Maybe you can work with JonW and have his application do recipe imports?
BCS Desktop will be doing both the variable substitution like the web utility and importing from BeerSmith/BeerXML, but it is still quite a distance out.
Maybe you can work with JonW and have his application do recipe imports?
Nice. Are you going to support importing mash steps? What about strike and sparge volumes for auto fill? Maybe I'm getting ahead of my self, I don't know the BCS.
Great job! Pretty sure I would have lost motivation to brew right about the time I saw 9 degrees and realized the pumps were frozen.
Lol man that's rough. Time to get a wood stove installed in the garage! Maybe you can plumb its exhaust and the steam hood together.
Got a return float for the mash and my WAP since I'm going WiFi on the stand since it's in the garage
I scanned through the thread and couldn't find the details on the snorkel - can you elaborate on that?
No signs of Fermentation on the brew. I'm worried my temps were more crazy than I thought
That's weird. No life at all?? The starter was legit (made bubbles, smelled yeasty, etc)?
Did you check for conversion post mash? Probably just needs more time but if no life 24 hours from now I would be worried.
Sweet wort isn't necessarily converted wort. But even if the enzymes were denatured there would be some sugars and some yeast activity. I would pull a sample and do an iodine test just for fun.
In the future you should use a thermapen or other good thermometer until you prove your probes are spot on. I assume you adjusted the BCS thermistor coefficients to match the probes you have?
So there is about a 2" patch of bubbles filming the surface in the center today. Pretty sure its hosed. I will let it ride and see but Im going to assume its going to finish in the 30s and be a dumper. I think the temps must have been higher than reporting since it was swinging around and the thermowells have a delay I wouldn't doubt that it got much hotter and colder than reported. Any of you BCS guys have tips on how to tune the PIDs? I'm trying to understand it but I cant find like a real world example of like what each variable does, and I have no idea what the range on the is either, if there is one at all. All the things im finding are like PHD research for control system engineers and other crazy stuff.
Tuning a PID loop without calculus is a bit of an art form IMHO. Definitely use the PID tuning utility that is part of the recipe and configuration migration utilities. This will at least show you what each part of the algorithm is doing. For what we are doing you can set the derivative value to 0, or 0.1 since it won't accept 0. I also set the min integral to 0 which helps it settle quicker. I also reduce the max integral which helps lower overshoot.
There are some charts out there that help explain what gains to adjust when one or more parts of the step response are off.
So there is about a 2" patch of bubbles filming the surface in the center today. Pretty sure its hosed. I will let it ride and see but Im going to assume its going to finish in the 30s and be a dumper. I think the temps must have been higher than reporting since it was swinging around and the thermowells have a delay I wouldn't doubt that it got much hotter and colder than reported. Any of you BCS guys have tips on how to tune the PIDs? I'm trying to understand it but I cant find like a real world example of like what each variable does, and I have no idea what the range on the is either, if there is one at all. All the things im finding are like PHD research for control system engineers and other crazy stuff.
sample = measured temperature
error = the difference between the setpoint and the sample
kP, kI, kD = PID *factors* for tuning
PID output = kP * error
+ kI * (error + previous_error + error_before_that + ... + all_the_errors)
- kD * (sample - previous_sample)
I wouldn't worry about tuning right now. With enough thermal mass the default values should be fine. You need to make sure your probes are reading correctly. Check them against a legit thermometer. The thermowells shouldn't be an issue though they will slow down response slightly. Again, with enough thermal mass it should be ok.
Don't freak out - just debug everything in serial order. Dumping a batch is no biggie (even though it's a bummer). Get your system working and good beer follows.
Green is probe in MLT just under false bottom
Blue is MLT Return probe and the one I use for PID
Probes mixed up?
From the looks, you shouldn't have baked your enzymes. not sure what the bottom timeframe is there. Wondering if you did an iodine test or not. If those temp probes aren't calibrated could be a different story. Any gravity readings indicating fermentation?
Good luck! Sounds like those bottom dump ports made cleanup a breeze.
TD
no element is in the MLT so MLT reads hotter since return gets cooled a bit by pumps and hose before it makes it back to the MLT
Ohhh, sorry I thought you were running a RIMS tube, I must have had you confused with another build.
Out of curiosity what are your tuning values?
I just came across this, have you already seen it? It appears the BCS pid implementation is about the same as the one I was jabbering on about a few posts back:I'm trying to understand it but I cant find like a real world example of like what each variable does
Did you tweak your integral clamps?they were default to start, but I started tweaking them not knowing what I was doing obviously with no success. PID 20/.5/10
I just came across this, have you already seen it? It appears the BCS pid implementation is about the same as the one I was jabbering on about a few posts back:
http://wiki.embeddedcc.com/index.php/PID_Implementation
Did you tweak your integral clamps?
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