HOWTO - Make a BrewPi Fermentation Controller For Cheap

wbarber69 · Jun 12, 2016

Setup a webcam that is pointed at your screen

FuzzeWuzze · Jun 12, 2016

Diver4life said:
Here is my wiring

Regardless of everything else, please please redo those wires going into your relay outputs. You have way too much of the sheathing off, it wouldnt be difficult for your wires to short out.

Diver4life · Jun 12, 2016

Are you talking about the wires connected to the terminal block?

LBussy · Jun 12, 2016

wbarber69 said:
Setup a webcam that is pointed at your screen

And pay someone to hover and click?

Brewski_59 · Jun 12, 2016

LBussy said:
I just spent an interesting, enjoyable, but ultimately fruitless morning trying to figure out how to add security to the BrewPi implementation. Is there a currently commonly accepted method to do this to allow public viewing of the main page?

Isn't that back about 300 pages?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=6038106

OK I had to make some edits to mine, so I found the right post (again) Its https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=6594822&postcount=2683
This will get you a public page as well as your password protected admin page. Works like a charm.
You can see mine at http://narcosisbrewpi.dlinkddns.com/

martinlarosa · Jun 12, 2016

Hello, I'm in Argentina and apparently I fell victim of the weird probes as well. Tore one apart and it says Dallas ds18b20. Flat part facing the table, pins facing me, the cables from left to right are red, blue, black. The only way for the sketch to read it is connecting the black to the ground, red to the 5v and blue to the A4. If I disconnect the red cable from the 5v line then it stops reading it. But when it reads, it says parasite mode ON.
Not any other combinations of connections make it work. When I tried the black to 5v, red to ground and blue to data, it got really hot.

I also tried connecting only two of the probe cable at a time with all the possible combinations. Only connecting them to ground and A4, and also connecting A4 to the 5v line through the resistor. It reads nothing. This last thing I did it with another probe, not the one that got really hot.

I don't know what to do.

farmskis · Jun 12, 2016

martinlarosa said:
Hello, I'm in Argentina and apparently I fell victim of the weird probes as well. Tore one apart and it says Dallas ds18b20. Flat part facing the table, pins facing me, the cables from left to right are red, blue, black. The only way for the sketch to read it is connecting the black to the ground, red to the 5v and blue to the A4. If I disconnect the red cable from the 5v line then it stops reading it. But when it reads, it says parasite mode ON.
Not any other combinations of connections make it work. When I tried the black to 5v, red to ground and blue to data, it got really hot.

I also tried connecting only two of the probe cable at a time with all the possible combinations. Only connecting them to ground and A4, and also connecting A4 to the 5v line through the resistor. It reads nothing. This last thing I did it with another probe, not the one that got really hot.

I don't know what to do.

I had similar probes. Since when you wire them as you would normal power and they read like they are in parasite power the brewpi will not read them no matter what you do with those probes.

It will be Best to find a known good vendor of Probes. There was a mention of one not more than a couple pages back.

What I ended up doing was ordering the plain sensors (Ds18b20 to-92) from Mouser and creating my own wired sensors by soldering on the wiring from my old sensors that did not work. I used some silicone heat shrink tubing to protect the bare leads and soldered connections.

At the very least if you are able ask the vendor for a refund since he sold you the wrong sensors. I assume he advertised Ds18b20 and sold you either counterfeit or DS18B20Par.

wbarber69 · Jun 12, 2016

LBussy said:
And pay someone to hover and click?

Now you got it!

wbarber69 · Jun 12, 2016

martinlarosa said:
Hello, I'm in Argentina and apparently I fell victim of the weird probes as well. Tore one apart and it says Dallas ds18b20. Flat part facing the table, pins facing me, the cables from left to right are red, blue, black. The only way for the sketch to read it is connecting the black to the ground, red to the 5v and blue to the A4. If I disconnect the red cable from the 5v line then it stops reading it. But when it reads, it says parasite mode ON.
Not any other combinations of connections make it work. When I tried the black to 5v, red to ground and blue to data, it got really hot.

I also tried connecting only two of the probe cable at a time with all the possible combinations. Only connecting them to ground and A4, and also connecting A4 to the 5v line through the resistor. It reads nothing. This last thing I did it with another probe, not the one that got really hot.

I don't know what to do.

Probably the best color orientation so far but yeah apparently there's millions of counterfeits out the at this point

FuzzeWuzze · Jun 13, 2016

Diver4life said:
Are you talking about the wires connected to the terminal block?

You shouldnt have exposed wires coming out, cut your outer sheathing so that it keeps your wires covered still when plugged in and screwed down.

Its just good practice. Especially considering thats 120V, if it shorts your blowing out your relays best case, blowing out your fridge/freezer and or starting a fire worst case.

FuzzeWuzze · Jun 13, 2016

FWIW ive bought these
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KUNKR3M/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

And had no trouble with them. A bit spendy but they are also 10 feet long, so give you plenty of length to mount your brewpi and still get the probes into the fridge.

LBussy · Jun 13, 2016

Brewski_59 said:
Isn't that back about 300 pages?
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=6038106

Thanks for pointing me there sir. :mug:

Hard to find stuff in this thread. Kinda large.

Diver4life · Jun 13, 2016

Fuzzewuzze thank you for giving me the info about the wiring I will promptly go home and fix that and I just ordered those exact sensors so I'm hoping those work. I'm really hoping those fix the issue. Did they come with Chinese writing about the wiring? Also all I should need to do is just connect 2 sensors to the terminal block correct?

cbier60 · Jun 13, 2016

I bought these ~3 months ago. The 2 I have used work great, but I haven't tested the other 3. Granted, they're only 2M, but seem to do the trick.

thyirishmen · Jun 13, 2016

These are the sensors I bought on Amazon. Work perfect and both tested exact in ice bath. No issues with wiring up. They are 3M too nice and long

DROK® DS18B20 Temperature Sensor Digital Temp Probe Waterproof Thermal Cable Stainless Steel Probe 3 Meter Thermometer Gauge Thermistor Detector Sensor Indoor Outdoor Lab Car Usage https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KLZQ0P8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

joebob296 · Jun 13, 2016

cbier60 said:
I bought these ~3 months ago. The 2 I have used work great, but I haven't tested the other 3. Granted, they're only 2M, but seem to do the trick.

I wish mine were 2M long. I will have to get some

day_trippr · Jun 13, 2016

LBussy said:
So I just went through the install on a clean RPi 3 with the latest Jessie a couple times and believe it can be distilled down pretty simply[...]

All of my RPi's are running Wheezy, but inevitably there will come a time where upgrading to Jessie is going to happen.
So I'm building another RPi2 system using Jesse and will slowly get everything running that I have on my other systems.
When I'm done hopefully all my systems can share a single (Jessie) image like they do now (with Wheezy).

My systems all support multiple BrewPi instances so that's in the playbook for this build.
I decided to use the auto-magic installation process this time around and see if it handles multiple-instances on its own.

I followed your outline, pointed the installer to use /home/brewpi/brewpi1 and /var/www/brewpi1 for the root folders, and it almost worked perfectly.

The process completed without any obvious issues, but when I tried to fire up BrewPi it couldn't start the script, and wouldn't talk to the UNO.
The log panels showed :
"Cannot open log file /home/brewpi/brewpi1/logs/stderr.txt"
"Cannot open log file /home/brewpi/brewpi1/logs/stdout.txt"

So going through the normal debug process led me to the fly in the ointment:

The installer runs $SCRIPTPATH/utils/updateCron.sh which is supposed to create a cron task at /etc/cron.d/brewpi with the correct setting for SCRIPTPATH.
In my case, SCRIPTPATH should have been set to /home/brewpi/brewpi1, but instead it was set to /home/brewpi.

And as one could imagine, that broke a hella lot of code

A quick edit and restart of the Cron manager and everything sprung to life!

So, the positive news is the BrewPi installer and updater can be used with a multi-instance configuration, you just have to remember to check/fix the cron file(s) for a freshly installed instance (and possibly an updated instance - I'll have to check that when I get a chance).

That said, from a practical viewpoint, it's likely quicker to just clone the two root folders for each added instance than to rerun the installer multiple times...

Cheers!

ps: If there is ANY redeeming quality to Jessie, it's the SD Card Copier program included in the LXDE desktop.
It's sooo much easier to live-clone a working card before plunging onward during the build - so if you fat-finger something and need to retreat it's easy peasy...

pps: otoh, LXDE includes a Bluetooth Manager panel that works - except that the underlying Services support sucks.
I can link an HC-05 - but the host doesn't support Serial service.
<Sigh>
Later today (!) I'll install bluez-utils and all the rest of the Blue Tooth stuff I used under Wheezy and see what happens...

LBussy · Jun 14, 2016

day_trippr said:
I followed your outline, pointed the installer to use /home/brewpi/brewpi1 and /var/www/brewpi1 for the root folders, and it almost worked perfectly.

I'm glad to hear your report. I was going to try the multi-home setup and that's what got me to trying different things for the installation. I figured if I was going to screw it up I needed to be able to get good at installing it.

Seems to me that an installer should let you install anywhere correctly, especially if it gives you a choice. That being the case I'd see the scriptpath thing as a bug.

djdarind · Jun 14, 2016

A long time lurker, seldom poster, here.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who's participated in making this thread (and forum) a success. With all the helpful hints, workarounds, suggestions and forum commitment, I was able to successfully build my own BrewPi using many of the suggestions and ideas mentioned throughout this enormous thread.

I've posted some pics to maybe contribute and help others who are contemplating on taking on this endeavor.

Like many, I had no prior electrical experience and feared if I could do this or not. Let me say, yes you can! It took me about 6 months from researching, planning, purchasing, designing, installing, wiring and configuring, but in the end it was well worth it. Life (and what it throws at you) was the reason it took me so long to complete, but I finished it (for a Pilsner that I wanted to do) and proud of it.

So will you. I hope this helps somebody with their build.

Thank all of you for your contributions. Keep it up!

D.

CadiBrewer · Jun 14, 2016

djdarind said:
A long time lurker, seldom poster, here.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who's participated in making this thread (and forum) a success. With all the helpful hints, workarounds, suggestions and forum commitment, I was able to successfully build my own BrewPi using many of the suggestions and ideas mentioned throughout this enormous thread.

I've posted some pics to maybe contribute and help others who are contemplating on taking on this endeavor.

Like many, I had no prior electrical experience and feared if I could do this or not. Let me say, yes you can! It took me about 6 months from researching, planning, purchasing, designing, installing, wiring and configuring, but in the end it was well worth it. Life (and what it throws at you) was the reason it took me so long to complete, but I finished it (for a Pilsner that I wanted to do) and proud of it.

So will you. I hope this helps somebody with their build.

Thank all of you for your contributions. Keep it up!

D.

Awesome build! Do you have a picture of the inside of the door showing how you attached the LCD screen and the wiring?

day_trippr · Jun 14, 2016

I'm thinking he might have an old cell phone as the display.
I can't see any wiring to the Uno - or the 'Pi for that matter - for a display...

Cheers!

ame · Jun 14, 2016

joebob296 said:
I wish mine were 2M long. I will have to get some

You can just extend the wires. Solder three wires onto the end of the wire from the probe and it can be as long as you like.

My cables are terminated with RJ11 plugs, so I can use telephone extensions. Plug and play!

Diver4life · Jun 14, 2016

Thank you all for the help it turns out it was 3 out of my 4 sensors were bad and when the new 3 meter ones came I hooked two up and boom working like a boss thank you everyone for the info and help!

Diver4life · Jun 14, 2016

One last little question my sensors are too big to fit in my thermowell I was thinking of cutting the shrink wrap off the stainless steel and the wiring and adding something to the inside of the stainless piece because I get condensation in my thermowell and has shorted previous sensors. Any thoughts

ame · Jun 14, 2016

Diver4life said:
One last little question my sensors are too big to fit in my thermowell I was thinking of cutting the shrink wrap off the stainless steel and the wiring and adding something to the inside of the stainless piece because I get condensation in my thermowell and has shorted previous sensors. Any thoughts

If you cut off the heatshrink it will make the diameter fractionally smaller, which might be enough. The sensor is protected inside the stainless steel end by some white goop, so you might not need to add anything.

Putting heatshrink back on again is also easy if you change your mind.

bufford · Jun 15, 2016

So I have 2 chambers and to instances of BrewPi running. Unfortunately one of my arduino's has given up the ghost. I have a new arduino to replace it. If I just do this part of the process will the rest still work as before or will I need to start all over?

Multiple Arduino BrewPi Installation (2 USB, 1 Serial)

1.1.1. Determine the USB hub port identifiers
With only one Arduino connected, issue the following command to see which device node the Arduino is currently using:

$ ls /dev/ttyACM*

/dev/ttyACM0

$ udevadm info -a -n /dev/ttyACM0 | less

looking at parent device '/devices/platform/bcm2708_usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.4':
KERNELS=="1-1.3.4"

ATTRS{manufacturer}=="Arduino (www.arduino.cc)" (note the section for the Uno)

move Arduino to next USB port and repeat
KERNELS=="1-1.3.3"

1.1.2. Write the udev rules
Now that the identifier for each USB hub port has been obtained, the udev rules can be written.

KERNELS=="1-1.3.4" [Port 1]
KERNELS=="1-1.3.3" [Port 2]

wbarber69 · Jun 15, 2016

That should be just fine. but fwiw we found out its a lot more effective to use the serial identifier if possible that way it doesn't matter what port you plug it into it'll always be the right controller for the right instance.

bufford · Jun 15, 2016

So I am very interested in doing that. I have read the post with the instructions included. Not sure how to go from where I ma to what you have suggested.

farmskis · Jun 15, 2016

So it is nothing fancy to look at but I am very pleased with the test trial of water. I can't believe how precise this device controls the temp! I thought when it first started that it would fluctuate around before honing in on the final temp but that is not so. Compensates very well and gets it exactly right. Now to get this moved into our new house in my brew kitchen and full of a new brew! Sorry for the sideways picture

View attachment 1466001641819.jpg

day_trippr · Jun 15, 2016

bufford said:
So I am very interested in doing that. I have read the post with the instructions included. Not sure how to go from where I ma to what you have suggested.

Just change your 99-arduino.rules using serial numbers instead of ports with whatever symlink names you want to use...

Code:

Set up identifiers for UNOS:

Remove all but one UNO from the USB ports and hubs, then run these commands:

$ udevadm info -a -n /dev/ttyACM0 | less > info.log
$ nano info.log

 looking at parent device '/devices/platform/bcm2708_usb/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3.4':
    KERNELS=="1-1.3.4" 
 		ATTRS{manufacturer}=="Arduino (www.arduino.cc)"
 		ATTRS{serial}=="85336303532351F0A031"

Repeat for additional UNOS on the USB ports

Then create the rules files:

$ sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-arduino.rules

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", KERNEL=="ttyACM*" , ATTRS{serial}=="85336303532351F0A031", SYMLINK+="brewpi1", GROUP="brewpi"
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", KERNEL=="ttyACM*" , ATTRS{serial}=="85334333931351F0F020", SYMLINK+="brewpi2", GROUP="brewpi"

Then reload them...

Code:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/udev reload

...and you should be off and running again...

Cheers!

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