to work.

There's a thread for that!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=508151

How To: BrewPi Over Bluetooth

Cheers!

Arminius757 · May 25, 2016

So I kinda just wanna be super cheap here... I have pretty much everything but the relay switch laying around. Is there a way I could cannibalize my STC and rip the switch out?

GrogNerd · May 25, 2016

really?

ain't got $4?

and a reliable Uno R3 for $6

Arminius757 · May 26, 2016

It was a question. I literally have all the other parts around me and was eager to try it out. Saving money is saving money haha especially when I still need to get through college...
I was planning on cannibalizing my STC temp controller anyway so if I can just use it all then why not? Otherwise I would just have the STC laying around.

farmskis · May 26, 2016

OK so I have received a new batch of sensors. All of them are labeled ds18b20 on the outside but when running the sketch to see if parasite power is used they register some as Ds18b20 some as Ds18s20 and one does not register at all. There are definitely some bad sensors out there.
Will this project work with the ds18s20? In looking at the datasheet the difference seems to be in that the b20 can change resolution and also is a shorter conversion time. The ROM code is also a little different format as well 28h vs 10h. The conversion time might be the same between the s20 and b20 it could only be that the ds1820 is the longer conversion time. I don't know enough about these differences to see if they will work in the brewpi.

LBussy · May 26, 2016

day_trippr said:
There's a thread for that!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=508151

How To: BrewPi Over Bluetooth

Cheers!

Thanks again @day_trippr ! It's like taking a sip of water from a fire hose around here!

day_trippr · May 26, 2016

lol! I understand - being confronted with such deep threads can be daunting for anyone who wasn't around when all these schemes were hatching

If I was King of HBT I could do something about it, but, heck after 30 days I can't even edit my own posts, so...

Cheers!

MBasile · May 27, 2016

Does anyone know how to access the actual database with the beer profiles? I have ended up with quite a few extra raws in my profiles and it is driving the OCD die of me crazy! Unfortunately I don't know how to access database without a handy cPanel.

farmskis said:
OK so I have received a new batch of sensors. All of them are labeled ds18b20 on the outside but when running the sketch to see if parasite power is used they register some as Ds18b20 some as Ds18s20 and one does not register at all. There are definitely some bad sensors out there.
Will this project work with the ds18s20? In looking at the datasheet the difference seems to be in that the b20 can change resolution and also is a shorter conversion time. The ROM code is also a little different format as well 28h vs 10h. The conversion time might be the same between the s20 and b20 it could only be that the ds1820 is the longer conversion time. I don't know enough about these differences to see if they will work in the brewpi.

Have you thought about maybe just going with a different vendor? I got my sensors from Adafruit and have had no issues.

day_trippr · May 27, 2016

MBasile said:
Does anyone know how to access the actual database with the beer profiles? I have ended up with quite a few extra raws in my profiles and it is driving the OCD die of me crazy! Unfortunately I don't know how to access database without a handy cPanel.[...]

"cPanel"?

Assuming a stock installation with a file set rooted in /var/www, if you look under /var/www/data you'll find a bunch of folders corresponding to BrewPi scripts, and inside those there will be a .csv file and typically a bunch of .json files.

My understanding it the .csv file represents the latest time slice while the .json files cover earlier slices.
You can edit the .csv file to remove "noise" if desired...

Cheers!

gromitdj · May 27, 2016

MBasile said:
Does anyone know how to access the actual database with the beer profiles? I have ended up with quite a few extra raws in my profiles and it is driving the OCD die of me crazy!

If you are referring to extra rows in the profile editor. You can right click on the row and choose remove row, I believe. My brewpi is not running right now to verify.

MBasile · May 27, 2016

day_trippr said:
"cPanel"?

Assuming a stock installation with a file set rooted in /var/www, if you look under /var/www/data you'll find a bunch of folders corresponding to BrewPi scripts, and inside those there will be a .csv file and typically a bunch of .json files.

My understanding it the .csv file represents the latest time slice while the .json files cover earlier slices.
You can edit the .csv file to remove "noise" if desired...

Cheers!

Thanks! Looks like it might be advisable to avoid doing this though, as it changes the owner of the file (at least when using Cyberduck on a Mac) and you then can't save changes to the profile via the web interface. Moral of the story: live with the flaws you (I) have created.

day_trippr · May 27, 2016

Can you not set file ownership and access rights in a Mac environment?
That'd be a bitch to live with...

Cheers!

balrog · May 27, 2016

I thought those daily json files were the data logged not the profile

day_trippr · May 27, 2016

balrog said:
I thought those daily json files were the data logged not the profile

You're right, they are. Thought that's what the OP was actually looking for.
But if it's really the profiles, they're in /var/www/data/profiles by default.
So one can remove profiles or even edit existing ones...unless on a Mac?

Cheers!

HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

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