[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

JaimeTheLimey · Dec 31, 2014

I'll do that. More of a want than a need. Since most of us with keezers and kegerators force carb, I thought it would be cool to have a Keg status for "carbonating" that would allow the user to put that keg on. Maybe the pint glass would show greyed out on the tap list or something. The user could set a predetermined amount of time for force carbing (me about 2 weeks). Once that period was over the beer would "go live" on the menu. For me that would be helpful in juggling multiple beers that have started carbing at different times.

Edit: Tried at the RPints link but when I hit the submit button it just says "Working" indefinitely. Bummer.

njs170 · Jan 6, 2015

I received a broken John Guest connection. I need the one that screws on to the flow meter. I am on the freshwatersystems.com and I can't figure out which one I need. Can someone help me out? Thank you!

BeWilder · Jan 7, 2015

Not sure where everyone is getting their Alamode but I received an email today advertising a Makers Shed deal for $22, (for the next 14 hrs.)

http://www.makershed.com/products/alamode-for-raspberry-pi?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New+in+the+Shed+-+Hover+Crazyflie+Googly+Eye+Shield&utm_content=New+in+the+Shed+-+Hover+Crazyflie+Googly+Eye+Shield+CID_d8af90a8c553d791ac521d1d510ca282&utm_source=email%20_campaign&utm_term=Deal%20of%20the%20Day%20Alamode%20for%20Raspberry%20Pi

chemman14 · Jan 8, 2015

BeWilder said:
Not sure where everyone is getting their Alamode but I received an email today advertising a Makers Shed deal for $22, (for the next 14 hrs.)

http://www.makershed.com/products/alamode-for-raspberry-pi?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New+in+the+Shed+-+Hover+Crazyflie+Googly+Eye+Shield&utm_content=New+in+the+Shed+-+Hover+Crazyflie+Googly+Eye+Shield+CID_d8af90a8c553d791ac521d1d510ca282&utm_source=email%20_campaign&utm_term=Deal%20of%20the%20Day%20Alamode%20for%20Raspberry%20Pi

Now if we could just get a deal on those dang flow meters we would be set!

day_trippr · Jan 8, 2015

njs170 said:
I received a broken John Guest connection. I need the one that screws on to the flow meter. I am on the freshwatersystems.com and I can't figure out which one I need. Can someone help me out? Thank you!

Sorry I missed this earlier. I went with barbed connections, and the parts I used are:

John Guest Female Adapter BSPP - 3/8 x 3/8 BSPP -
Part # PI451213S

John Guest Stem Barb Connector - 3/8 OD Stem x 1/4 ID Barb -
Part # PI251208S

Otoh, if you want to run barbless, I think you need a different female adapter...

Cheers!

njs170 · Jan 8, 2015

day_trippr said:
Sorry I missed this earlier. I went with barbed connections, and the parts I used are:

John Guest Female Adapter BSPP - 3/8 x 3/8 BSPP -
Part # PI451213S

John Guest Stem Barb Connector - 3/8 OD Stem x 1/4 ID Barb -
Part # PI251208S

Otoh, if you want to run barbless, I think you need a different female adapter...

Cheers!

Thank you! That is what I needed!

Twang · Jan 10, 2015

I finished setting everything up, but when I reboot the pi RaspberryPints does not automatically display. Chromium does not open. Any suggestions? p.s. this is all very new to me. I just tried to follow the instructions as closely as possible.

day_trippr · Jan 10, 2015

Can you start a browser and bring up your taplist manually?

Did you set up the desktop and browser for kiosk mode?

Cheers!

Twang · Jan 10, 2015

I believe I set up the desktop and browser for kiosk mode correctly...?
Yes, I can bring it up manually.

day_trippr · Jan 10, 2015

That's about all I have - I don't run my tap list in kiosk mode.

You might take a look at /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log to see if there's anything to go on therein. I'm not certain that it records autostart execution but I suspect it does...

Cheers!

Twang · Jan 10, 2015

day_trippr said:
That's about all I have - I don't run my tap list in kiosk mode.

You might take a look at /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log to see if there's anything to go on therein. I'm not certain that it records autostart execution but I suspect it does...

Cheers!

Don't see anything in that directory relating to autostart. Thanks for the suggestions though.

day_trippr · Jan 10, 2015

Twang said:
Don't see anything in that directory relating to autostart. Thanks for the suggestions though.

That was an actual file name - it's the log file for the desktop manager.
If it exists, open it with an editor...

Cheers!

Twang · Jan 11, 2015

day_trippr said:
That was an actual file name - it's the log file for the desktop manager.
If it exists, open it with an editor...

Cheers!

Sorry. Nope that log file does not exist.

I don't mind starting up raspberrypints manually each time. I guess my bigger problem is the screen still blanks after several minutes... Any other ideas?

Twang · Jan 11, 2015

Problem solved. Looked like I had another folder /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi with an autostart file in it. I added the lines to that file and it worked. :rockin:

njs170 · Jan 12, 2015

Nevermind I found the answer! You guys rock!

day_trippr · Jan 12, 2015

Twang said:
Problem solved. Looked like I had another folder /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi with an autostart file in it. I added the lines to that file and it worked. :rockin:

Well that's a new one. Glad you got it sorted!

njs170 said:
Nevermind I found the answer! You guys rock!

Yes, we do indeed rock!

Cheers!

ned567 · Jan 20, 2015

chiefairwrench said:
Straight from Swiss flow the link on the with flow pi. This is what I received today any fixes? I pretty sure someone else has had this problem.

bought a couple of these this morning and made the same mistake

read this post tonight and emailed them straight away and unfortunately they had shipped them an hour before i emailed them.

How did you get on extending your cables?

Noidios · Jan 21, 2015

SOLVED

My (flow meter) install went smoothly up until this point, but now I am stuck.

I have setup my Pi with a static address of 192.168.2.10

Within my router setup, 192.168.2.10 shows up as an (unknown) connected device.
I can successfully ping this IP from both my desktop and the Pi itself, but:
When I try to go to this address via Chromium, I get a 500 error.
When I try to go to this address via my desktop, I get a blank white page.

SOLVED

The file available at https://github.com/RaspberryPints/RaspberryPints is called RaspberryPints-master.zip
once I gave up on this and tried to install via WinSCP, I realized that there was also a file called RaspberryPints-2.0.1.zip available via a link on the RaspberryPints.com install page.

DrunkleJon · Jan 21, 2015

I run \\localhost to get to the page on my pi.

day_trippr · Jan 21, 2015

DrunkleJon said:
I run \\localhost to get to the page on my pi.

Presumably with all the IP address references in his post, he's trying to get to the tap list from another machine...

Cheers!

mcangeli · Jan 23, 2015

For those looking to add a monitor... http://www.makershed.com/products/1...ource=email _campaign&utm_term=101LCD Display

Noidios · Jan 24, 2015

Following the (flow monitor troubleshooting) directions below, I get no update via chromium nor any meter data posted to the terminal window while running flow_monitor.py

These instructions say that my AlaMode is not talking to the RPi. What exactly does that mean and how do I fix it?

Made sure flow_monitor.py wasn't running, then typed:
python /var/www/python/flow_monitor.py
No updates anywhere that I can find. After Control C'ing to get out of it, I ran:
ps aux | grep flow

with results similar to this:
pi@rpints ~ $ ps aux | grep flow
pi 4244 1.2 1.0 13484 4840 pts/1 S+ 00:39 0:00 python flow_monitor.py
pi 4256 0.0 0.1 4032 808 pts/0 S+ 00:39 0:00 grep --color=auto flow

BTW, I purchased the refurbed swiss flow valves on ebay a while back. Did anyone have trouble with these? Is there a way to test them to make sure that they aren't the problem?

day_trippr said:
In a terminal window, check to see if /var/www/python/flow_moniitor.py is running.

Eg:

$ ps aux | grep flow

If it isn't, get it running in the terminal:

$ python /var/www/python/flow_monitor.py

and leave it running while you launch Chromium to your localhost page.
Pour a few ounces and if the page doesn't refresh within a second of stopping the pour, check the terminal to see if the meter data was posted or not.

If you don't see anything, the AlaMode isn't talking to the RPi.
If you see data, it's likely followed by an error status.

[edit]

And, as I mentioned earlier, if you do find the flow_monitor script is running (because it's started with the desktop environment) it's best to stop it so you can run it manually and be able to see what can be incredibly helpful that you won't see if it's running in a background process.

In the above, if you see it running, located its four digit Process ID <pid>, then
$ sudo kill <pid>
to terminate it kindly.

Then you can run flow_monitor manually as described above.
And you can quit that gracefully with Ctrl-C.

Cheers!

mcangeli · Jan 24, 2015

Noidios said:
Following the (flow monitor troubleshooting) directions below, I get no update via chromium nor any meter data posted to the terminal window while running flow_monitor.py

These instructions say that my AlaMode is not talking to the RPi. What exactly does that mean and how do I fix it?

Made sure flow_monitor.py wasn't running, then typed:
python /var/www/python/flow_monitor.py
No updates anywhere that I can find. After Control C'ing to get out of it, I ran:
ps aux | grep flow

with results similar to this:
pi@rpints ~ $ ps aux | grep flow
pi 4244 1.2 1.0 13484 4840 pts/1 S+ 00:39 0:00 python flow_monitor.py
pi 4256 0.0 0.1 4032 808 pts/0 S+ 00:39 0:00 grep --color=auto flow

BTW, I purchased the refurbed swiss flow valves on ebay a while back. Did anyone have trouble with these? Is there a way to test them to make sure that they aren't the problem?

I poured water or blew air through mine while they were connected to test.

There are several things to check here...

The basic being that the meters are set up in the right direction (yes, there is a direction they need to be in the flow of the beer and it does matter, I learned that first hand).

Second would be that the sketch was edited and uploaded correctly to the arduino (again, thats something I learned the hardway). You cannot upload the sketch while the python script is running.

Make sure you have the meters connected to the arduino correctly and on the right pins that you specified in the sketch.

There are certain pins (somewhere in this thread) that do not work for this and that cannot be used.

When in doubt, reboot and try pouring a pint.

Noidios · Jan 24, 2015

I have been testing with water - when I asked if there was a way to test the flow meters, I was hoping for a way to check them independent of the RPi.

Meters are facing the right way.

I also learned the hard way about uploading while python was running.

I've tried several different pins on the AlaMode.

I've done lots and lots of reboots - in fact I have been through all of "Step 9" a dozen times now and I think I've tried every hint/tip/trick listed within the thread (other than now knowing) how to remedy the RPi and AlaMode possibly not communicating properly.

mcangeli said:
I poured water or blew air through mine while they were connected to test.

There are several things to check here...

The basic being that the meters are set up in the right direction (yes, there is a direction they need to be in the flow of the beer and it does matter, I learned that first hand).

Second would be that the sketch was edited and uploaded correctly to the arduino (again, thats something I learned the hardway). You cannot upload the sketch while the python script is running.

Make sure you have the meters connected to the arduino correctly and on the right pins that you specified in the sketch.

There are certain pins (somewhere in this thread) that do not work for this and that cannot be used.

When in doubt, reboot and try pouring a pint.

mcangeli · Jan 24, 2015

Noidios said:
I have been testing with water - when I asked if there was a way to test the flow meters, I was hoping for a way to check them independent of the RPi.

Meters are facing the right way.

I also learned the hard way about uploading while python was running.

I've tried several different pins on the AlaMode.

I've done lots and lots of reboots - in fact I have been through all of "Step 9" a dozen times now and I think I've tried every hint/tip/trick listed within the thread (other than now knowing) how to remedy the RPi and AlaMode possibly not communicating properly.

Did you install the init.d script to run the flow_monitor.py? (So that it runs on boot)?

day_trippr · Jan 24, 2015

Running the python script in a terminal and not seeing any pour messages trumps any auto start of the script.

This sounds like a hardware problem. I'd be suspicious of the meter wiring as the meter leads defy intuition (eg: red is NOT power).

Btw, does the latest AVR script turn on the "blink" led on pours?

Chess!

mcangeli · Jan 24, 2015

day_trippr said:
Running the python script in a terminal and not seeing any pour messages trumps any auto start of the script.

This sounds like a hardware problem. I'd be suspicious of the meter wiring as the meter leads defy intuition (eg: red is NOT power).

Btw, does the latest AVR script turn on the "blink" led on pours?

Chess!

It does not. (from what I can tell... I think thats something that only you and I enabled...)

Its hard diagnosing an issue when I don't know the setup or have access to the pi. I was working from the beginning...

mcangeli · Jan 24, 2015

On another note, I really need to sit down and see if I can make the centipede board work and finish up the code for the RFID tags.

Noidios · Jan 24, 2015

I started out with all 3 of my meters hooked up through a project board to distribute the ground (red on the ribbon wire) and VIN. I've since simplified in order to trouble shoot and just hooked up 1 flow directly to the board.

Day_trippr: Can you please elaborate on one of your earlier statements:
"If you don't see anything, the AlaMode isn't talking to the RPi.
If you see data, it's likely followed by an error status."

I assume I'm in the "don't see anything" category.

Attached is my wiring for the single flow meter. Flowmon compiled for 1 meter on pin 2. RaspPints admin set for 1 meter and keg tapped on Pin 2:

day_trippr said:
Running the python script in a terminal and not seeing any pour messages trumps any auto start of the script.

This sounds like a hardware problem. I'd be suspicious of the meter wiring as the meter leads defy intuition (eg: red is NOT power).

Btw, does the latest AVR script turn on the "blink" led on pours?

Chess!

mcangeli · Jan 24, 2015

It looks like your yellow wire is in pin 2.

Move it to pin 3, update your sketch and reupload the sketch to the arduino.

Start the flow monitor script and try a pour.

//EDIT

The arduino code is set for pins 8,9,10,11 by default as we know that those are "clean" pins to use.

There's conflicting information on pins 0-4 as far as what actually is used by the pi/alamode to communicate and getting things to work on the lower pins has been iffy at best from the start (some people report that it works fine, some can't get it to work...). I went through a lot of testing on getting it stable and working, and for a setup with 5 or less taps recommend using pins 7-12.

We assign pin 13 to the onboard LED to use for testing purposes (there's a line of code you can add to the sketch to blink the LED on pin 13 when a pour occurs... I actually have it wired to an external LED on my case that blinks when there is a pour.

[Version 2 Release] RaspberryPints - Digital Taplist Solution

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