Brewcam

[RyanSweeney]

So, I've been messing around with my Raspberry Pi that's running BrewPi. I now have a live brewcam. Not much going on right now, but if you watch for a few seconds, you'll likely see a bubble or two pop. Primary fermentation is just about done...gonna double check tomorrow and get it going into secondary.

I just installed the lights inside the fridge today...got some 12V LEDs on ebay for like $10 shipped. They work great...only used 2 out of the 5 strips they sent me.

Check out the brewcam at http://askewbrews.com

Here's a shot of the setup with the lights on.

 

[day_trippr]

That's pretty cool.
What camera did you use?

Cheers!

 

[RyanSweeney]

It's a Microsoft lifecam or something. Any usb camera will work.

 

[Pkrd]

Whats the skunking factor on the lights?

 

[RyanSweeney]

Whats the skunking factor on the lights?

Huh?

 

[RyanSweeney]

Well ****. I thought only sunlight effected beer. Damn.

 

[RyanSweeney]

I've unplugged the lights until I figure this out.

 

[orangehero]

So long as the LED's you got are not producing light at UV wavelengths I don't think there's anything to worry about.

 

[oldstyle69]

yeah, looks pretty dark in there now. maybe use a black light or something.

 

[day_trippr]

So long as the LED's you got are not producing light at UV wavelengths I don't think there's anything to worry about.

I thought that was the case as well, but now it seems the blue spectrum of visible light will also cause hop compounds to do bad things...

Cheers!

 

[RyanSweeney]

Where are you guys getting the info?

 

[Pkrd]

White LEDs emit a large portion of blue light (they are quite efficient here, in fact they are often blue LEDs with a phosphor coating that convert the blue to something we see as white).

Beer skunk happens below 500nm ...
http://beersensoryscience.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/lightstruck/

Note a "blacklight" is UV so probably the worst thing you could use.

 

[kevink]

The front of the chamber is glass. Does any sunlight get in the room?

 

[RyanSweeney]

White LEDs emit a large portion of blue light (they are quite efficient here, in fact they are often blue LEDs with a phosphor coating that convert the blue to something we see as white).

Beer skunk happens below 500nm ...

http://beersensoryscience.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/lightstruck/



Note a "blacklight" is UV so probably the worst thing you could use.

Thanks for the info! I think I'm going to test this with a small batch soon.

 

[RyanSweeney]

The front of the chamber is glass. Does any sunlight get in the room?

The front of the chamber is glass, yes. There's actually two panes of glass...one curved one that is tinted sort of a light brown color, and then there's the straight glass pane on the inside of the door. The fridge is never exposed to direct sunlight and very little ambient. It's against the back wall of the garage, farthest from the garage door. There are two windows on the adjacent wall, but they have heavy PVC blinds that are never open.

 

[RyanSweeney]

What if I got some red or yellow LEDs?

 

[crane]

Before I built my fermentation chamber I used to put a couple of old t shirts over my carboys to prevent light from getting to the beer. If you are only interested in watching the activity of bubbles through the airlock then that may be a reasonable and cheap (as in free) option

 

[jimmayhugh]

A better solution might be to use some of the GPIO pins and a SSR to turn the LEDs on only for the very short duration required to take the photo. This reduces exposing the beer to UV.

 

[hou_me]

Never mind, sorry.

-ben

 

[rabeb25]

I have one as well.

 

[MongooseMan]

I have one as well.

Then go to the top right corner (whats fermenting)

I wouldn't advise advertising your open brewpi url.
Someone with a bit of know-how could (fairly) easily do dastardly things like increase the temperature or turn off the system.

 

[rabeb25]

I wouldn't advise advertising your open brewpi url.
Someone with a bit of know-how could (fairly) easily do dastardly things like increase the temperature or turn off the system.

Its not open, the real one is passworded and locked down.

 

[MongooseMan]

Its not open, the real one is passworded and locked down.

It's not properly locked down. The javascript files are available, which means that someone can make calls against them. As I said, I can change your temp, or stop the script, amongst other things.

 

[rabeb25]

Ok, thanks for the heads up. If you could be so kind to remove the links from your quotes until I get that figured out that would be awesome.

thanks

 

[FiddlersGreen87]

Let your yeast have their orgy in privacy perv. :cross:

 

[MongooseMan]

Ok, thanks for the heads up. If you could be so kind to remove the links from your quotes until I get that figured out that would be awesome.

thanks

Done.

If you're wanting to work on it, give me a shout, I'm in a similar boat, but haven't yet found an elegant solution that will still allow updates without rewriting everything.

 

[ParanoidAndroid]

I'm interested in using this to start warming my HLT while I am work. I figured I would use one of those wifi outlets where you can turn it on with an app. I can use an electric heating element then keep an eye on the temp with the webcam. When I get home, I can be ready to mash in.

 

[RyanSweeney]

Now I don't have to worry about the light making my brews skunky.

 

[day_trippr]

LMAO! Way to go!

Cheers!

 

[Swiller]

Oh there was some action! Too bad not from the bubbler

 

[Pkrd]

Now I don't have to worry about the light making my brews skunky.

Possibly not the most economical solution to the problem, but definitely the most awesome.

 

[Pkrd]

Now I don't have to worry about the light making my brews skunky.

Possibly not the most economical solution to the problem, but definitely the most awesome.

 

[RyanSweeney]

Gonna put some beer in it today. Lol

 

[RyanSweeney]

Oh there was some action! Too bad not from the bubbler

View attachment 221298

Haha. Looks like I need a bug zapper in the garage.

Yeah, that wording will be more appropriate after today. I had a carboy on there, but I moved it to my kegerator which is now empty anyway. Hopefully I'll end up with two full kegs in the kegerator at about the same time.

 

[IanJ]

Very cool! Just watching you brew right now... through the reflection on the glass... how creepy is that? (You should cover your license plates btw)

Anyway, once I get my fridge set up I'm going to do something similar with the PiNoir camera and IR LED's so I can view fermentation in complete darkness! Assuming it won't skunk the beer.

 

[RyanSweeney]

Very cool! Just watching you brew right now... through the reflection on the glass... how creepy is that? (You should cover your license plates btw)

Anyway, once I get my fridge set up I'm going to do something similar with the PiNoir camera and IR diode so I can view fermentation in complete darkness! Assuming it won't skunk the beer.

Good idea! Just did that.